Delano Herald Journal

Serving the communities of Delano, Loretto, Montrose, MN, and the surrounding area

Ivan Raconteur Column – 10/10/19



This week I heard about one of the more extreme measures I have encountered for attracting employees.

The company, Mankato-based Fun.com, the largest online seller of Halloween costumes, found itself in need of 2,000 seasonal employees. To get people talking about it, the company decided to enter the seasonal employees in a drawing to win a new car. The winner of the Honda Fit will be drawn in a raffle in November.

Companies have used staff discounts, higher wages, and bonuses as incentives for years, but this is something new.

It rather makes human resources look like a bit of a game show.

Come to work for us, and you may be a winner. You have a chance to win the fabulous prize behind curtain number one. You could also end up with nothing except a regular boring job.

There have been times throughout history when people were happy to have a job – any job. Now, it seems, they have to be tricked into applying for a job.

The raffle idea shows creativity on the part of the company, and it has obviously achieved its objective.

However, while gimmicks like raffling off a car might be effective for companies that need people only for a relatively short period of time, what about companies that are hoping to keep employees for more than a couple months?

Minnesota’s 3.3 percent unemployment rate means that all companies will need to re-evaluate their recruitment and retention strategies.

I suspect most companies would not be able to afford to raffle off a car or other big-ticket item every quarter, but there must be things we can do to keep good people on board.

A constant cycle of recruiting and training, only to have employees leave after a couple months, is not good for employers or customers.

I suspect there aren’t any easy answers.

However, the sound of highly-incentivized seasonal work is intriguing. If I could just figure out a way to get by on no sleep at all, I might be able to find some interesting opportunities to earn extra income.





































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