On February 1st the nation’s largest home improvement retailer Home Depot announced that they will endeavor to hire an additional 100,000 orange-vested associates. The company looking to have that staffing in place in advance of the 2022 spring season.
Home Depot expecting the outsized demand for home improvement products, including paint, to continue for the foreseeable future.
The 100,000 new hires representing a 20% increase in headcount for the Atlanta-based retailer whose 2021 revenue was in excess of $132 billion.
To kick off the hiring spree Home Depot will host a virtual career day February 16. Among the speakers scheduled to address prospective job-seekers is the president of Home Depot’s Northern Division, Crystal Hanlon.
As the Northern Division president, Crystal maintains responsibility for more than 800 stores, 110,000 employees and $30 billion of Home Depot revenue. Enough to earn Ms. Hanlon a place spot on Fortune’s list of the “Most Powerful Women in Business” in each of the previous seven-years.
Iconic within the wall's of Home Depot's Atlanta headquarters, Hanlon is the story of a career spent in orange; the 57-year-old Hanlon beginning her career with the big box store as a Houston-area cashier in 1985.
This Can All be Yours
Like more than 90% of Home Depot’s leaders, Crystal Hanlon began her 37-year journey up the Home Depot ladder as an hourly worker.
Home Depot’s announcement goes on to share what an a career at Home Depot could look like even if you don’t end up in the corporate suite. The company promising prospective employees a “wide range of health and personal benefits for every stage of life, including tuition reimbursement, company performance-based cash bonus program, paid family leave, back-up dependent care, 401(k) savings plan with company match, a discounted company stock purchase program and more.”
The announcement additionally touting the company's streamlined hiring process which allows job-seekers to receive an offer of employment within 24-hours!
With the country in the grips of a labor shortage expected to last years, the Home Depot is not the only home improvement retailer with a “we’re hiring” sign in the window. Independent retailers I speak with often sharing that they continue to struggle finding qualified employees willing to work behind their counters.
One dealer I spoke with considering adding a gas allowance to their job posts hoping the incentive gains interest from candidates from the greater-surrounding area.
One Northeast dealer recently sharing that raising their starting salary to $18-per-hour has done little to help them meet their staffing needs.
With higher wages and creative perks necessary to attract job-seekers some dealers have shared their concern for the effects the higher starting salaries may have on their longer-tenured staff who may have worked years, to achieve what is now entry level.
Perhaps damaging the dealer’s relationship with that most important group: tenured staff.
The good news is that most independent paint dealers have the funds to do both; offer an entry-level position which attracts attention during a labor shortage and, offer a significant enough increase for tenure and accomplishment so that those new hires and your existing staff wants to stick around.
The inflation in the price of paint and sundries has dealers who have maintained their margins, which most have due to the current outsized demand for coatings, reaping more dollar-profits per unit sold than they were before prices began to rise.
And while I don’t think that dealers owe their tenured employees that entire windfall, the extra cash is a good source of funding to reward the good behaviors which allowed for the longevity in the first place.
