Many companies need extra help during the holiday season. Here in Portland, OR, chimney sweeps, roofing companies, and retail stores all usually need to hire extra hands throughout the chillier season. Hiring temporary employees for the holidays has its own set of challenges. They need to be able to run with a steep learning curve, heavy customer contact, and the same amount of management a regular employee would need. This can all create a strain on your business management team – and on your year-round staff.
Here at Business Success Consulting Group, we want your holiday hiring to be a smooth and manageable process. Here are seven tips to help you and your HR team hire an excellent set of temporary employees:
1. Lay out your hiring plan.
Before you begin your search, take a good hard look at your needs. How many employees do you need to hire? Will you need to elevate existing staff to train and manage these additional employees? What positions will the temporary staff fill? If you have hired temporary employees previously, consider what went right and what went wrong during that hiring process.
2. Start your search now.
‘Tis the season to start your holiday temporary employee search. There are many ways to begin this hunt. You can reach out to former temporary employees that were a good fit with your company. You can post detailed job listings on sites like Monster or Craigslist. Sometimes, a simple “help wanted” note in a window or on a social media page will provide you with a flood of applicants.
3. Just because they are temps doesn’t mean their hiring process should differ from the usual.
Even though your interviewee will be with your company for only two or three months, he or she should get the same scrutiny you would give a full-time employee. Be sure to check references, gauge their response to questions and generally ensure they are a good fit for your company. After all, while they work for you, they will be representing your business.
4. Hire someone that will mesh with your team and company culture.
Your potential new employee will be working alongside your existing team, so make sure they are a good fit for your company. Who knows, you may grow your business enough over the holidays that you can keep them on as a year-round employee!
5. Make sure they have the right personality for the job.
Many holiday work requires a cheerful personality, the ability to listen to holiday music for hours, and the capacity to deal with harried customers. Ask your potential employee questions regarding how they would handle specific situations that often happen in your business around the holidays.
6. Get management ready for new employees.
New hires need more supervision and will ask more questions than your existing employees. Be sure your managers are available to work with, train, and help new workers throughout the holiday season. As we said in step one, it may be that the sheer number of new employees would be overwhelming to your existing management staff. Talk to your year-round staff in advance if you will elevating them to a management position temporarily, over the holiday season.
7. Set up your training in advance.
One way to make things easy on your management team is to provide a thorough job description, information on company policies and product training materials to all new hires. Once they have gone through this information, it should be simpler for your management team to train them, and their transition from green employee to skilled worker will be smoother.
Seasonal hiring can be difficult, but it is often worth the extra time and energy. If you are at a loss on how to hire for your seasonal staff, contact us today. We provide human resources consultation.
