Whether you’re in search of a Vice President of Retail, Director of Retail, Sales & Marketing Director, Manager of Public Relations, Market Development Manager, Retail Manager, or other critical retail leadership positions, you’ll need a framework to follow effectively recruit retail executives.
You’ve come to the right place.
When it comes to hiring a retail executive, some recruiters just seem to have the magic touch. Their hires stay at their respective organizations with low turnover rates. When there’s an opening to fill, their time to fill the role is quick and effective with high quality talent.
How do these recruiters do it?
They follow a clear, consistent process and do not allow themselves to take shortcuts. In particular, the recruiters at TruPath follow these steps to hire a retail executive:
Step 1: Discovery
The first step to a good recruitment framework is defining the elements involved in the recruiting process.
In particular you should spend time defining these areas with the key stakeholders who will be affected by the new hire:
- Key responsibilities of the role
- Key objectives of the role
- Company culture
- Company perception
- Company expectations
Getting crystal clear on these definitions will allow a recruiter to go after the right people. If you choose to post jobs, these descriptions can be used in your actual job posting to attract (and repel) candidates.
In addition to these discovery items, conducting an alignment survey with key stakeholders about the key responsibilities of the role will help manage expectations for why the role is being filled, and what the new hire will do once they are hired.
Step 2: Strategy
In step 2, you’ll still be spending time in the discovery and strategy phase. The first thing to do in this step is to get clarification on the survey submissions to make sure everyone is on the same page. Once everyone is in consensus on the survey results, it’s to create a customized search strategy.
The initial customized search strategy should be created by the recruiter and then subsequently shared with the hiring group. The hiring group should be asked for feedback and any additional ways they can leverage their strengths to recruit.
After coming to a consensus on the search strategy, it’s time to start rolling up the sleeves and getting to recruiting.
Step 3: Fill Your Funnel
It’s time to put the tactics in your search strategy into motion. Whether your tactics involve LinkedIn, employee referrals, job postings or social media posts, your goal here is to start bringing in a flow of candidates to go through your recruitment funnel.
Always be looking to fill your funnel.
Step 4: Field Interest
As candidates travel down your talent funnel, the number of candidates that recruiters and hiring managers should consider decrease in size. In order to shine light on the best candidates, a variety of activities should take place while candidates are in the funnel:
- Screen for fit
- Research the candidate online
- Have an initial conversation
By taking action on these three simple activities, you’ll be able to target the right candidates.
Step 5: Actively Prospect
Remember, the best candidates are not looking for a new position. You’ve got to find and talk to passive candidates who aren’t looking (but are a great fit for the role). Gauge their interest and discuss the interview process if it’s appropriate.
Actively prospecting candidates is a slightly different funnel that you reserve for your best candidates. It’s the short list of people who come highly recommended, or who you find through your own recruitment activities.
Step 6: Face to Face Interview
Once you’ve filtered your funnel and your active prospect candidate leads, it’s time for an initial face to face interview. Be sure to include other managers and human resources on the interview. Encourage your hiring team to actively listen and to resist the temptation to do all the talking and sell the opportunity.
The point of the face to face interview is to conduct candidate research and discover things that you couldn’t otherwise have known through your initial vetting process.
Step 7: Structured Talent Interview
It’s very hard to make a decision to hire someone based on a 30 minute interview conversation. Interviewers have their blind spots. Candidates have their strengths and weaknesses. An interview can’t cover all your bases, which is why conducting a structured talent interview in the form of a test can provide you with additional data and reassurance about your candidates.
Provide the candidate with the purpose of the structured talent interview. Advise them to try and not beat the test. The test should include a:
- Behavioral assessment
- Cultural assessment
- Instinctual assessment
The structural talent interview relies heavily on the first steps you took in the recruitment cycle. Does the candidate align culturally to what you’ve defined your culture to be? Do their expectations coincide with the expectations of the organization? Do their behaviors jive with the requirements of the role?
It’s one thing to match the skills of a candidate with the requirements of a role. But for hiring a retail executive, you’ve got to go above and beyond the skills to take into account their behaviors and values.
Step 8: Talent Feedback
It’s time to gather feedback from the hiring manager, the interviewing team, and most importantly, the candidate? How does everyone feel about what they’ve learned so far about each other? Does the candidate seem more interested about the opportunity now than when they first started going through the process? Or do they seem less excited? Does the hiring manager believe that the candidate can do a great job? What did the interviewing team learn about the candidate during their interviews?
This feedback is invaluable to learn more about the candidate based on everyone’s responses.
Step 9: Make A Decision
At the end of this recruiting framework is a decision. Do we hire the candidate, or do we not?
Take into consideration all of the information we’ve gone over, and make your decision as a team.
Remember, consistency is key in recruitment and selection. Use this as a framework, and if you need additional help recruiting retail executives, contact TruPath. TruPath is a retail executive search firm that finds mid to senior level executives in mission critical roles at your organization. Contact us if you’re looking for a leader to join your team.