With the holiday season upon us, Forbes put together a list of employers who are dominating recruitment this year for hiring seasonal positions. At the top of the list are department stores including Sears, JCPenney, Toys “R” Us and Macy’s.
Other top contenders for the most seasonal openings are shipping employers, including UPS and FedEx. Forbes’ research found 6,051 new job postings with UPS and 2,733 with FedEx.
Forty percent of employers plan on hiring seasonal workers full time this year, which is up 31 percent from last year. Jacquelyn Smith, “Who’s Hiring the Most This Holiday Season,” www.forbes.com (Nov. 9, 2010).
In July of this year, the National Retail Federation researched the use and scope of criminal background screening in the retail industry. The survey collected information from 96 employers, ranging from restaurants to department stores to specialty retailers and grocery stores.
The survey found that 97 percent of retailers utilize background screening as part of their applicant hiring process and 87 percent use criminal record checks. The positions most commonly screened using a criminal background history include Store Manager (96 percent), Assistant Store Manager (94 percent), Senior Executive (96 percent), and Distribution Center Employees (95 percent).
When the holiday season arrives, many managers and supervisors are faced with the time crunch of hiring numerous employees in a short amount of time. Even though hiring managers may feel tempted to take shortcuts in the interview and hiring process, this is not the time to do it. With seasonal hiring up and with forty percent of employers planning to keep holiday workers on full time once the season passes, accurate and thorough criminal background checks are as important as ever.
Some of the most common and important background checks include Internet searches, criminal background checks and referrals. To learn more about background checks, log on to read Social Media Background Checks – A New Tool or a New Source of Liability? and Use the Scalpel, Not the Cleaver When Using Background Checks to Cut Applicants.
