Winning Retailers Challenge the Economy and Invest in Talent Acquisition

April 29, 2009

Janet Sherlock, Research Director at AMR Research, and Marcus Curl, Retail & Hourly Solution Architect at Taleo, shared insights as to how some retailers are positioning themselves to win in the current economy through strategic talent acquisition selection and retention. They described trends and drivers behind the talent acquisition and selection process for retail, drawing on research conducted with fourteen of the top twenty retail companies, surveyed by AMR in conjunction with National Retail Federation. Janet examined store and cross-functional retail operations, including talent management. She stated that once “core HR” processes (such as time and labor, payroll and benefits) are mastered, retailers are looking to move into strategic human capital management processes. Among the human capital management processes, acquisition and management-control are focused on first, because of the sheer numbers of people hired, managed and their geographic distribution.

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