Modernizing the seasonal worker pitch
Call a Dick’s Sporting Goods with a few questions about elliptical machines and, while waiting to speak to someone in the exercise and fitness department, you’ll listen to a pitch for seasonal workers. “Are you looking for an opportunity to join a winning team this holiday?” asks the smooth-voiced speaker on the recording. “We are now hiring for seasonal parttime positions in all departments.”
In fact, Dick’s is hiring 8,000 seasonal workers — “teammates” in the Dick’s sports vernacular — for its stores across the country this year and recently held a “National Signing Day” — sports jargon, again — at numerous store locations across the country. Potential employees and easily distractible shoppers had the opportunity to apply and interview for positions at Dick’s on the spot.
“Wait, ‘National Signing Day?’” asks Roland Martinez, a retired veteran of the “retail game,” as he calls it, in St. Petersburg, Florida. “Like an event?”
Martinez says he used to put a sign on the window of the stores he managed during his 37-year career, which included Fayva, Famous Footwear, Foot Locker, Carson Pirie Scott and Venture in Illinois, Wisconsin and Tennessee. “It was pretty easy to hire help for the holidays. I’d put that sign out there and I’d have kids coming in within 10 minutes,” Martinez says. “I keep reading how it’s hard to hire high school students now so maybe I was spoiled, but I didn’t have to offer a carrot or anything to get them to work for me. They needed jobs and I needed help and that was that.”
What’s a mall?
Today, record-low unemployment and an increase in taskoriented jobs for teens has decreased the potential holiday retail workforce of previous years. Martinez has another theory. “My grandchildren don’t even go to malls,” he says. “They order everything online. I wanted to buy my youngest grandson a backpack for school this year and before I could even tell him to get into the car so we could go to Staples or something, he showed me the backpack he wanted on his phone and told me just to order it from Amazon. And that was that. So if they’re not even going to the store to shop, I doubt they want to go there to work.”
In an effort to drum up interest in those store-based jobs, major retailers like Dick’s have been trying out new methods to attract potential workers.
Work here! We’re happy!
Some retailers that rely on both online and brick-andmortar sales have found ways to use their online presence to drum up interest in their seasonal in-store jobs. Target runs a specific blog touting the benefits of working for the Minneapolis-based company, using summaries, anecdotes and superlatives from current Target associates to attract new workers, including potential seasonal employees. “…I also love that I have the opportunity to meet so many people and help them during the holiday season. It can be a very exciting time because people are looking for gifts, they’re looking for their holiday outfits and you just have a lot of joy during this magical time of year,” writes Nadia; “… you get the opportunity to help guests during the holiday season. If they’re stressed or worried about things, you get to be that light when they come into the store and to make them smile,” gushes Heather; and not to be outdone, Julie shares her love for the Target experience, writing, “I really love the energy at Target. I love greeting guests every day; I love helping guests. It’s just a very fulfilling, rewarding position for me. I absolutely love working here.”
Crate & Barrel takes the testimonial one step further, offering video affirmations from unidentified employees who sing the praises of the home furnishing chain’s holiday spirit. “The holiday season here at Crate — it’s like walking into a whole new world. It’s so magical” and “I love the holiday season because you just feel, like, all the energy and the customers, like, they’re just grabbing stuff everywhere” and “If you are a fun and personable person. If you’re energetic, if you like to make people happy, if you like to work at a fastpaced environment, and you like shopping, Crate and Barrel is the job for you.”
Options open
Michael Lopez, 18, was looking for a new pair of basketball shoes at the Dick’s Sporting Goods in Niles, Illinois, when I asked him if he was there for National Signing Day. “I actually didn’t know about it until I got here and actually, I think that would be a pretty decent job. And I have to get a job this Christmas,” said Lopez. “But I’m not sure what I want to do yet. I have to talk to a guy who says he can get me a job at Navy Pier working on a food cart or something, so I have to check on that first. And I was thinking about joining the army, too.”
And just like that, the wheels of commerce forced to slow down because of America’s obsession with both I-got-a-guy possibilities and a patriotic call to action. Still, if America has taught us anything, it’s that it’s best to leave our options open. “Maybe I’ll fill out an application while I’m here,” Lopez says. “It might be cool for a few months to be a worker here.”
“Teammate,” I remind him.
“Yeah, teammate,” Lopez says. “Then you could say to your manager ‘put me in, coach!’ every day when you get to work.”
A sports tie-in on top of a sports tie-in? From a guy still in the I’m-not-even-sure-I’m-going-to-apply stage? Dick’s strategy is obviously working.
With respect to the major sports retailer, let me rephrase that: When it comes to finding new ways to attract seasonal workers, it looks like Dick’s Sporting Goods has hit it out of the park.