How To Find Seasonal Workers And Get Them Trained Quickly

Many businesses have busy seasons where they need a little – or a lot – of extra help to keep up with consumer demands. 

For the majority of companies, October through early January is the most fast paced time of the year. 

It’s understandable that many businesses find that their regular staff cannot keep up with the ramped up pace of holiday shopping, increased customer service needs, or the multitude of holiday bookings.

Seasonal workers have long been a great solution for employers in this predicament. 

If you’ve never hired a seasonal worker for your company before, read on to discover our best tips for finding and training seasonal staff. 

Where To Look

While the hiring process for seasonal employees is similar to the hiring of regular positions, there are a few considerations to keep in mind if you want to find quality people in a timely manner. 

Start Early

Place a specific ad for seasonal work earlier than you think you should. 

Ideally, you should be doing interviews for your seasonal position a few months before you need the hire to start.

If you wait too long, and end up having to scramble at the last minute to find a good fit, it will be much harder to find a quality seasonal employee. 

Consider Your Best Customers

Chances are, you may have some regular customers that would be a great fit for seasonal employment. 

Hiring Monster says, “Although often overlooked, enticing your own customers to become employees can be a fantastic source of seasonal workers. 

They will most likely have some knowledge of your brand and products and will be excited to talk about them. 

This is also a fairly easy audience to reach since you can openly advertise in your establishment (whether that is online and/or offline) and you can speak directly to them. 

An effective strategy could be to advertise your policy to offer employee discounts on your merchandise, which is especially attractive during the holiday season. “

Contact A Staffing Agency

One of the most effective ways to find competent seasonal staff quickly is to work with a reputable staffing agency, like Infinity.

According to Celarity, 

“Staffing agencies benefit businesses by saving them:

• Time by reviewing hundreds of resumes, qualifying candidates, performing background checks, etc.

• Money by completing the work the client would have had to pay an in-house employee to perform. They also execute it in less time and with better results.

• From the hassles of handling contractor payroll taxes, workers comp, and unemployment benefits.

• From competing tasks that in-house hiring managers face on a daily basis. Using a specialized staffing agency generates better candidates and placements for your team.”

How To Onboard Efficiently

Onboarding any new employee can be a daunting task – to you, your staff, and the new hire. 

But because of the nature of seasonal employment, many employers feel the stress to get their new staff up to speed quickly even more than they normally would. 

And as a result, the new staff can often feel pressured, overwhelmed, and like they are lacking the tools they need to perform their best. 

Talent LMS says, “To be productive, seasonal staff also need to be on-boarded and trained well – just like your regular employees. 

The biggest challenge is that the timetable is short and deployment needs to be immediate. 

You, therefore, need to have a new hire onboarding program that’s more adapted to a shorter agenda with a faster speed-to-competency. 

You need to get your temps ready to adapt to the demands of the holiday season as soon as possible.”

Before your hires officially start, it’s a good idea to have a clear plan of action for their onboarding process.

You want your seasonal hires to have all of the information they need to complete their jobs, but you also don’t want to overwhelm them with too much information at once…or even give them training that’s not helpful or relevant to their job. 

Providing clear training that you have thoughtfully laid out to your temporary help up front will help them feel supported. 

The time you take with them initially will also help them to feel like a member of the team as they adjust to their new role. This onboarding process will ensure that they are performing better faster. 

Another good tactic for making sure your seasonal help has the support they need to do their job effectively is to give them a training partner. 

As an employer it’s likely that you can’t be everywhere at once. But by assigning a trusted employee to each new seasonal member of your team, you will be able to provide  your new hires with plenty of guidance as they learn the ins and outs of their new position. 

And who knows – in a few months maybe business is still booming, and you will find yourself needing to keep some extra staff. In this case, you will be glad that you took the time to onboard your seasonal help thoroughly. 

If you’d like help hiring seasonal help for your company, contact Infinity Staff today!