Dive Brief:

• Ahead of one of its busiest shopping periods, The Home Depot on Tuesday announced it plans to hire more than 100,000 workers for the spring season.
• The retailer is hiring for roles in both its stores and warehouses, including customer services and sales, store support, freight, merchandising and warehouse associates, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive. Through a new hiring process, the company said applicants could receive offers within one day of applying.
• Home Depot will host a virtual hiring event on Feb. 16 to connect jobseekers with the right role and provide information about career growth opportunities at the company.

Dive Insight:

While much of the industry went on a big hiring spree before the holidays, home improvement retailers are staffing up to prepare for their all-important spring season.

Home Depot, which typically hires around 80,000 workers during that period, is ramping up its efforts even further by adding about 20,000 more job openings and hosting its first-ever Virtual Spring Career Day.

The Feb. 16 event will feature a number of Home Depot leaders, including Crystal Hanlon, who began her career as a cashier at the retailer, but now leads its northern division stores as president.

"Jobseekers will find a values-based company that invests in them with our success sharing bonus program and gives them the opportunity to grow, similar to the approximately 90 percent of our store leaders who started as hourly associates," Eric Schelling, vice president of global talent acquisition, said in a statement. "[J]obseekers will also find upskilling programs that teach and expose them to new skills in other functions like software development, cyber security, data science, marketing, supply chain and finance."

Home Depot, like other retailers in the home improvement category, benefited during the pandemic as consumers took on more home-related projects to make the spaces they were spending much of their time in more comfortable. In its most recent quarter, Home Depot reported net sales increased nearly 10% year over year to $36.8 billion, while overall same-store sales rose 6.1% and U.S. comps increased 5.5%. Net income in the third quarter grew 20.3% to $4.1 billion.

The hiring initiative also comes just days after the retailer announced a leadership change. After about seven years at the helm, CEO Craig Menear is stepping down from that position, to be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Ted Decker, effective March 1. Menear will remain chairman of the board.