Hiring part-time employees for the holidays takes a little more muscle – WWD

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IT’S THE SEASON, OR IS IT?: With the crucial holiday season in full swing, many retailers are cutting back on seasonal hiring, but staffing still remains an issue.

Knowing that it will take more than snacks and employee discounts to entice people to seek employment during the holidays, some companies offer monetary incentives to woo employees. Adidas Monday strengthened its plans to improve benefits for part-time retail employees in the United States

Starting on New Year’s Day, store employees who work 20-29 hours a week will be able to opt for coverage in the company-sponsored medical plan. Current part-time retail employees can opt for coverage until November 11. And new part-time retail employees in the United States will be able to opt for coverage during their first 31 days.

With nearly 170 stores in the United States, Adidas has more than 4,700 retail employees, including more than 3,700 part-time. A company spokesperson declined to comment on how this year’s seasonal hiring will compare to last year’s.

On whether part of the incentive for medical coverage is to make work more attractive when so many companies face a shortage of workers, the Adidas spokesperson said via email: “We always evaluate our benefits programs to make sure they are competitive, inclusive and fair. We aim to be competitive and provide our employees with a pleasant place to work. »

Vacation hiring is competitive these days, as many part-time retail workers opted out of what for many was an unpredictable work schedule. Self-checkout has increasingly become the norm with several big box stores. Additionally, some large key retailers have adjusted their vacation hires. Walmart, for example, plans to hire 40,000 part-time workers, up from 150,000 last year.

Macy’s reportedly cut seasonal hiring to 41,000 from 76,000 a year ago. Macy’s noted that last year more than 10,300 seasonal employees secured full-time positions over the holiday season. Macy’s also noted that nearly a third of its executives started their careers with the company during the holiday season.

Additionally, Dick’s Sporting Goods plans to hire 9,000 seasonal associates for its namesake stores, as well as its Public Lands, Field & Stream and Going, Going, Gone! stores across the United States. This would represent 1,000 fewer part-time workers than last year.

Target, meanwhile, plans to hire the same number of seasonal workers as the retailer did last year: 100,000. Amazon is also in the process of building its team, having announced plans to hire 150,000 people across the United States in a variety of full-time, part-time and seasonal roles. New hires can earn an average of more than $19 per hour, depending on the position and location, according to the company,

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