The calendar has flipped to the all-important Q4 for retailers and ecommerce companies with holidays and celebrations abound during the months of October, November and December. These include Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year’s Eve, just to name a few. Retail and ecommerce-based sales days such as Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday and Amazon’s additional Prime Day in October are marketed around these dates to drive consumers to their brick-and-mortar stores and online sites to drive business.
Top Retailers Compete for Associates
With increased consumer spending in Q4, execution of the sales often requires an increase in short-term fulfillment and delivery labor needs to meet the demand and ensure shelves are stocked and on-time delivery expectations can be met. Below is a listing, according to MSN and AOL.com, of six retailers looking to hire in Q4 and the perks that are being offered for signing on:
- Amazon is looking to hire up to 150,000 persons across the U.S. for full-time and part-time positions for all key distribution activities of pick, pack, ship and storage. Amazon has increased its starting wage to over $19/hour and is offering signing bonuses between $1,000 and $3,000 in some locations.
- Dick’s Sporting Goods expects to hire 9,000 seasonal employees for the 2022 holiday season. Competitive pay, no work on Thanksgiving Day and a generous employee discount benefit to those who sign on as part of their annual “National Signing Day,” which kicked off in late September.
- Kohl’s is expected to hire 90,000 seasonal associates, similar to 2021 numbers, during their two open hiring events in September and mid-October. Openings will be available in stores, distribution centers and ecommerce fulfillment centers. Kohl’s benefits include weekly pay, flexible scheduling, employee discounts and associate shop special events.
- Target has 100,000 seasonal positions, offering stable and flexible scheduling with an emphasis on training seasonal associates to ensure success.
- UPS announced the need for 100,000 seasonal associates in 2022. This is similar to 2020 and 2021 levels per Fox Business.
- Walmart will add up to 40,000 seasonal associates during Q4, with current associates being offered the first chance at additional work hours.
Tom’s Take: “The hiring campaigns for distribution and fulfillment talent is showing no signs of slowing down. Increased wages, flexible scheduling and bonuses are the common perks being offered to the seasonal associates being courted.
Companies that are attempting to onboard several thousand seasonal associates during Q4 need to ensure they have a plan in place for how the associates will be trained, what key performance indicators (KPIs) will be monitored to measure success, and a communication plan for providing performance feedback to the seasonal workers based on the KPI’s being measured. Target’s emphasis on training could be a differentiator for them in their quest for talent and associate retention.”
