Shop fo a Job

It takes a village to raise a child, the old adage goes, and the same holds true for a growing industry. Nestled in Basildon town centre (UK), Eastgate shopping centre took that approach last year when it developed a comprehensive programme to help its retailers fill Christmas vacancies, raise the saliency of employment within retailing and improve the general standard of retailing in the town centre, with the ultimate goal of presenting the area as a quality shopping destination.
In May 2005, Eastgate began with one-to-one meetings with retail partners, a process that led Debenhams, Next and ASDA to join management in forming a small working group that would oversee the project. While Eastgate had always supported its retailers to recruit staff by providing mall space for internal vacancy jobs and a presence on the centre’s Website and retail partners portal, the working group felt that a programme of much larger scale was now warranted. The Shop for a Job event was born.
Slated for 15th to 17th September 2005, Shop for a Job would take over three of Eastgate’s prime promotional areas, as well as a large empty shop unit for the exclusive use of participating retailers. There, retailers and potential employees would cross paths and, hopefully, find their match.
A half-page colour press advertisement in the paid for daily Evening Echo, radio airtime on Essex FM and Dream 107.7 FM (the stations covered Eastgate’s entire catchment area), as well as advance editorial coverage were key in getting the word out.
Supporting these promotional efforts, Shop for a Job publicity material was displayed prominently in the malls (e.g. posters and banners). Eastgate also commissioned a local group of grade 12 students from Beauchamp High School to produce a short film on retailing which was played throughout the event via on-site plasma screens.
Reaching out to more partners outside its walls, Eastgate turned to JobCentre Plus, a placement agency that took on the role of liaising between retailers to whom they had provided service in the past and centre management—the roles were reversed where no such history existed.
JobCentre PLus diligently matched applicants with the needs of retailers, recording details and directing them to potential employers. And other agencies pitched in as well: Connexions and Thurrock and Basildon College, which promoted its range of retailer courses.
Investing just under £5,000 (¤7,300), Eastgate’s Shop for a Job event benefited 26 participating retailers.
JobCentre Plus processed 298 enquiries over the course of the event, while an estimated 200 other applicants visited store representatives of their own accord. In the end, 310 vacancies were filled.
Not surprisingly, a dozen Eastgate retailers have already expressed a desire to participate in Shop for a Job 2006, which has been set for 14th to 16th September. What’s more, store managers from Debenhams, TK Maxx, HMV, ASDA and Monsoon have become directors of the centre’s Executive Marketing Committee, to be chaired by Debenhams.