Building a Christmas-ready retail team in four steps
In our most recent Tazio Trends, we started the Christmas countdown. I know, too soon.
Don’t worry we haven’t put up any tinsel or cracked open an advent calendar worryingly early. However, we have been looking into why retailers are under pressure to build their festive season teams now, before the shopping really ramps up.
For many hiring managers that means sifting through thousands of CVs in the hope they’ll strike gold (or frankincense or myrrh). The question no doubt crossing their minds is how to do it quickly without sacrificing quality.
It’s a challenge that comes up in most high-volume hiring situations at any time of year, and in my experience it’s one you can overcome if you follow these four steps.
1. Start with what good looks like
Before you assess anyone, define the mix of skills the role needs. For retail, that might be confidence with customers, accuracy under pressure, sound judgement and a service mindset. Agree these up front and everything will move faster further on in the process, because everyone at each stage is measuring against the same criteria.
2. Assess potential, not paperwork
Seasonal roles attract students, career-changers and people returning to work, many of whom won’t have relevant experience on a CV but would shine on the shop floor. Short, role-relevant assessments, such as situational judgement questions, show who can do the job and who really wants to.
They also level the playing field, moving away from decisions based on qualifications to more valuable predictors of success. Such as who can actually help a customer in a panic because it’s Christmas Eve and they haven’t bought any presents yet.
3. Bring people together, virtually or in person
If you want to create a team that works well together, watch how well they work together. For roles where teamwork and communication matter, an assessment centre is one of the best ways to see how people interact with each other.
Group exercises and role plays don't have to mean weeks of logistics. Virtual formats let you run them at scale and embed structured scoring that underpins objective decision making.
4. Don't forget the people you don't hire
Candidates aren’t just taking part in an application process, they’re engaging with your business. Research shows a bad candidate experience can impact a person’s willingness to buy from a brand, which at Christmas isn’t ideal. Timely communication and useful feedback paints your company in a good light, which means even if someone is unsuccessful you’re unlikely to lose them as a customer.
Directing strong candidates to talent pools will also put you several steps ahead when recruiting season comes around again.
Moving fast without cutting corners
Of course, putting all this in place from scratch at short notice isn’t easy. In fact, it’s pretty much impossible to do without skipping a few steps.
That’s where we come in. At Tazio you can do all this on our platform, which enables you to run eligibility checks that quickly sift thousands of candidates, deliver assessments, host assessment centres, provide feedback and retain people in talent pools.
We can also move quickly, with a process up and running in a couple of weeks, so that you can have your team in place, Santa hats on, before the Christmas rush starts.
If you're putting together a retail team, I'd be happy to chat through how we can help. Get in touch.
