Advertising

[life&luxury]

I am currently looking after HR for a company within the retail luxury market.

I have been using seek to advertise open positions however am not getting the high standard of applicants I require to fill the roles.

Does anyone have any experience with recruiting in this arena or perhaps know of some good alternatives to my current approach.


Your ideas and thoughts would be much appreciated.


Tianna

[Moz]

Originally Posted by life&luxury

I have been using seek to advertise open positions however am not getting the high standard of applicants I require to fill the roles.

Does anyone have any experience with recruiting in this arena or perhaps know of some good alternatives to my current approach.

Hi Tianna,

We really need to know more about the type of positions you are trying to fill. However, there are a number of factors which could impact on your ability to attract the right people, such as;

• Ad copy (quality of your ad copy)
• whether the job itself is attractive
• location
• salary
• job title
• experience and quals required
• competition - supply and demand

Putting these factors aside, it's also worth noting that the large job boards such as Seek are just one of several channels you should use to reach potential candidates, because they don't reach anywhere near the whole market.

This is further explained quite succinctly by Jobs in HR (who are one of the sponsors of this site). Just check out what they say here advertise HR jobs . They are of course talking about HR recruitment but the same applies to most job types.

They also offer some worthwhile advertising tips here advertise HR jobs - Employment advertising tips

If you let me know what types of positions you are trying to fill I might be able to provide some more specific suggestions.

[Larissa]

Hi Tianna,

I haven't recruited in that market before however one lesson I have learned is to make sure you are advertising where those people would be looking. I am not sure whether high end retail staff would be browsing seek, they might be more likely to be reading through social newspapers, looking at social media etc. Do you have a facebook page for the company?

I was looking at a recruitment manager role for retail a while ago and the incumbent was telling me that to find good staff he will give his business card out to whomever serves him well as he goes shopping.

Good luck!

Larissa

[maryi]

Hi Tianna,

If these are retail store level positions, there are a couple of additional approaches you could be using to ensure you are attracting the right candidates for your brand.

1. Ensure that the current retail outlets have signs up in the window with instructions on how to apply.
2. Communicate with your current floor staff to ensure that they know what to do with applications they receive over the counter – you may like to give your Store Managers a card to hand out over the counter which directs walk in applications to your website to apply. While you may have some candidates who see this as too much effort, you will avoid having resumes received over the counter go missing and not receive a response.
3. Consider implementing an employee referral program – offer a $200 bonus to current retail staff who recommend a candidate who is consequently employed and lasts their probation period.
4. Use your company’s social networking sites and ensure that the vacancy is listed on your company’s website.
5. Talk to as many people as possible about the vacancies you are trying to fill.

[life&luxury]

Thanks all for your responses,

I am recruiting for a Store Manager role in Sydney

The salary is competitive with similar roles the difficulty I have had with applicants is that they aren't experienced as a store manager which for this role, and being a flagship store is what we need. The company is at a luxury level so definately need someone at that level who can really represent the brand well.

It is quite a tight market at the moment with a new westfields opening in Pitt St and alot of hirring taking place for these stores opening, as we are located in a close proximity.