Retail is very much the ‘front line’ of seasonal business – with an exponential rise in retail demand during each Christmas period, it falls upon recruitment firms in Dublin and the companies that use them to plan carefully and well in advance to ensure that they take on suitable additional staff.

Your team members are crucial if you are to manage the inevitable sales onslaught in the run-up to Yuletide – but with ever-greater competition each year for the best seasonal staff, the following tips could be instrumental in helping your small or medium sized retailer to discover, assess and hire the right people.

1. Don’t ever stop recruiting

Sure, there’s a lot of advice around at this time of year along the lines of “plan ahead” or “start hiring early”. But really, there shouldn’t be a definite start/stop time for your hiring – it’s all about finding the right people at whatever time that might happen to be. If you find a great candidate who you don’t have space for right now, add them to your talent pool and get back in touch with them when you do.

2. Take on past employees

Rather than doing all of the searching and hiring from scratch, why not simply call upon those who have served you so well previously? Such candidates will already be suitably experienced and trained, which allows you to avoid all of the resource-draining hassle of the standard recruitment process. They already know how it all works at your firm, and can repeat their previous great job.

3. Hire for important areas

Your recruitment planning is so much easier once you know where exactly you need the assistance: are you short of marketing staff, or is it customer service, returns or warehousing personnel that you most urgently require? However, you should also develop your staff to be flexible, training them in various areas so that you can assign your best people to the roles that will make the most impact on the customer service experience.

4. Be careful not to over-hire

If you take on too many staff, your payroll will inevitably drain your company’s finances. HR managers who are concerned about peaks in demand are therefore advised to focus on the development of a strong talent pool so that, if they do find themselves in need of a good staffer quickly, they know exactly where to turn.

5. Pick out the most-needed traits

What characteristics do your new recruits most need if they are to best help you to fulfil your business objectives? An ability to learn quickly? What about confidence with the use of social media, or the flexibility to take on whatever duties they need to take on at short notice? Whatever – you need to pinpoint those essential traits right at the start of the hiring process.

Plan your seasonal recruitment smartly and ensure your business realises its full sales potential at Christmas – whilst avoiding many of the headaches associated with this crucial time of year. Contact Webrecruit Ireland today for your sales recruitment agency needs.