By Karen Bucks, iCIMS Blogger

Is there still hope for hourly and salaried employment in the retail industry?? Yes….maybe…alright well who knows for sure! But at least one month ago things looked promising. In an article from USA Today, retailers experienced “the best June sales figures in the U.S. since 1999.” The increase in consumer spending had definitely confounded investors as they assumed there would be a decrease due to raising gas prices. Today, retailers aren’t so sure those numbers will hold.

Either way, retail is oh so used to the fluctuating nature of consumer spending. And, as HR professionals in the industry, you are also used to the ever-changing need for more or less staff (at least on the hourly end). The unfortunate thing about this is that regardless of if the economy is doing well or not, HR professionals have to manage and track candidate and employee data at all times in order to remain in compliance with labor regulations. What does that mean? Well…a lot of paper and a lot of organizing.

Here are three easy tips to ensure better organization (when hiring or not) in a retail HR department.

1. First and foremost, automate all of those HR documents that end up piling up on your desk or getting stuffed away in a filing cabinet. Using some sort of Software-as-a-Service to securely store reportable and searchable HR data will help you reduce costs associated with printing, storage, and administrative tasks, while improving organization.
2. Increase the number of quality applicants to open requisition. Finding the right candidate faster and filtering through the unqualified can help you close an open requisition sooner rather than later (never mind save you a lot of money). Okay so that’s the goal...how do you do it? I'd recommend first reviewing your job description. What has already been written may not be as clear as it needs to be to filter out the unqualified candidates. By better articulating the job description, you are giving potential candidates exact insight into the position and a better idea of if they would be a good fit or not. Set up another meeting with the appropriate hiring manager and work one-on-one to compile a list of exact skills needed for the job and a bulleted list of daily responsibilities.
3. In order to avoid disorganization and headaches, try separating your salaried and hourly job postings. You can even go as far as creating two applicant portals. This will enable you to create a separation of duties and tasks associated with each hiring type, allowing you to take one step towards simplifying and improving your processes. In addition to better organization, and I’ve said it before,  prospective hourly candidates and salaried applicants may require different targeted messaging. So in order to find the best fit and reduce unqualified candidates, write your recruitment marketing messages appropriately.

Whether the market is up or down or HR professionals are hiring or not, creating a perfectly organized recruitment program can help reduce costs and save recruiters time. What are your thoughts?