How Retailers Can Sidestep The Pitfalls Of Holiday Season Hiring

Retailers are bringing aboard the same number of seasonal hires as last year, but other changes are afoot. Here’s how merchants can leverage technology for more productive, more secure workplaces.

Target was among the first major U.S. retailers to announce its holiday hiring strategy this year, stating in mid-September that it will add 70,000 seasonal workers across its stores, essentially steady with last year. That’s pretty much textbook behavior for holiday 2016, according to outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas, which anticipates overall seasonal retail hiring this year won’t likely change much this year from last, when employment in the sector rose by 738,800 jobs during the final quarter of the year. (Seasonal hiring in 2015 was 1.4% lower than the previous year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.) The numbers may look the same, but there is a shift happening. Beyond its store associate hiring efforts, Target is also filling 7,500 holiday positions across its distribution facilities to keep pace with an expected rise in e-commerce orders. Many other retailers are following suit. Read more at Retail Dive.