Seasonal hiring is a critical element of retailers to successfully maximize sales and profits over the holidays. Increased crowds of shoppers require additional staff to provide quality customer service. With the competition of Internet shopping, retailers must provide an in-store service experience that cannot be accomplished with normal staffing levels. By way of example, major retailers such as Target and Wal-mart have announced expectations that they will hire tens of thousands of seasonal workers.

Given the state of the economy and the unemployment rate, employers are likely being presented with a better crop of candidates looking for seasonal work than ever before. Undoubtedly, some of these employees will perform so well that they will be retained. The question retailers must ask is whether they should plan to do more than just retaining the one-off spectacular performer and use this seasonal hiring binge as an opportunity to try to improve the quality of their overall in-store work force.