Set your recruitment goals
The first step in any hiring process is to set recruitment goals. Begin by deciding on how many new co-workers you need to hire. Then consider what qualities you are searching for in a co-worker. What kind of person are you looking for? Finally, set a timeframe for when you would like to have everything done.
Where do you find your new retail employee?
To find your new retail employee you should improve your store's website. Optimize your website in regards to making contact and applying for the open job positions easy. People applying for the job through your website are probably very interested and motivated to work in your particular store.
The next step is for you to set up detailed and attractive job descriptions through different recruitment sites and tools to attract the right applicants. A few of the most popular recruitment sites in UK are Indeed, Glassdor and LinkedIn jobs. Think about who exactly you'd like to hire and what qualities this employee should have. Then write the job description with that in mind and you'll be most likely to attract the right applicants.
Yet an effective way is to post “help wanted” signs on the doors to your own store. Current customers know and probably like the retailer and most likely have complete awareness of the store's supply and assortment. They already understand your brand and therefore are the perfect candidates for the job.
A final tip is to use employee referrals, with help from your existing employees you can find trustworthy candidates that have experience from the same industry. Encourage your co-workers to share the job opening through their social media networks. To motivate your staff to find great applicants you could offer a finders fee. This will most likely motivate them to make an effort to find potential employees. 
What qualities should you look for in an applicant?
Here are some examples of qualities to look for in an applicant:
- Enthusiastic about the company brand and its products
- Be able to engage customers
- The drive to want to learn and evolve
- Fluent in English or in whichever language you speak in your country
- Have a welcoming and positive aura
- Patience
How to conduct the perfect retail interview
When you've gathered a few potential employees for your store it's time to hold the retail interviews. When conducting interviews there can be quite a few things to think about…
Stay away from close-ended questions. These types of questions make it easy to give short answers, that's not what we want in an interview. You want the applicant to do most of the talking. Therefore, when you keep the questions open-ended the candidate can take the answer in whichever direction they choose.
Read more about open and close-ended questions
You probably think that you should recruit a retail employee that has extensive experience from the retail industry. This is great of course, but you should also look for an applicant with the right attitude. In retail it's very important to have the human connection, so don't be too focused on recruiting people with retail experience, then you might miss the people that actually have excellent people skills suitable for your company. Knowledge can always be taught but an attitude you most likely can't change.
Keep in mind what qualities you're looking for in an employee during the interview. Observe and analyse their behaviour and try to see beyond the nervous facade that most applicants tend to put up when being interviewed. You could throw them curveballs, that will most likely make them give you honest and unrehearsed answers. You could also ask questions about what kind of earlier experiences they've had in the past. Maybe ask them to tell you about a tricky situation they've been in and how they solved the situation. This will give you a clearer picture on how they'll solve a conflict.
Another great method is to conduct group interviews. When holding a group interview you make the recruiting process more effective because you're interviewing many applicants at the same time. You'll also be able to see how the applicants act around other people. This will give you a clearer picture on how they would act around customers. Another way to see how they'll act around other people is to take the applicants around the store to meet their potential co-workers and see how they act around them.
Read more on: how to conduct a group interview
Lastly, don't forget that you're not supposed to only grill the applicants, it's also very important to sell them why they should work in your particular store and why it's a great workplace. You could discuss any career advancement, training programs or anything else that would make them want to stay. This way you'll attract highly qualified and talented applicants to work for you and make them want to keep working for you.