Dak Prescott, quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, recently received a $66 million signing bonus with his four-year contract.  While you will undoubtedly not be offering anything remotely close to that astronomic amount, it could be that a signing bonus would help your recruitment efforts in this tight market.

Retail stores usually make a signing bonus contingent upon staying on the job a certain length of time. This incentive to attract employees can be paid out as a lump sum or incremental payments in addition to the hourly salary being offered.  

One advantage of offering a signing bonus is that you can maintain internal salary equity among your existing employees.  Obviously you can’t make the starting salary of a new hire higher than that of the staff members who have been with you for a long time.  An increase in the wage being offered to potential new employees will have a ripple effect across your entire payroll – which would not be the case with a signing bonus.

08person who brings a new person on board a bonus proportionate to the signing bonus, to be paid after the employee has been on the job a specified period of time.

A signing bonus does not need to be a permanent move, so you might consider just offering one during this challenging time. Anything you can do to help fill vacancies in this tight market may be worth it.

Happy retailing, 

Carol “Orange” Schroeder