Whose Recruiting Playbook Did You Steal?

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

In our July issue, we ran a story (A Fresh Perspective On Associate Engagement), that offered up some timely advice on the hiring and retention of millennial and Gen Z associates. That Q&A with Todd Corley, Founder And Head of the TAPO Institute, got me thinking about just how incestuous the retail recruiting and hiring process really is.

Retail HR execs are a tight community. They bounce around quite a bit. They’re as heavily recruited and just as mobile as the associates they’re charged to seek and onboard. As a result, most work for multiple banners throughout their careers. Naturally, these HR execs take their experiences and their recruiting playbooks with them from job to job.

As years pass and this cycle plays out, recruiting, hiring, and retention strategies become homogenized. From one brand to the next, the applications, interviews, and paperwork that guide hiring have a tendency to morph to a standard; only the logos slapped on the cover change.