Companies strive to build strong performing workforces but with changing demographics and market trends, sustaining a strong workforce long term is becoming more and more challenging.

Vancouver, BC – June 11th, 2013 – Since 2006 the MindField Group has provided Canada’s top retailers with recruitment solutions focused around hiring the best people for their organizations. MindField Group helped its customers hire over 15,000 employees in 2012 and has grown by 35% year over year since 2006. In a phase of hyper-growth such as this, hiring the best people is a key strategy for success.

Employee turnover affects every organization, across all industries and your company is no exception! Some industries are more prone to facing higher rates of turnover based on the types of roles they hire for or where they are located. With the recent economic improvements in the job market and the entrance of a new generation into the workforce, retail turnover rates have seen a steady rise over the last few years. How are you dealing with these factors?

Is technology driving your current retail recruitment strategy? Building a long term recruitment strategy for your organization will need to include an investment in recruitment technology. As finding top quality candidates becomes more challenging, your company will need to find new ways to stand out as a talent competitor and drive best fit candidates. Investing in technology can help create a more efficient retail recruitment process for your HR team and promote a more positive candidate experience for job seekers.

Building a long term recruitment strategy for your company will take time and continuous refinement. As the talent landscape continues to change and the war for talent becomes more predominant, companies will need to build recruitment processes that are sustainable over time but also easily adaptable to changes within the market. Planning ahead on how your organization will attract and retain great talent in the long run will help you be a step ahead of the game. Every company wants to build and sustain a high quality workforce but to do so you must be willing to continuously invest in driving improvements to your recruitment processes.

How does your company drive a consistent candidate flow to your job postings?

Do you place a high priority on building out a great candidate experience?

As the competitive landscape for talent becomes stronger, how are you dealing with building a recruitment and retention strategy to win the war for talent in Canada?

Do you use reporting to identify areas of improvement in your retail recruitment processes?

Having on-demand access to hiring data allows you to report on key areas in your retail recruitment processes.  For example, reporting allows you to use the data you collect during the application process to see how many visitors you are attracting from a certain posting and how many of these visitors are being converted into candidates. The interviewing process helps you identify key numbers such as hiring ratios and the time and cost associated with these hires. Post hire data allows you to see a clearer picture of your overall recruitment process by looking at quality, engagement, turnover, and KPI results.

Here are 3 best practice areas to report on that will help in driving the most value for your business:

Applicant Reporting:

1)    Number of Visitors to Your Postings: This number helps you see if there is a substantial gap between visitors and applicants. It can help identify if there are areas to optimize to help turn these visitors into applicants (ie. posting more relevant content such as a blog, including employee testimonials, or improving your career site branding).

2)    Number of Candidates Applying: Knowing the number of candidates who apply will help you measure if you are reaching your targets, compare results to other postings or regions, and identify areas that may need additional resources to increase numbers. If the number is high, you can use the same style, template, and/or placement to help receive the same results for future postings.

3)    Applicant Conversion Rates: This helps you see the ratio of those applying in comparison to those visiting the site. A strong conversion rate is between 15-20%, however keep in mind that this number varies depending on industry, region, and how specific the job requirements are.

4)    Measurable Actions On Site: Knowing which pages are viewed most and what actions candidates are taking when on your site can help you see where you should focus your content and help you better understand what they are looking for.

5)    Sources of Traffic to the Site:  Knowing what is driving candidates to your website or careers page can help you find areas to optimize and point out which job posting sites are working best for you.

Process Reporting:

1)    Interview to Hire Ratios: This helps you see the quality of candidates who are being interviewed and whether they are being converted into hires. If this ratio is low, you may need to reassess your screening and application process to receive better quality candidates.

2)    Time to Hire: Being able to predict the time it will take for future hires in similar roles will help you allot that time into your expectations and goals. Also, if this number is high it can identify that there may be areas of improvement to consider (ie. broadcasting to more sites, investing in advertising, or using social media).

3)    Cost of Hire: This helps you break down what jobs are costing you the most and which may need fewer resources. If the cost is high you may want to consider new ways to promote the job such as social media or recruitment agency involvement.

Results Reporting:

1)    Quality of Hire: Quality ratings help show if the candidates are being converted into great hires based on success rates in their new roles.

2)    Engagement Levels: Engagement helps you identify if your employees are connecting with your brand and happy within your organization. Engagement levels ultimately affect turnover rates, so if levels are low you may need to reposition your employment branding and find areas to improve on to help build stronger retention rates.

3)    Turnover Rates: Breaking down turnover rates by region, store, role, or other specifics your business deems as important is essential. Turnover is costly so it’s key to identify where you have high rates and improve upon them to save costs and retain talent.

4)    Key Performance Indicators: Once you’ve established what defines success in each role you can measure employees’ performance based off this. These KPIs may include metrics such as customer services ratings or sales per hour, etc.

On-demand access to hiring data can allow retailers to report on key performance indicators such as conversion rates, hiring ratios, turnover rates and engagement levels. Each area holds great value and can help give strong insights into the quality of their retail recruitment processes and current employees.

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