3 Healthy Habits for Seasonal Hiring & to Relieve HR from Peak Season Pressures

Seasonal hiring is an unusual challenge that most companies face during the year. Employers have to hire seasonal employees for a myriad of niche positions such as the ski industry, summer camp, amusement and theme parks, tax preparation, tree trimming, outdoor jobs, guide services, restaurant, and the whole list goes on. The dilemma is that employers need to hire enough quality workers in a short period of time for them to be able to sustain the ebbs and flows of seasonal demand. The race against time can cause employers to scramble or panic, especially when demand projections fluctuate unexpectedly.

Since hiring to meet demand last minute can cause stress, it’s most important for employers to understand that seasonal hiring is as important a process as the normal hiring and onboarding process. Steps to screen, select, hire, and onboard seasonal workers should not be skipped to avoid potential issues in performance, business reputation, or even meeting requirements of employment laws. Feeling the pressure to hire for seasonal workers is a strong indicator to outsource and use a professional hiring firm, like ours. They already have the time and resources available, can meet the hiring steps required, and are your best bet to avoid those potential issues we talked about. However, if decide to hire seasonal workers last minute yourself our experts suggest that you consider these important factors to have the most impactful and seamless season possible:

Convey Job Expectations Early
Don’t Skimp on Training
Attitude Matters

Convey Job Expectations Early

It’s easy for a business to focus on the number of seasonal hires needed to meet the demands of their season and forget to spend time conveying the expectations of the job as well as the business culture. Remember, seasonal employees are first and foremost your employee! Their performance reflects your business, and they cannot perform if the expectations are clearly outlined for them from the start. Our firm makes it a priority to ensure clear expectations are delivered for every employee hired for seasonal hiring. Every seasonal hire will be provided an orientation package upon hire, prior to onboarding and training. Our staffing management and experts work closely with our clients to ensure the orientation package is relevant to the position and includes all pertinent information, including specific job duties, scheduling, and more – leave no detail left out. HR should meet with every hire, including seasonal workers, to answer any questions the new hire may have regarding their new role.

Don't Skimp on Training

Another issue with seasonal workers is that they may not receive the same training when they’re hired as they would when working full-time. They may not always receive the same training hours. Some don’t even get any training at all. This is a huge issue. Imagine the number of hours your full-time employees received (normally weeks of training), to learn their role and responsibilities. Although seasonal employees are only needed for a period, their performance should meet the level of your full-time workers who normally perform the same services for your customers. Reasons being, are to ensure the customer experience of the service your business is providing remains steady and positive. Your business reputation lives on after the season. Don’t allow your service ratings to drop due to a season, after working so hard all year long. Take the time to train seasonal staff.

Attitude Matters

Finally, hire based upon attitude. You should determine whether the potential employee has the skills you are looking for before you hire them, but attitude still matters. Seasonal workers generally bond with other seasonal workers, and it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch. Find those quality hires who contain the skill and the attitude to work for your business during this short period. In our expert opinion, quality employees can be found from working seasonal projects. In fact, some of our best full-time employees were hired from seasonal work after demonstrating the qualities that aligned with our culture and values. So, our last tip if you’re going to take on seasonal hiring last minute yourself, is to hire for attitude as well as skill – and remain open-minded. Stay open to the possibility that the initial need to hire seasonal could turn into a temporary-to-permanent placement for your company!