Emotional engagement of staff key for retail recruitment
14 October 2013
Hiring for attitude is key to recruiting engaged employees in retail, say speakers at a recent breakfast event organised by specialist retail job board RetailChoice.com on employee engagement.
Mon, 14 Oct 2013Hiring for attitude is key to recruiting engaged employees in retail, say speakers at a recent breakfast event organised by specialist retail job board RetailChoice.com on employee engagement.
The London event last week (9 October) attended by HR professionals and recruiters heard that engaged staff, those with an emotional attachment to their employer, were vital to drive consumer satisfaction and sales within retail.
In response to a question from recruiter.co.uk, Esther O’Halloran, director of HR and business solutions providers EOH Business Solutions, also the former managing director of coffee shop chain Paul UK, highlighted the importance of recruitment in building an engaged workforce.
O’Halloran told the audience: “Recruit for attitude – it doesn’t matter if they haven’t worked on a till or whether they have made coffee, it’s about that whole engagement, being genuinely interested in the business.”
She said one way she identified such candidates during her career within retail was to ask them which of the company’s stores they had visited. If they said ‘none’, O’Halloran said she questioned whether they really wanted to join the company and tended not to hire them.
Victoria Hodges, people and culture director at clothes and accessories retailer White Stuff, described how, when shopping, she might slip a ‘headhunter card’ to shop staff who had served her well. “It about the connection that somebody makes to you,” she said.
Hodges said that attitude was important even for technical jobs such as finance. “It’s not just about counting apples and oranges, they have to care about the company. That is what White Stuff is all about.”
She said the result of recruiting individuals with the right attitude was engaged staff who made happy and successful employees.
Click for more retail industry recruitment news from recruiter.co.uk
The London event last week (9 October) attended by HR professionals and recruiters heard that engaged staff, those with an emotional attachment to their employer, were vital to drive consumer satisfaction and sales within retail.
In response to a question from recruiter.co.uk, Esther O’Halloran, director of HR and business solutions providers EOH Business Solutions, also the former managing director of coffee shop chain Paul UK, highlighted the importance of recruitment in building an engaged workforce.
O’Halloran told the audience: “Recruit for attitude – it doesn’t matter if they haven’t worked on a till or whether they have made coffee, it’s about that whole engagement, being genuinely interested in the business.”
She said one way she identified such candidates during her career within retail was to ask them which of the company’s stores they had visited. If they said ‘none’, O’Halloran said she questioned whether they really wanted to join the company and tended not to hire them.
Victoria Hodges, people and culture director at clothes and accessories retailer White Stuff, described how, when shopping, she might slip a ‘headhunter card’ to shop staff who had served her well. “It about the connection that somebody makes to you,” she said.
Hodges said that attitude was important even for technical jobs such as finance. “It’s not just about counting apples and oranges, they have to care about the company. That is what White Stuff is all about.”
She said the result of recruiting individuals with the right attitude was engaged staff who made happy and successful employees.
Click for more retail industry recruitment news from recruiter.co.uk
- Just as Hodges was on the look out for good stuff while shopping, the director of Prime Time Recruitment describes in the latest issue of Recruiter – out at the end of this week – how he spotted a potential recruitment star one day while walking through London. See p32 for the full feature on different ways people in the industry are sourcing the top recruiting talent.
