​Ep 2: The components of effective hiring
I speak in depth about recruiting and assessing candidates in the hiring process. I also look at the factors that help ensure your hiring process meets the needs of your business and that you find candidates that are well-suited to your retail store. This is the first of three episodes on the theme of employee development, and will be followed by episodes on training and retention.

In this episode:
  • A story from my own work experience that highlights the importance of assessing the hiring needs of the business
  • The signals we send through the behaviors of under-greeting or over-greeting customers
  • Assess whether your business provides a self-service or full-service customer experience
  • Understand factors that contribute to your sales peak (increased customer traffic and sales transactions)
  • Determine your business' operational needs (back-of-house or off-the-sales-floor)
  • Forecast additional sales that new employees may bring in
  • Set performance expectations for new employees
  • Different approaches to budeting payroll: Fixed vs. variable payroll amounts
  • Align the capabilities of your budget with the needs of the business
  • Write job descriptions for new employees and determine the level of responsibility they will have
  • Consider how your scheduling and employee availability needs change throughout the year so that you can efficiently manage your scheduling process
  • Why you don't always need to replace a departing employee
  • The benefits of using candidate referrals as part of your recruiting process
  • Why advertising is worthwhile when hiring new employees and examples of advertising channels
  • Cautionary notes about interviews and what I recommend as best practices
  • Conducting functional assessments of a candidate’s skills
  • Different types of questions you can ask in an interview and how they help identify the types of candidates who might succeed in the role you're filling
  • Why behavior-based questions are more revealing than questions about hypothetical situations
  • The importance of putting forethought into your interview questions
  • Incorporating business partners and current employees into your hiring process
  • The importance of checking a candidate’s references and insightful questions you can ask in order to successfully onboard a new hire
  • Best practices and important information to discuss when extending a job offer