(Catalog Age)--Nashville, TN--Recruiting and retaining seasonal employees is a challenge for many consumer catalogers.
Lands' End, for example, hires more than 2,000 seasonal employees to help it through the fourth quarter, when it rings up 40% of its business, Phyllis Irish, manager of recruitment for the apparel and home goods catalog, said yesterday at the National Conference on Operations and Fulfillment (NCOF).
During the firm's first three quarters it employs more than 7,000. Finding an additional 2,000 workers for the fall/holiday season is especially tough for the mailer, given that the lion's share of its facilities are in rural areas of Wisconsin, Irish said.
So how does Lands' End do it? "We try to be the employer of choice in the community," Irish said. To that end, Lands' End is big on recognizing employees' birthdays and anniversaries and will even give out spot cash awards of up to $2,000 for a job well done.
Dodgeville, WI-based Lands' End also participates in numerous community events, such as the Butterfest Parade in nearby Reedsville. Maintaining a high profile helps with recruitment. Community events emphasize "the competitive advantage of working for Lands' End," she said.
Keeping employees happy motivates them to refer friends and family to work for the company.
All told, it costs Lands' End about $1,200 to recruit each seasonal employee, Irish said. She also disclosed that the company's benefit costs rose 12% last year. To mitigate the additional expense, in January, the cataloger mandated that only employees who work at least 1,650 hours a year qualify for benefits. The company used to offer benefits to employees who worked at least 1,250 hours annually.
