Phil Lempert on Food Retail Hiring Incentives
A new report from the Food Industry Association (FMI) and Saint Joseph’s University outlines a variety of steps food retailers can take to attract Gen Z hires, like offering career development or furthering educational programs within their organizations. The report concludes that Gen Z employees’ career goals differ from earlier generations and that food retailers’ messaging isn’t adequately attracting young talent – not a lot of Gen Z wakes up in the morning and say “I want to grow up and be a supermarket manager” – and its our job to change that.
Some retailers like Wegmans and Publix for years have invested in their workforce with superior training, better that average wages and a commitment to change the way their populations view working for a supermarket. While hiring continues to get more digital in the food retail world, the pandemic has added a lot of new complexities. Landed, a new start up, has created a mobile app connecting hourly food and retail workers with local employers. It uses engaging video profiles to help candidates stand out, leverages artificial technology for matching candidates to jobs, and automates much of the hiring process for employers. It is designed for retail and food businesses only – at least for now and includes grocery stores. They automate much of the hiring process by matching candidates, scheduling interviews, and following up with candidates.
Job seekers download the Landed Jobs mobile app, and are guided through setting up their candidate profile, which includes short videos plus details on their work experience, location, and shift availability. Candidates can then browse jobs available near them. Landed’s AI-based intelligent matching technology matches candidates with employers for whom they might be a fit. It also provides hiring accountability, by tracking each hiring manager’s activity and progress towards hiring goals. Wang founded Landed after working in the retail industry where she saw the extremely high employee turnover of 130% on average. A valuable tool worth checking out which speaks directly to the FMI report that how we language, and the medium used, matters to the younger tech savvy potential employee.
