Just about every industry has a busy season—whether it’s during the holidays for retail shops, during the winter for snow removal companies, or during the summer for agricultural businesses.
Regardless of when your busy season starts, you know that it can make or break your profitability for the year. If you don’t have enough staff on hand to meet customer demand, you could be running around like a chicken with its head cut off, just trying to make due. Even if you have enough permanent employees on staff for the rest of the year, once your season comes, you know you’re going to need some extra hands. An excellent solution is hiring seasonal temp employees until the rush is over. These temporary employees can help you out when you most need it and then move on once they’re no longer needed.
Here are five tips for hiring seasonal temp employees so you can get the best temps when you need them.
1. Don’t Go It Alone
You might think that you have enough time for hiring seasonal temp employees on your own. However, you’re going to be bombarded by resumes. Think about it. There are already tons of people looking for work, and when you add on all the students home for the holiday break or the summer on top of that, you’ll have far too many applications to handle on your own. The time-consuming process of reviewing every single resume, weeding out the bad applicants, and interviewing the good ones will take you away from your other business responsibilities. Instead, engage a staffing agency to take over the task for you so you can get back to your other duties.
2. Plan Early
You won’t be the only company needing extra bodies and hiring seasonal temp employees during your busy season, and this is especially true around the holidays. If you know your business, you know ahead of time exactly when you’re going to need help. So don’t wait until the last minute. The earlier you seek out seasonal temp employees, the better quality they’re going to be and the less chance you’re going to have of being left empty handed. For your temporary staffing agency to work at its best abilities to find you the right workers, give two months’ notice so they can plan the search accordingly.
3. Train Ahead of Time
You shouldn’t be training on the job once your busy time hits. This will distract your permanent employees and risk mistakes being made. Because you’ve come up with a plan ahead of time, you now have the opportunity to train your seasonal temp employees before you really need them to hit the ground running. You want to ensure maximum productivity from the very first day of your busy season.
4. Create a Safe and Welcoming Environment
So hiring seasonal temp employees went off without a hitch. All is dandy, but wait, they’ve quit in the middle of the season! Once you’ve hired your temps, the last thing you want is for them to quit and leave you short-handed. To ensure they stay for the whole season, provide a welcoming and safe environment. Treat them with the respect that they deserve. Make them want to stay.
5. Give Them Credit
Ideally, once you’ve trained your temps, you want them to come back for your next busy season, and the one after that. By appreciating their hard work, giving them credit when it’s due, and rewarding their excellence, you can make a good impression so they’ll want to keep coming back.
