Avoiding The Pitfalls of Recruiting Retail Executives: Part I

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

Over the next 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.

What’s changed from how we’ve always recruited retail executives?

Recruiting retail executives has dramatically changed over the years, particularly since the pandemic.  Retailers have had to recalibrate, revamping their entire recruiting processes to attract and hire top-notch executive talent in this evolved marketplace.

With many people now working remotely, retailers and recruiters previously could contact them directly via phone, but today people are operating at record speeds using digital means to communicate with one another.  This has resulted in limited face-to-face contact with talented executives and has almost made the process like the game “telephone” where the message isn’t the same as the original one crafted.

Retailers must know what truly matters to their target universe now more than ever and be able to convey that message in a meaningful way.  They can’t just present the executive position, they need to romance the stone, really understanding what makes each executive tick to unlock what is important to them.  Money and benefits will always be attractive, however people’s lives changed so tremendously in the pandemic, that family and values became their major priority. Culture and the way retailers treat their executives, others, and the world at large, needs must be tremendously considered and be a genuine point critically valued by the retailer that talented executives will consider joining.

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In next week’s edition, we’ll unpack, what retail executives are really seeking in their careers?  In the meantime, feel free to reach out, directly if you’d like to chat about how to accelerate your supply chain of executive talent recruitment today – (917) 545-8892 /gail@amsterdamassociates.com.