Leading women's retailer seeks recruiting edge

Kristin Oliver, wooed to Chico’s after more than a decade climbing the executive tree at Wal-Mart, is somewhat of an anomaly at the giant women’s retailer in terms of recruiting new people: The Oklahoma native had little Florida blood before joining the firm in May 2016, when she was named an executive vice president and chief human resources officer.

Oliver, instead, followed one of her mentors, Shelley Broader, a former Wal-Mart executive named CEO of Chico’s in late 2015.

Yet being from Florida, or at least having grandparents here, vacationed here or some other affinity for the state, is a key recruiting strategy for the company. The six-person, in-house recruiting team at Chico’s scours LinkedIn and other job sites for Sunshine State vibes. “We try to find people who have a connection to Florida,” Oliver says, “and get them to come back to here.”