Summer is here and for some businesses the pressure may be rising with the temperature. Companies in travel, hospitality and other industries will be seeking to hire temporary staff to manage the upcoming seasonal peak in business, some even having to double their employee numbers.
Others may be having to recruit to replace other staff who are away over the summer period. Whichever the case, not only is their HR tasked with sourcing and hiring candidates, they also have to help quickly and effectively integrate these new employees into the business.
So, how can companies best recruit, develop and engage seasonal staff to get the most benefit for their business?
Search smartly
When booking a holiday, you want the best deal, making the most of online comparison sites to sift through providers and quickly find your perfect holiday at the cheapest price. Your search for great new employees needn’t be much different.
First, you need to consolidate recruitment processes into one central online system to help improve efficiency and reduce the administration that can occur with mass recruiting. Utilising automated processes to create hiring templates and automated emails to aid communication with candidates will further save time. Making these processes transparent and accessible also lets both hiring managers and HR easily track progress and keeps them accountable. The result: consistent recruiting standards across the organisation, for both temporary and permanent employees.
Pre-screening can be time-consuming when recruiting, especially when filling multiple roles simultaneously. Online recruitment tools can help sort candidates intelligently, filtering applicants so only those with the relevant qualifications and experience remain. Vetting CVs this way then grants more time for behavioural assessments and face-to-face interviews, ensuring your temporary hires are also a good cultural fit for your workplace.
Prepare properly
Just like a holiday checklist, you need to ensure that your business and seasonal staff are prepared. No one wishes to turn up for a beach holiday with no swimming gear, and the same idea applies for your new employees’ preparation.
The more that hiring is embedded into the rest of HR and the employee life cycle, the more effective it will be, particularly when it comes to temporary staff. The process of onboarding should begin long before a new employee walks through the office door. Learning should also be embedded into recruiting. Rolling out online learning courses to candidates gives future employees a way to familiarise themselves with the business, in terms of products and services as well as culture, before they start. This helps quickly integrate temporary staff into your business so they can hit the ground running.
Seasonal staff may only be with your company temporarily but they still need proper training, particularly when it comes to compliance – for some businesses this may even be a legal requirement. Your learning system needs to be able to track training, while also providing an engaging experience. Having a holistic learning platform with embedded features, such as an assignment learning tool, enables real-time progress tracking and ensures learning is tailored to each employee. Offering all training on mobile devices also provides your seasonal staff with the means to learn quickly – anytime, anywhere.
Have fun
We go on holiday to enjoy ourselves, but that does not mean the office needs to be all work and no play.
Ensuring that employees are engaged in the workplace is a huge challenge employers face, and it’s even tougher with temporary staff. If someone knows they are only working with you for a limited period of time, how can you keep them motivated?
One way is to inject a little fun into the workplace and your employees’ development. Using gamification, learning can be transformed from a boring ‘must-do’ into a fun activity employees want to complete. For many employees, gentle competition with their colleagues through this can also be a great motivator.
It is also important to make sure temporary employees feel appreciated. In the age of social media, we are all used to instant gratification from ‘likes’. The same principle can be applied to the workplace. You can introduce a recommendation system, awarding employees badges, for example, for achievements. Traditionally, employees would only expect to receive manager feedback, but this scheme allows colleagues to also offer feedback regularly. This creates a positive working environment where small, regular rewards help maintain motivation levels – it requires minimal investment but can have a real impact.
….and Relax
Your seasonal staff may only be temporary employees but they are just as important for your business. Both company and employee need to maximise this short amount of time – even temporary employees can have a real influence on your business success. Your HR processes and systems need to be as efficient and effective as possible, and technology can make a real difference to the recruitment, development and engagement of your seasonal employees.
By Matthieu Durif, Solution Consulting Director, EMEA Cornerstone OnDemand
