Tips to Help You Manage Seasonal Hires

The holidays have arrived, which means that millions of people will soon be piling into brick-and-mortar stores, while at the same time millions more will push online networks to the brink of their capabilities. No matter how big or how small your business may be, we bet you’re doing something to take advantage of the situation.

With this added influx of customers, there’s a very good chance that you’ll need some extra help to take on the workload over the holidays. If that’s the case, here are some tips to help you manage your seasonal employees through this often chaotic (yet wonderful) time of the year:

Start the Hiring Process Early

If you want the holiday season to go smoothly, you should definitely begin the process of finding seasonal employees sooner rather than later. This will give you more time to find just the right employees that you can count on, plus it gives you ample time to run proper background checks to ensure the best team of workers and to help keep everyone safe and sound.

Run Thorough Background Checks

Proper background checks are highly important no matter what time of year it is, but you should take special care during the holiday season because of the increased volume of customers. Just because you’re in need of workers who are likely not going to be around for very long doesn’t mean that you should skimp on checking criminal records, background verification, and other such information.

Provide Proper Training

It’s a lot easier to manage your seasonal employees if all of them have been properly trained. Things can get out of hand quite quickly when new hires are forced to learn things along the way or are constantly interrupting the workday to learn a procedure that should have been covered before they began working. You should train your seasonal staff in a similar fashion to how you would train an employee that you hire for a full-time position.

Treat Them as Part of the Team

Very often, seasonal employees feel as if they don’t truly belong at the company since they were hired at a time when you simply needed extra help. This can hurt morale and keep them from performing effectively. Even if they will only be around for a few weeks or a couple of months, be sure that each seasonal worker is being treated just as you would treat a permanent one.

Consider Them for Permanent Positions

Some companies use seasonal hiring as a way to find permanent employees for various positions. If there’s a chance that some of the seasonal employees could become permanent workers either directly after the holiday or at a later date, be sure to inform them of that possibility. Not only will this serve as a great motivator for these workers, but you might also just find some of the best employees for your company when you least expect it.

Don’t Take Advantage of Them

You will quickly lose control of your seasonal employees if you decide that the best course of action is to take advantage of them during the holiday. If you end up using them to finally complete some tasks that you or your regular employees have been putting off for months, then you can expect to be dealing with an unruly group of seasonal workers.

We hope these tips improve your ability to manage your seasonal hires. If you’d like to learn more about this subject or about the importance of conducting proper background searches when recruiting new workers, give the experts at NationSearch a call or visit our website.