Hiring Seasonal Employees: Tips You Need to Keep in Mind
The pace at which employees are recruited and hired is not always consistent throughout the year. Numerous details and factors can affect how and why you go about attracting and selecting candidates.
For instance, if you were filling a very important position at your organization, such as CEO, you might seek outside help to ensure you find the ideal candidate for your needs. Coordinating with an executive search firm would ensure you were leveraging all necessary resources to find a CEO who will help your company thrive.
However, there may also be instances when the positions you’re filling require less experience. While you may not need to enlist outside help from an executive search firm in these situations, it’s still important to keep certain tips in mind when planning your hiring processes. There’s likely always room to improve upon your current approach.
Consider the example of seasonal hiring. Depending on the nature of your organization, there might be times of year when you need to hire a few extra employees to work for you on a temporary basis. Keep the following points in mind during these periods. They’ll help you attract seasonal workers you can depend on.
Be Prepared to Highlight the Long-Term Benefits of Seasonal Work
You probably don’t need to be told that conveying the benefits of a particular position to job candidates is important when hiring anyone. Candidates need a clear reason to accept a job with your company instead of a competitor.
That said, this component of the hiring process may be even more essential when you are recruiting seasonal talent. Knowing a job will end sooner rather than later (and likely doesn’t pay as much as positions that offer growth potential) may not be appealing to every job-seeker.
Luckily, there are ways you can help candidates appreciate the value of seasonal work. After all, it’s often the case that people filling seasonal positions don’t have substantial work experience. You can thus explain how taking on a seasonal job at your company will provide candidates the opportunity to learn and develop their skills in a low-stakes situation.
If your company also considers former seasonal workers when filling full-time positions later on, you might want to point that out as well. While it’s important that you not promise candidates they will be considered for full-time jobs in the future, if this is a practice your organization regularly engages in, it’s certainly worth mentioning.
Market to Your Customer Base
You need to consider certain practical realities when hiring seasonal workers. For example, when filling seasonal roles, companies often don’t have as much time to train and cultivate employees. They need people who can perform well in their jobs without substantial supervision.
This is somewhat counterintuitive because many seasonal workers lack the experience of industry veterans. Finding people with enough experience to fill these roles without undergoing major training may seem difficult.
It doesn’t have to be. Companies often successfully find strong seasonal workers by recruiting their own loyal customers. Customers who are loyal to a given brand typically understand not only the brand itself, but to a degree, the industry as well.
Remember this when planning your job marketing strategy. Your goal is to reach your current customer base when advertising seasonal positions. You may achieve this goal by marketing these jobs via your brick-and-mortar locations, email newsletters, social media accounts, and anywhere else your customers tend to engage with your brand. Of course, if you offer benefits that would appeal to your customers, such as employee discounts, be sure to highlight them.
Make Sure the Employee Experience is Optimal
There are many ways you can make the process of hiring seasonal workers much easier for yourself. One is to simply ensure all managers are striving to provide seasonal employees with positive experiences.
Some companies make the mistake of treating seasonal workers as interchangeable. Obviously, this harms their employer brand and reputation. Additionally, it deprives them of the opportunity to rehire old seasonal employees every year.
Anyone who works in hiring and recruiting knows finding ways to save time is essential. Quite simply, the more time you spend hiring candidates, the more money you’ll spend as well. Devoting a substantial amount of time to hiring seasonal employees also prevents you from focusing on other tasks. Fortunately, if you provide temporary workers with positive experiences, they may be inclined to fill those positions year after year. This reduces the amount of time you need to spend finding new talent.
As always, planning is also crucial when hiring seasonal workers. You need to forecast future needs to get a head start. If you do so, and you remember these tips, filling seasonal positions will be much easier than you might expect.
