MightyRecruiter11 Approaches to Make Seasonal Hiring Easier
If you operate within an industry that experiences regular ebbs and flows, then the task of bringing on a seasonal staff is nothing new to you. Yet it’s been shown that even past experience doesn’t make seasonal hiring any easier. A number of different factors serve to murk up the waters when it comes to non-regular employee hires. High turnover, undefined expectations, poor training, and a lack of qualified candidates are just a few. However, that’s not to say that maintaining an effective and efficient seasonal staff cannot be done. It’s just takes a little bit of extra effort on your part.
Careerbuilder.com estimated that as recently as 2014, one in four U.S. employers had plans to bring on seasonal staff. Therefore, you shouldn’t assume that you’re alone in your struggle to maintain optimal performance while relying on seasonal hires. In fact, the high number of American companies that utilize seasonal could be seen as a benefit. It means that you have plenty of examples to follow when determining what will and will not make seasonal hiring easier.
Tips for Managing Temporary Hires
With this in mind, consider the following tips specifically developed to make seasonal hiring easier:
-Employ screening tools with large groups of seasonal hires: Administering a screening assessment prior to interviewing seasonal applicants will help to identify those most capable of meeting your needs. If you have to bring on a large number of temporary staff, this may be the best way to segment your candidates.
-Offer priority status to repeat hires: One of the greatest challenges in working with seasonal employees is not having adequate time to build trust with them. By guaranteeing that good season workers can have their spots back automatically if they return allows you to build good working relationship with them over time.
-Look for reliable sources of seasonal workers: There are candidate populations out there who are only exclusively looking for season work. These can include students, retirees, and stay-at-home moms. Tapping into one of these applicant pools ensures you a steady stream of labor.
-Work with the same staffing agency from year-to-year: If you rely on a staffing service to supply your seasonal workforce, choose to work with exclusively. Over time, it will become more familiar with your policies and practices, and thus better prepare its employees to abide by them.
-Maintain the same human resource standards for season employees: You may think that making policy exceptions for temporary employees might make seasonal hiring easier. However that can often lead to resentment from your full-time staff. Make sure that all employees are expected to follow the same labor and conduct standards.
-Do not bypass or fast-track training: It’s easy to justify dedicating fewer resources to seasonal employee training given that most of these hires won’t be with you over the long-term. Yet failing to train temporary workers properly can lead to a dip in your performance and your customer’s satisfaction.
-Focus on employee aptitude: Temporary employees are brought in to fill an immediate need. Thus, who you hire has to be able to get up to speed quickly. During the hiring process, look for candidates that demonstrate themselves to be fast learners.
-Incentivize employees to stay on the entire season: Many doing seasonal work are concurrently in the hunt for full-time employment. The leaving for another job would once again leave you understaffed. You can mitigate the potential of this happening by offering an incentive to those who stay for as long as you need them.
-Do not think that high unemployment rates will yield more seasonal workers: Focus your search efforts elsewhere than on the unemployed. Some may fear returning to work may affect their unemployment benefits.
-Clearly set your job expectations: Many come into seasonal employment opportunities hoping that such work will lead to a full-time position. You, however, may not have any interest in that or openings to accommodate them. Therefore, you should establish right up front that season work does not guarantee permanent job placement.
-Consider bringing strong seasonal employees on full-time: Even though the expectation should be that seasonal employees are not guaranteed permanent positions, you shouldn’t be afraid to approach those who perform well about possibly working for you full-time. Simply having that prospect out there may make seasonal hiring easier.
Your consistent need for a seasonal staff will continue to present challenges for you and your organization. Those, however, can be dealt with effectively provided that you know all of the tips and tricks needed to make seasonal hiring easier. The informative resources and tools offered through Mighty Recruiter can provide those to you. Allow them to help cast your seasonal employee struggles to firmly to the wayside.