Holiday Demand Forces Retailers to Get Creative with Hiring Strategies

 

Black Friday is upon us, and rebounding consumer demand coupled with lingering product delays and U.S. dollar inflation is making for an unpredictable holiday demand. Retail executives have been investing in resiliency strategies for the holiday season starting last year, like putting money towards omnichannel fulfillment, more flexible operations and inventory management solutions.

Where does labor, though, fit into this equation for holiday retail success, and are employers necessarily reinvesting in more workers or a better work environment? Monthly job hires leading up to the holiday season showed promise around the amount of workers interested in retail positions, or at least showed rising strength in securing new hires. The bulk of trade, transportation and utilities hires in August, which includes the retail trade, was more than 1.1 million.

Monthly job hires in the United States in August 2021, by industry

More granularly, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in September, more than 1 million retail trade job openings turned into 893,000 hires, up from the year before, but down from August.

Regardless, the last year of disruptions to the retail supply chain have been in part due to labor challenges. Often described as a labor shortage, a more holistic analysis shows global low-wage workers withholding their labor strategically for higher pay and better benefits after the pandemic activated latent energy in the labor movement, resulting in less workers willing to jump back into the ‘same old, same old’ retailers were offering.

Now stores like Macy’s are offering $500 referral bonuses, Walmart is raising base pay to $17 an hour, and Amazon warehouse workers are being drawn in with $3000 sign on bonuses. These strategies could be paying off; NRF’s monthly economic report for November predicts retailers will hire “between 500,000 and 665,000 seasonal workers,” more than the year before.

Are retailers fundamentally changing their Black Friday hiring approach? And how competitive does holiday pay need to be to stand out as a retailer and attract enough retail associates to meet demand? DeAnna McIntosh, Executive Director & Co-Founder of The Affinity Group and Bryan Eisenberg, Co-Founder of BuyerLegends, joined our Black Friday Roundtable to weigh in on hiring strategy change and best practices for the holiday season.

“[My clients] were excited about this in a way, because it’s really hard for them to retain great talent at the store level. There’s always high turnover. But my clients have built true relationships with their employees, so it wasn’t as hard for them to hire new talent, but they wanted to make sure that the talent that they did bring for the holiday demand, know if they have a future there,” McIntosh said.

“I don’t care if you’re in the smallest town in the country or in the largest city, [retailers] have got to come up with a way to give people fair living wages so they can keep feeding that supply chain,” Eisenberg said. “I don’t know if there’s a minimum number, a think the minimum number is a dart throw. I think it really needs getting into those communities, which is where retail started at, local shops being there to support their communities, and we’ve got to kind of come back into that.”

For the full Black Friday Live Roundtable, where Eisenberg and McIntosh give a retail supply chain state of the union, dig into more granular supply chain trends impacting retail outlook, and offer strategies for ecommerce success, click here or head to our Events tab.

More Stories Like This:

Retailers Invested in Fulfillment and Demand Forecasting Post-Pandemic. Will it Pay Off for Black Friday?

How Consumers are Adjusting Shopping Habits for Black Friday 2021

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

Commerce media
A Look at the Rise of Commerce Media Networks: How Nift Helps Brands Own How Their Message Shows Up
July 2, 2025

As traditional digital advertising struggles to retain consumer trust, brands are exploring new, more authentic ways to connect with shoppers. Platforms like commerce media networks, which weave together commerce, content, and data, are emerging as powerful tools in this shift. Research from MG2 Advisory reveals that only about 37% of consumers feel brands genuinely…

Read More
Hospitality leadership
Heart-First Hospitality Leadership: How Saying ‘Yes’ Transforms Guest Experiences, Boosts Staff Morale, and Drives Business Results
July 2, 2025

As the hospitality industry emerges from years of pandemic-driven upheaval, hospitality leadership is evolving to meet new challenges. Leaders are looking for new ways to retain staff, elevate guest satisfaction, and drive revenue without burning out their teams. One trend gaining traction is the power of “Yes”: empowering employees to say yes more often,…

Read More
civic leadership
Mayor Gerard Hudspeth’s Civic Leadership Journey: What Politics Teaches About People
July 2, 2025

What does a mayor learn about human nature? In this episode of Professional Quotient: Conversations that Build Equity, host Jason Winningham sits down with Gerard Hudspeth, longtime mayor of Denton, Texas, and a respected figure in civic leadership. Drawing from his years in public service, Hudspeth explores how leading a city reveals the core…

Read More
sepsis
Debunking Sepsis Myths – Episode 1
July 1, 2025

In the first episode of The Michael Rothman podcast, we address misconceptions about sepsis in healthcare. Although it’s often claimed that sepsis accounts for nearly a third of hospital deaths, many of these deaths are linked to chronic conditions with sepsis as a secondary factor. The frequently cited statistic that delays in treating sepsis increase…

Read More