We can't get the staff

Swindon's economic success means low unemployment and casual labour is not in plentiful supply. Now shops have had to accept that simply waiting for applicants to walk through the door is no longer realistic.

Marks and Spencer is among stores in Swindon experiencing problems. It wanted to fill 72 vacancies to deal with the Christmas rush 23 are still left to fill.

Customer Service Manager Leigh Brown said: "We have been quite successful in recruiting but that is only because we have had to adopt a very aggressive marketing strategy. Information has been printed on till receipts and boards have been put up in the store."

The company has also attended numerous job fairs and college recruitment events.

Mrs Brown said the majority of vacancies remaining to be filled were for early morning or evening slots.

She said the new aggressive approach was paying off as recruitment was proving slightly easier than in the corresponding period last year.

Woolworths is another company finding Christmas recruitment is no longer a simple task.

Leanne Fletcher is the personnel team leader of the Swindon branch in Regent Street.

"It is definitely a problem we have experienced. We started our Christmas recruitment campaign back in July. We have now filled about 60 to 70 per cent of our vacancies," she said.

The store has had to adopt a more informal approach to recruiting.

Would-be applicants have attended events titled Store Challenge. Those seeking work are asked to mingle with customers to seek opinions, while staff can observe how the applicants relate to shoppers.

Miss Fletcher said that although some vacancies still need to be filled, this fresh recruiting approach had paid dividends.

Christmas is a hectic period for staff at Burger King in Swindon, with hungry shoppers looking to fill up before another assault on the town centre stores.

Graham Clynes and Ian James are the manager and assistant manager respectively.

Mr Clynes said: "We are quite well staffed but we would welcome that extra help over Christmas."

Mr James said about 40 per cent of festive vacancies remained to be filled.

"As well as posters advertising jobs we have had leaflets on the table providing information about vacancies," he said.

The company started its recruitment campaign about a month ago.

Teresa Goodwin is the personnel and training manager for the Swindon branch of Debenhams.

She said low unemployment meant the company had had to adopt a more flexible approach to festive recruitment.

"This is generic in Swindon. I believe the latest unemployment figure is something like 1.7 per cent," she said.

Ms Goodwin said companies were finding it necessary to fit in around employees rather than the other way round, as had been the case in the past.

"The days of expecting people to just fit in are gone. We have to try and be family-friendly wherever possible," she said.

The company is also looking to fill Christmas vacancies via job spots in the store and through tannoy announcements.

It is also about to launch a major recruitment drive on radio.

Another store still waiting to fill its Christmas vacancies is C&A.

Lynda Johnson, store supervisor, said opportunities were still available during the festive period. She said it had been more difficult to fill the slots than it had last year.

Bhs has also had to adopt a more flexible approach to avoid Christmas recruitment problems. Guy Henderson, manager of the Swindon branch, said it was more a question of tackling the increasing number of tasks which Christmas presented.

Extra staff have been recruited to work the early evening shift and replace stock snapped up by customers during normal working hours.

Richard Sharpe, of Swindon Town Centre Management, said: "I think there are two points that have to be accounted for when looking at casual work in the town centre.

"We are fortunate to have a low unemployment rate in Swindon, but this has the added effect of decreasing the numbers of people looking for casual work.

"The other thing to be considered is that people don't travel far for casual jobs.

"Christmas will be difficult as people tend to work part time as close to their home towns as possible as travelling is specifically difficult over the festive period.

"This problem of staff will only get worse over the next few years."

Shops and bars are facing a nightmare before Christmas if more staff are not found in time.

With casual workers now getting jobs in the telesales industry, town centre retailers have become the victims of Swindon's high employment rate success.

According to the latest figures, there were 429 vacancies for retail jobs in Swindon in July this year, compared with 300 last year.

And this figure is expected to shoot up further in the next few weeks, as shops need more staff to deal with the Christmas rush.

With low unemployment in the town, there are not enough people for the jobs needed, and the existing casual workers are going for the better paid call centre jobs.

Julie Leigh, business manager at Swindon Job Centre, said: "We do have more vacancies than we can fill at the moment in the retail, restaurant and bar market.

"It is because of the low rate of unemployment, there are just not enough people out there who want these sorts of jobs.

"When people are working part time, they would prefer to work for the higher paid tele marketing jobs, which pay about £2 more an hour than jobs at the lower end of the market in the retail sector.

"We endeavour to help employers and we have got a lot of initiatives in progress."

The Job Centre has held various open days throughout the year to try and entice staff into the retail industry and there is even a plan to open a smaller Job Centre at the designer outlet village to catch passing trade.

Ms Leigh said: "One of the problems is that people don't usually travel far for part time or lower paid work, so if the town itself does not have the people needing jobs, it becomes a problem.

"There will be a lot of jobs needed this Christmas, and a lot of places might find it difficult to cope with the lack of casual staff."