MightyRecruiterIf you run a retail store, then you are likely going to need some additional help once the holiday season comes around. There are certain considerations to keep in mind when you are looking to hire for holiday jobs. These employees may only work for you for a month or two, but you can get the most out of their time by following a few simples rules. By hiring the best workers around, everyone working for you will have a much merrier season.
Treat a Seasonal Hire as a Year-Round Hire
One big mistake that a lot of employers tend to make is to reduce their job requirement for seasonal hires because that person is not going to be around for very long anyway. However, you need to bear in mind that you are still running a business, and you are still building a reputation among your customer base. Therefore, you still want to be certain that when you hire for holiday jobs that you are still getting people who are skilled, dedicated and professional. You should treat the application and interview process as if you were bringing someone on full-time. This includes contacting references and discussing salary requirement before you make an offer.
Look for Holiday Hires in Your Own Network
You can post job openings online and post bulletins at schools, but one of the best ways to find workers for the holiday season is to find customers or clients you are already familiar with. Post a job opening sign in your business’s window in order to attract customers who visit your store regularly. You should also meet with your employees to tell them that they should encourage friends, classmates or associates to apply. A referral program can make this process much more successful.
Start Looking for New Hires Early
The crazy holiday shopping season tends to begin around Thanksgiving and can go well into the New Year. Many employers hire for holiday jobs starting in late November, but by that time, many people looking for seasonal work have already found something. Things at your business may have already gotten crazy, and having to interview job applicants and starting to train them can add stress to an already stressful time. Start looking for a potential candidate in October so that you have plenty of time to interview and train before the shopping season really kicks in.
You Still Need to Train New Employees
A bad practice many employers do is not properly train their new seasonal employees. Training is a time commitment that many employers avoid because they do not believe that it is worth it to train someone who will only be working with the company for a couple months. On the contrary, there are great advantages to be gained by properly training every single worker. Without the proper resources, seasonal hires may become frustrated at their responsibilities, and this frustration can lead to your customers getting irked as well. Your customers will remember a bad experience long after Christmas has come and went, so maintain your customer base by giving every worker the tools needed to succeed.
Do Not Let Anyone Become Burned Out
During the holiday season, you may extend store hours or have extra employees working in order to compensate for the increase in foot traffic. When you hire for holiday jobs, you need to take into consideration that your new workers may not be used to working this long or have an excessive amount of responsibilities. Make sure you have one of your year-round employees working at all times so that someone is around who can answer questions and take care of any issues that come up. You should also be mindful of scheduling. Try to avoid making someone work a late night shift that is directly followed by an early morning shift the next day. Make sure everyone gets a break and is allowed to relax every so often.
End of the Holidays
Once the end of the holidays comes around and you no longer require such a large staff, you can let your seasonal employees go. It can be advantageous to meet with every worker to discuss how you think they did. You can tell them that you would be willing to be a reference for future positions they apply for. It can also be a good idea to keep their information on file in case a permanent position comes up in the future. You never know when a hire for holiday jobs will prove to be so good you want to keep them around all the time. For more resources on how to manage a business all year long, look through everything else Mighty Recruiter has available.