Eco Passes, faster pay raises among perks offered to find retail employees

BROOMFIELD — If you work at FlatIron Crossing, you get free transportation from anywhere in the Denver metro area and cab service home in case of an emergency, courtesy of Westcor Shopping Centers. These are just two of the incentives employees are being offered to join the labor pool at the new mall opening Aug. 11.

The Colorado labor market is the tightest in years with an unemployment rate of only 2.8 percent in June. Depending upon whom you talk to, the tight labor market is greatly affecting the hiring of employees for FlatIron Crossing or, it is affecting hiring somewhat or it is not affecting hiring at all. Westcor, however, is taking no chances.

Westcor is providing an Eco Pass to every employee who works at FlatIrons so they have free transportation to the mall. Westcor benefits by attracting employees for their retailers, reducing traffic to the mall and preserving more parking places for customers. It also gets a tax write-off. Employees of the mall use the pass for unlimited free rides on any RTD neighborhood or regional bus (including DIA), light rail or other qualifying service, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

According to Janet Beaudry, senior marketing director at FlatIrons, the major reason cited by commuters for not riding public transit to work is the fear of being stranded without a ride home in an emergency. With the Guaranteed Ride Home service that is part of the Eco Pass, employees always can count on a free taxi ride home in the event of an emergency or unplanned schedule change. Situations that qualify for a guaranteed ride are:

* Illness or injury to the employee or an immediate family member;

* Unscheduled overtime requested by the employee’s supervisor;

* Other personal emergencies, at the supervisor’s discretion.

All Eco Pass cardholders are eligible to use the Guaranteed Ride Home program.

Nortstrom’s is one retailer concerned about what it’s going to do to fill 350 positions at its FlatIron store. According to company spokesperson, John Bailey, “Nordstrom’s is finding great people despite low unemployment. It offers many perks that other retailers don’t.” The average yearly salary for a salesperson, for example, is $32,000, paid-time off accruing right away that employees can take after their first 520 hours and an employee stock purchase program.

Dillards has run into some snags finding the people it needs. According to company spokesperson Bill Hite, the store hasn’t had the numbers of applicants it typically has when it announces the opening of a new store. “We’re satisfied we will be able to get the staff we need by the time the store opens,” he said. Hite said Dillards has a philosophy of not offering special incentives for a particular store, but rather keeps them consistent companywide. Tactics they have used to find new staff are offering $200 to existing employees to refer someone and approving transfers for employees in other metro area stores to come to FlatIrons.

In addition, Dillards uses a standard method of rewarding associates that is performance-based, Hite said. After three full months of employment, then six months and at the end of a year, an associate has an opportunity for a 10 percent raise. “That’s three opportunities in the first year an associate has for a 10 percent raise,” Hite said.

Paradise Bakery and Café Regional Manager Peggy Poole said her company has had no problems attracting employees to its FlatIron store. “At the Job Fair in June, we hired nine people,” she said. The store is looking for a total of 55 people to run its gourmet coffee shop, bakery and food service. Paradise is not offering any special incentives for new employees; however Poole said they did reevaluate their hourly pay ranges because of FlatIrons. “Our goal is to pay higher hourly rates than other food service companies,” she said. Its advertised rates are $8 to $13 an hour for full-time workers.

Rich Downs, regional manager for Organizational Living, a store that will open its first Colorado store at the new mall, said he has had no trouble at all hiring good people.

“We heard it was going to be a challenging labor market, but we’ve had an outstanding response,” Downs said. He has hired 41 people or all the staff he needs along with five managers who are already in place. “We aren’t doing anything different here to attract employees. We look for a small niche of a person – wonderful people who are nice,” he said. Downs thinks the name of the store helps draw people who want to work there. “Organized people just want to work for us,” he said. “I just haven’t had any problems finding good people. I apologize for that,” he laughed.

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