MINNEAPOLIS - Atif Siddiqi is founder and CEO of Branch Messenger, a Minneapolis-based company. He says retailers nationwide could hire at least 650,000 new employees this holiday season.
"That's a 10 percent increase from last year," Siddiqi said.
In September, Target announced plans to hire around 120,000 seasonal team members this year, which is a 20 percent increase from last year.
At the same time, retailers know that would-be employees have other options such as driving for Lyft or working from home. Siddiqi says, because of that, employers are upping the ante to reel in more workers.
"They're feeling the crunch now with unemployment at an all-time low," he said. "What they're doing to attract and retain talent is using different employee incentives like deep discounts, gift cards."
At Target, for example, team members have the chance to win a $500 Target GiftCard. Starting pay is $12 an hour. Meanwhile, Best Buy touts flexible scheduling, competitive wages, 401K, and an employee discount.
In some cases, employers are even offering same-day pay.
"After you complete a shift, you can technically get paid that same day," Siddiqi said, "which is the approach we've taken at Branch."
Branch Messenger is an app for employers and their hourly employees. Siddiqi says, in addition to same-day pay, Branch allows for more flexible scheduling.
"If you think about this in the context of how it was done before, you're hired for a home store, only allowed to pick up shifts in that store," he said. "Now, you can pick up shifts across the company, say, if there's another location five miles down the road."
Big companies use Branch, including McDonald's, Starbucks, Target, and Best Buy.
There is a free version of the app for employees. It’s downloadable through the app store.