With the holiday season closing in, the consumer companies look all set to start their new recruitment spree in order to support the expected increase in customer footfall during the festive season. Yesterday, we talked about Ford (F, Financial) hiring at its Kansas City facility and now the news of seasonal hiring by a gaming retailer has just dropped in. It has always been the trend that during the Christmas season, the consumer footfall swells in such multiples that often shelves at stores run empty and orders pile up at production centers. This in turn results in the workforce scrambling to meet customer expectations, but due to the overwhelming demand that generally outstrips the supply levels, the expectations become hard to meet. Therefore, customers turn into irate customers resulting in future business loss and patron loss.
It seems this time, the enterprises are gearing up well before hand to cope up with this inevitable situation and to make more smiling customers than irate ones. Let’s take a better look into the who’s who of this proactive festive season preparation.
GameStop starts the festive warm up
GameStop (GME, Financial) is all set to start its seasonal recruitment drive and is looking ahead to double its work force. GameStop Corp. is a pioneer in the gaming arena and provides video games for Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT, Financial) Xbox One, Sony Corp.'s (SNE, Financial) PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo (NTDOY, Financial) Wii U.
With the new Apple (AAPL, Financial) iPhone already in the pockets of many Apple fans, they are sure to explore the new gaming features of the phone with new games over the holiday period. All of this has prompted the gaming giant to step up its recruitment drive approximately 47 per cent from what it was, a year ago. GameStop Corp. said on Thursday that it plans to hire about 25,000 employees for the critical holiday period.
Recruitment road map
GameStop said that it is looking to hire warehouse workforce for distribution centers in Texas and Louisville - sales associates for its stores and about 250 consumer electronic technicians for its refurbishment operation center.
Though it did not disclose the exact equation of hiring of store sales staff and warehouse staff, it can be well understood that the gaming giant is all set to step up its operation during the festive season. GameStop, the Texas-based company, said that it will offer part-time as well as flexible work schedules with the possibility of up to 10 to 15 hours of work in night shifts, weekends and during the day. The remuneration will be equated against the quantum of work and the shift workers choose to work. In addition to the pay and perks, seasonal workers will also receive a 15% discount on certain merchandise in conventional stores and online purchases.
GameStop has officially declared that prospective candidates interested in applying for the advertised positions can visit the GameStop careers section on its website, or find a full list of jobs and other related details on its Facebook page or Twitter account. Seasonal jobs would span through the whole festive season starting from October 6, 2014 and running through January 9, 2015.
GameStop not the lone player
GameStop the gaming giant is not the only company preparing for the rush hours of the festive season. Kohl's Corp. (KSS, Financial), Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT, Financial), FedEx Corp. (FDX, Financial) and United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS, Financial) are among those that have announced that they will be hiring more seasonal employees this year. This means that we will get to see more hiring happening through the next couple of weeks in order to meet the festive demands.
Final word
GameStop does not intend to leave any stone unturned to keep its customers happy, and wants to convert them into platinum clients for a lifetime. On similar lines, other consumer companies are also joining the same drive to keep their top and bottom lines intact during the festive season that is just a few months down the road. We need to keep watching how this hiring spree for the festive season takes shape, and whether it could create a visible difference from what has been witnessed in the near past. Let’s stay tuned!
