Retail Employers Reveal Recruitment and Retention Strategies for 2008 in New CareerBuilder.com Survey
January 15 2008 - 8:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
-Retailers to Offer Bigger Paychecks, Career Advancement
Opportunities and Improved Health Benefits in the New Year-
CHICAGO, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- While retailers may have pulled
out all the stops the last few months to get customers to the
shelves, a new CareerBuilder.com study reveals retailers themselves
have some shopping to do -- for talent. Nearly half (47 percent) of
the retail employers surveyed say they have open positions for
which they cannot find qualified candidates and 21 percent plan to
increase their number of full-time, permanent employees in 2008.
"In retail, employees truly are the brand and recruiting and
retention efforts should be considered part of the marketing
strategy," said Jason Ferrara, vice president of Corporate
Marketing for CareerBuilder.com. "To be more competitive and
effective in attracting talent, many retailers are enhancing
benefits, compensation and career growth opportunities in 2008."
While 60 percent of retail workers say they are satisfied with
their job overall, nearly a quarter (23 percent) plan to leave
their jobs in less than a year. Forty-two percent of retail workers
cite better pay or career advancement as the primary motivator for
leaving a job. FOUR MAJOR RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION STRATEGIES FOR
2008 1. Bigger Paychecks Continuing an existing trend designed to
attract and retain top talent, retail employers plan to offer more
lucrative compensation in the coming year. -- Seventy-four percent
of retail employers report their companies will increase salaries
for existing employees in 2008. Nearly a quarter (23 percent)
expect to raise salaries by more than three percent. -- Among those
retail employers hiring in 2008, half expect to increase salaries
on initial offers to new employees, and eighteen percent will raise
these salaries by more than three percent. 2. Career Advancement
Across all industries, over half of workers stated that a company's
ability to offer good career advancement opportunities is more
important than salary. Employers are taking action to carve out
career paths for employees. -- Twenty-eight percent of retail
employers are likely to provide more promotions and career
advancement opportunities in 2008 given the shortage of workers
that some companies are already experiencing. 3. Improved Benefits
and Perks The quality of a company's benefits continues to be an
important factor for employees. -- Twenty-one percent of retail
employers plan to offer more comprehensive or better health
benefits in 2008. -- Forty-five percent of retail employers say
they will provide more flexible work arrangements for employees in
2008. -- One-in-ten retail employers say their companies are
offering more special perks in 2008. 4. Rehiring Retirees Nearly
one-in-five retail employers (19 percent) report concern over the
loss of intellectual capital at their organizations as a large
number of workers approach retirement age. -- Twenty-eight percent
of retail employers say due to a shortage of qualified workers,
they are likely to rehire retirees from other companies in 2008. --
More than one-in-ten (11 percent) plan to provide incentives for
workers at or approaching retirement age to stay on with the
company longer. MARKETING RETAIL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES Ferrara
adds that another way retail employers can be competitive in the
recruiting space is to develop an employment brand that positions
the company as a great place to work and attracts candidates whose
values mirror those of the company. With the increasing popularity
of online videos, CareerBuilder.com developed Video Branding, which
allows companies to demonstrate to job seekers exactly why they
would want to work at the company. Through photo videos or ninety
second video commercials, job seekers can take a tour of an
organization and get a better feel for the culture and environment,
all while remaining only one click away from the online job
application. Survey Methodology This survey was conducted online
within the US by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder.com
among 3,016 hiring managers and human resource professionals
(employed full-time; not self-employed; with at least significant
involvement in hiring decisions; ); and 6,704 US employees
(employed full-time; not self-employed) ages 18 and over within US
between November 13 and December 3, 2007, respectively (percentages
for some questions are based on a subset of either 334 retail
hiring managers or 656 retail employees, based on their responses
to certain questions). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity,
education, region and household income were weighted where
necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in
the population. The data have been weighted to reflect the
composition of U.S. employers and employees, and propensity score
weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be
online. With a pure probability sample of 3,016 and 6,704 and one
could say with a ninety-five percent probability that the overall
results have a sampling error of +/- 2% and +/- 1.3% percentage
points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is
higher and varies. However that does not take other sources of
error into account. This online survey is not based on a
probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can
be calculated. A full methodology is available upon request. About
CareerBuilder.com CareerBuilder.com is the nation's largest online
job site with more than 22 million unique visitors and over 1.5
million jobs. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune
Company (NYSE:TRB), The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI) and Microsoft
Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), the company offers a vast online and print
network to help job seekers connect with employers.
CareerBuilder.com powers the career centers for more than 1,200
partners, including over 140 newspapers and leading portals such as
America Online and MSN. More than 300,000 employers take advantage
of CareerBuilder.com's easy job postings, 25 million-plus resumes,
Diversity Channel and more. CareerBuilder.com and its subsidiaries
operate in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information,
visit http://www.careerbuilder.com/. Media Contact Tanya Flynn
773-527-5393 DATASOURCE: CareerBuilder.com CONTACT: Tanya Flynn of
CareerBuilder.com, +1-773-527-5393, Web site:
http://www.careerbuilder.com/
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