Avoiding The Pitfalls of Recruiting Retail Executives: Part IV

By Gail E. Amsterdam, Founder, CEO, and Chief Talent Curator, Amsterdam Associates

Over 5 weeks, we’ve prepared a 5-Part series exploring how Retailers are Avoiding the Pitfalls of Recruiting Retail Executives.  Join us each week with a new article that builds on the prior one to detail how to maximize your talent stream.

Why totally revamp your recruiting process to maximize your talent bench strength?

Totally revamping your recruiting process to maximize your bench strength is critical, otherwise it could be extremely disconcerting. We’re not trying to overly concern you, but instead, better prepare you for the necessary steps to fortify your recruitment strategy, which today are entirely different than what we’ve seen in the past. If you’re not getting the hiring results you want, landing top talent your retailer deserves, then we’ve clearly reached the root of the matter.  

Recruiting is like supply chain issues; where is your product and what is the process that you will need to quickly, economically, and properly obtain that product? In this case, your product is a real person of value and talent. It’s like a ‘jigsaw puzzle’. What’s the steps, to land that particular, special executive. Where is that person, what type of company are they working for, what position do they currently hold, what has been their trajectory throughout their career, and then work backwards from that point to develop a strategic roadmap to secure several of these people to consider as talented choices to deliver seamlessly and quickly to your retailer.

The most important part of the process is your Talent Roadmap to attract the executive of your dreams. Why would executives consider your company, do they connect with the hiring VP, you’ve paired them to partner with, how do you leverage your assets as a retailer, how do you really appeal to this executive to get him/her to the table, and what’s the best way to approach each of these executives?  What tools should you absolutely be using to develop your target universe and to then successfully message these people to get their total attention?   

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Tune in next week for our final installment in our 5-part series to ‘Avoid the Pitfalls of Recruiting Retail Executives’. If you can’t wait, feel free to give me a call at (917) 545-8892 or email me at gail@amsterdamassociates.com and we can find time to connect together.