Recruiting for Retail Management Professionals

Hiring organized, driven retail management talent is essential for a team’s success as their hard work and dedication have a direct effect on the profitability of a business. Recruiting for retail management professionals can be a time-consuming challenge, due to the emphasis on experience, communication skills, and leadership abilities.

Finding great retail management talent takes much more than just screening resumes. Many of the candidates’ valuable traits come from experience that cannot be effectively communicated on a resume; therefore, it’s vital for recruiters to understand the needs of the role and know what to look for in a candidate’s personality and communication skills.

What Makes a Great Retail Management Hire

Retail management is a field in which job qualifications and requirements differ substantially based on the company and position. While a bachelor’s degree in business administration or a related field is typically preferred and sometimes required, there is a heavy emphasis on years of operations and management experience within a similar environment. Retail management professionals must possess various skills within operations, financial, and leadership management to effectively manage the store and associates based on brand standards and goals. These skills come only with years of experience in retail management positions.

Although education requirements fluctuate based on the company and position, there are a few requirements that remain constant among any position within retail management. One factor to be certain of early in the recruitment process of candidates is their ability to work non-traditional hours. Retail management is a demanding field that may require working long hours during nights and weekends; being able to gauge a candidate’s work ethic and commitment is essential when recruiting for these positions.

How we Recruit the Best

When interviewing a candidate for a retail management position, it’s crucial to get an idea of their previous experience and overall knowledge of the day-to-day management of a team. Search Solution Group’s retail management recruiters focus not only on the years of experience but also on the candidate’s performance details of the previous role—did they meet customer demand? What was their success rate? Did they increase product turnover and maximize profitability? Managing a retail team is a numbers game as well as a leadership opportunity, and providing good numbers is critical.

Another key aspect of recruiting for retail management is asking behavioral questions that guide the candidate to provide anecdotes of handling “crisis” scenarios when their customer service skills were put to the test. It’s incredibly important for the candidate to be able to speak about high-pressure situations in which they exhibited excellent communication and customer service skills, and how those situations aided in their development as a professional.

The retail management expert recruiters at Search Solution Group know what to look for in a candidate in order to make an effective placement. They have placed professionals at some of the largest names in retail and merchandising due to their extensive networks and ability to headhunt and contact the most successful retail management professionals.