ATLANTA –Home Depot plans to launch a partnership Tuesday with four national Hispanicorganizations to help recruit potential employees, especially those who speakboth English and Spanish.
Industryobservers say the move _ like the company’s previous hiring partnerships withsenior citizen and military groups _ will help Home Depot tap into a valuablecustomer niche. By 2008, the company says, Hispanics are expected to haveroughly $1 trillion in annual purchasing power.
“Matchingthe profile of your associate work force with the profile of your targeted orexisting customer is always been a practice that has helped retailers enhancethe store experience,” said Michael Brown, a retail specialist at consultingfirm Kurt Salmon Associates.
Atlanta-basedHome Depot, with 1,890 stores and 325,000 employees, has not said how manyHispanics it plans to hire, nor would it release a racial or ethnic breakdownof its current work force.
InterestedHispanic applicants can complete an online application at any store, visit thecompany’s Web site or go to an office of one of the partner organizations:ASPIRA Association, Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, NationalCouncil of La Raza and SER-Jobs for Progress National.
Home Depotrival Lowe’s, based in Mooresville, N.C., doens’t have any formal hiringpartnerships with the Hispanic community.
But the1,075-store chain has tried to boost the number of Hispanic employees at storesin parts of South Florida, Texas and California that are predominantlyHispanic.
“There iscertainly a business advantage to having a work force that reflects thecommunity,” said Lowe’s spokeswoman Chris Ahearn.
HomeDepot’s drive to hire Hispanics is an extension of previous efforts to hiremilitary veterans and senior citizens. Those included partnerships with thefederal Defense and Veterans Affairs departments, and the AARP, which workedwith the chain on a test project to mark products with a seal of approval forthose 50 and older.
While thecompany would not release figures, it said those initiatives have helped itsbusiness efficiency and sales.
“Saleshave increased substantially over the four years that we’ve really been at alot of these things,” said Dennis Donovan, Home Depot’s executive vicepresident of human resources. “The performance information that we have is verypositive. So, I don’t think it’s a big step to say there is some correlationhere.”
