Foot Locker, Inc., has announced that it successfully completed a pilot of the PeopleAnswers HR solution in 600 of its stores. In advance of the upcoming peak hiring season, the chain plans to implement the software in all 2,500 stores across the U.S., including Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, Kids Foot Locker, Champs Sports and Footaction.

Foot Locker will use the pre-employment screening and employee selection software to create a consistent, automated process to help store managers improve the quality of hiring decisions, employee retention, productivity and customer service. In addition, Foot Locker will use the, web-based PeopleAnswers assessment tool to pre-screen job candidates who share many of the same behaviors. The PeopleAnswers solution is integrated with the Foot Locker applicant tracking system to assist in the employee recruiting process, and includes a guide for interview content and employee development.

The collection and application of Big Data is significantly impacting IT spending and retail strategies. Gartner predicts that Big Data will drive $34 billion of IT spending in 2013. On the heels of that announcement, RetailNext announced that the company reached its own milestone by collecting more than 75 petabytes of raw data each year.

Retailers are using insights collected from Big Data to optimize staffing, improve store layouts and increase same-store sales. Recently, American Apparel boosted same-store sales more than 30% and reduced theft by one seventh, RetailNext reported in a press release.