Hire ‘best fit’ workers for the holiday season

In today’s uncertain economic climate, consumers are expected to be more selective than ever with their spending in the upcoming holiday season.

For that reason, it is critical for retailers to have the right people in place to reflect a positive image for their business. A consumer’s disappointed expectations, regarding either the products or services received, can hurt any store’s image and, consequently, its sales and revenue.

Retail hiring is ramping up for the holiday season. Are you able to measure the potential for success in hiring new employees?

Currently, a number of methods are available to assist employers with finding good employees. The Society for Human Resource Management estimates that approximately 20 percent of its members use some kind of pre-employment testing.

However, to date, such assessments have been prohibitively expensive and used mostly for executive and sales positions. The average cost for a single individual assessment has been $125 and usually required an additional third-party consulting fee.

“Hiring good people is the single most important thing a manager can do for personal success and the success of the business,” said Dan Longton, president of Ann-Arbor-based HRgems, which developed an affordable online assessment tool, TraitSet.

“Every manager knows it is crucial to hire people with integrity, a strong work ethic, customer service skills and leadership potential. But few take charge to improve their candidate selection procedures, mainly because it has been historically expensive.”

TraitSet provides employers with an inexpensive and efficient alternative. The Michigan Retailers Association has partnered with TraitSet to offer its online employee screening tools to members on an individual or subscription basis.

“Employers know their business best, and that includes what makes a successful employee,” explained Longton.

“TraitSet was designed with this requirement in mind. Rather than using a general personality assessment in an attempt to determine everything, focused assessments allow employers to choose what is best for their business from a comprehensive list of assessments ranging from work ethic to antagonistic behavior.”

TraitSet’s online employee screening and assessment tool allows employers to customize screening questions and identify the most promising candidates based on their responses. Asking the right questions and evaluating those responses can help determine the best fit of potential employees.

“Retailers already have enough to contend with during the holiday season. The last thing that they will want to deal with is an employee who underperforms, acts disgruntled or doesn’t show up,” said Langton.

By identifying candidates with the traits that are closest to their business model, employers can save time, money and headaches. For more information, visit https://ws1.gaslightmedia.com/traitset/traitset.php, or call MRA’s John Mayleben at 800.366.3699.

This article was written by P. Martino, HRgems, Inc.