CHICAGO -- As unemployment and labor participation rates continue to tumble, retailers might have to get creative to scrounge up talent. Take a dip into these potential labor pools that may cool off the sweat of hiring in a job seekers' market.
Rhodes 101, a convenience store chain with 29 locations in Missouri and Illinois, is teaming up with the U.S. Army Partnership for Youth Success to hire retired servicemen and women. As part of the partnership, Rhodes guarantees honorably discharged soldiers and reservists a job interview and, potentially, a position at its stores.
At a recent industry conference, retailers mentioned that they were working with companies who screen and coach potential hires even before the first interview. Sheetz Inc., an Altoona, Pa.-based convenience retailer with more than 500 stores, partners with LearnUp, a platform that offers online training and interview coaching to potential candidates. The prehire coaching company boasts a 10% to 30% lower turnover rate for those hired after working with the platform, compared to non-LearnUp hires.
Many older Americans are not quite ready to exit the workforce, according to a report from Ipsos and USA Today. The survey found that almost one-third of 45- to 65-year-olds plan to continue to work past retirement age, giving retailers another demographic to tap besides millennials. A major driver of this delayed retirement is to supplement incomes and remain socially engaged. “A lot of people got off track with their savings over the course of the recession and they’re still making up for that,” Jennifer Schramm, senior strategy policy adviser for the AARP Public Policy Institute, told USA Today.
At this year’s NACS SOI Summit, RaceTrac President Billy Milam told retailers to pay attention to Starbucks' initiative to hire 10,000 refugees not only as a solution to labor struggles, but also as a signal to consumers. “There is tremendous social justice played up by these guys creating tremendous social capital among their customer base,” Milam said.
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