With a tight job market, retailers are using a variety of incentives to attract seasonal workers for this holiday season, experts say. “They’re facing as low an unemployment environment as they’ve ever faced,” said John Gounaris, professor of international business at Johnson & Wales University in Providence and former Apex chief executive officer. “Anyone who wants to work retail this year, can.”
Competing for workers means that for store recruiters – who face the challenge of filling these positions – “the creative juices are flowing,” said Gounaris.
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Weekly bonuses, double discounts and flextime are just a few of the ways Gounaris cited as ways to attract workers.
“They can also add overtime hours,” he said. “It’s costly, but it really gives the customers continuity – somebody who knows what they’re talking about. Raising salaries is another option. Everybody’s out there at $8. You’ve got to go $9, $9.50.”
All this because, as the latest Manpower, Inc. Outlook employment outlook survey projects, 27 percent of Providence area companies expect to expand their workforces this fall, and none is projecting cutbacks.
With November and December representing 60 percent of retailers’ profits, Gounaris said, the tight job market is leading some retailers to take what might be considered extraordinary measures.
David Kappert, executive team leader for team relations at Target in Warwick, hoped higher wages would attract passers-by on Route 2. To spark interest in holiday opportunities at the store, Kappert advertised pay rates starting at $7 an hour – with an additional $2 an hour for overnights – on the billboard outside.
“The response was tremendous,” Kappert said. “Our application flow increased from about 25 a week to 84 a week.”
Kappert wants to hire an additional 57 workers for the holiday season. Respondents for the positions – which are primarily for the store’s overnight “zone team,” in charge of straightening the store and preparing it for the next day – vary.
“I don’t get a whole lot of applications from students,” said Kappert. “I have a lot of applications from laborers, who have been working outside during the summer, and moms returning to the workforce.”
Diane Seaback Martin, president of R.I. Temps Inc. in Warwick, said the busiest time for placements is between mid-October through November. Martin has seen a change in the wages being offered to seasonal employees.
“We have definitely noticed an increase in pay rates, even from last year,” she said.
Martin said that her most frequent seasonal requests are from companies looking for workers in customer service and data entry, and for people who are willing to work on weekends. Malls need extra people to wrap gifts, sell gift certificates, and work in food courts. R.I. Temps is also helping place workers to process orders at companies who sell to retail stores. At the other end, large shipments mean retailers are recruiting stock people.
“People have to open the boxes, put stuff up – things a computer can’t do,” said Martin.
Higher wages and plentiful positions don’t necessarily make making job placements an easier.
“I think they [employers] have the idea that there are hundreds of people standing here, waiting,” Martin said. “But because of the tight job market, it’s hard to get people.”
Christine Connors, manager of Books on the Square in Providence, predicted the season’s hiring woes and started her holiday hiring early – in August.
“I was incredibly lucky,” she said. “I managed to find six people in one week, which is sort of unusual. I’ve had trouble hiring this year.”
Connors said the store has a mixed group of employees – high school and college students, as well as women on mothers’ hours.
“I like to get them trained early, so that by the holiday season, everybody knows what they’re doing,” she said.
Most stores at Providence Place have already started seeking additional workers, according to Joe Koechel, the mall’s general manager.
“Signs at Radio Shack and other places went up weeks ago,” Koechel said. “Some stores have been more aggressive than others.”
Estimating that the 2,500 regular mall employees will increase by 20 percent during holiday months, according to Koechel, the mall’s wide variety of stores is attracting a similar mix of job seekers – students, stay-at-home parents, anyone in search of a little holiday cash.
“We all seem to accumulate bills at holiday time,” he said.
Jim Lumb said that while the season does not see additional hires for his business, Wickford Candle in Wickford – it would be impossible to fit an additional worker in his 11 by 14-foot store space – he does look to the holiday months for increased sales.
“Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we do about 30 percent of our sales for the year,” he said. “We get people coming from Connecticut and Massachusetts a lot, but the bulk of our sales during the holidays come from people who live nearby.”
Lumb is one of the organizers for the town’s annual Wickford Village Festival of Lights, which runs from November 30 through December 3 this year, and features hayrides, music and storytelling.
While most of the events are volunteer-run and free, “certainly, these events are designed to entice people to come to Wickford and shop,” said Lumb. “Tourists always play some role here in Wickford. The tourist traffic in the summer is a nice boost, but the real hectic time is during the holidays. The town gets pretty busy – it’s a make or break time for a lot of the businesses. Providence Place has taken people away from here, but other people are discovering it.”
And what about the effect of people who have “discovered” online shopping on traditional shopping methods this time of year?
“It’s still so tiny,” Gounaris said. “But it’s growing. Most companies have an Internet Web site.”
Gounaris compared e-Commerce to the Sears catalogue.
“That has never replaced seeing an item, touching it, and buying it,” he said. “Because of that, it will never be a threat to Christmas shopping – it’s a cold process, in front of a screen.”
