Seasonal or part-time hiring can help you and your employees navigate the increased workload of the holidays or other busy periods in your industry. The following tips can help you with your temporary, part-time, or seasonal hiring needs:
Be clear with expectations
Although temporary or seasonal staff are members of your team for a short duration, their time on the job is vital to your business’ success. In order to find the right people ready and eager to support your staff, you must start with a clear, comprehensive job description.
Indeed.com suggests creating a job description that includes the terms “seasonal” or “temporary” so applicants understand the position’s limitations. You’ll also want to include the start and end dates, benefits, discounts, or perks seasonal employees will earn. Outline the skills necessary for the job as well as the available positions.
Get the word out
You want to reach as many candidates as possible to fulfill your staffing needs, especially if you’re in a time crunch. According to The Balance writer Alison Doyle, job seekers will often turn to online job boards such as Getwork, Indeed, SimplyHired, VagaJobs, and CoolWorks, which allow them to search for seasonal work. If you want to reach these workers, you should upload your job listings to these or other job search engines, she adds.
Outsource the applicant search
In order to maximize your seasonal hiring search without adding more to your plate, you can seek assistance from a reputable recruiting or staffing agency, or a company that specializes in hiring temporary employees. You can draft the job description independently or work with your chosen agency to complete the description, and the agency can sift through its resume database of job seekers and help you connect with potential candidates.
“Even with a seasonal contractor, you need to have a strong sense of the specific duties and responsibilities of the job you’re staffing. If you’re working with a staffing agency, inform the recruiter of the time frame and key expectations, and make sure they are communicated to job candidates during the interview,” advises Robert Half.
Plan ahead
Often, by the time you realize you need seasonal or temporary help, you are working on borrowed time. It is essential to plan ahead when it comes to seasonal hiring. Starting early will allow you to receive more resumes and give you a bigger candidate pool to choose from so you can find the right fit for your business, according to Indeed.com.
Prep for the interviews
Potential candidates aren’t the only ones that need to prep for a job interview. If you want to hire the best candidate to fulfill your seasonal positions, you need to prep for the interviews as well. Go beyond basic interview questions and be sure to pay attention to how the candidates may or may not fit in with the other members of your team and your company culture, advises Indeed.com.
Hiring staff to help you weather a busy season, handle increased workloads, or supplement your current full-time staff will help your business continue its upward trajectory of success.