Tips For Hiring Seasonal Employees
 By Stephen A. Lanvil

From retailers and landscapers to businesses that cater to visitors during a tourist season, many small-business owners face the challenge of hiring temporary employees for heavy seasonal workloads.

Seasonal peaks usually require hiring short-term temporary and part-time employees to supplement the regular workforce.

However, the processes of hiring, training and managing temporary employees are different than they are for regular, full-time staff. Following are some tips to hiring and managing seasonal help.

How Much Help?
The first step is determining how much help you’ll need.

Start by looking back at last year’s peak period. Did you have enough full- and part-time employees to manage the work?

Then project your sales for your upcoming season.

If you feel your staff was overworked last season, and you anticipate even more sales this year, you might decide that adding the equivalent of two more full-time employees – or four part-time workers – is what you need to do.

Where To Find Seasonal Help
Next, decide how you will find these employees: on your own or using a temporary agency.

Using an agency will generally give you more flexibility. Employees can be supplied by the agency to meet fluctuating demand, literally on a week-to-week basis, and you can request replacements for any employees you’re not satisfied with.

Agencies also have access to a vast talent pool. Plus, they handle all recruiting, interviewing and background checks. For these benefits, expect to pay the agency around 20 percent of each employee’s wage.

If you want to save the agency fee and recruit seasonal employees yourself, you’ll face two major tasks: finding the employees and hiring them.

Sources of potential seasonal employees include:

• Classified ads
• Online job sites
• Job boards at senior citizen centers and local colleges or high schools
• Referrals from current employees and other business owners

If you hire the employees yourself rather than going through a staffing agency, you’ll also have to handle background and reference checks. And the AFS can help.

As an AFS member, you have access to employee background screening services through e-Check Online. Screening services include:

• Criminal history
• Motor vehicle report
• Social Security verification report
• And more

AFS members receive up to 50 percent off traditional market prices on pre-employment background screening services – with no contracts or startup fees.

Orientation and Training
Once you’ve hired seasonal employees, your next challenge is to train and assimilate them into your workforce as quickly as possible.

Some business owners think they don’t have to devote the same level of training to temps as they do to regular employees. Big mistake.

Although seasonal helpers may only work for you for a short time, their performance is no less important to your company’s success.

Start by creating a detailed job description for each temporary seasonal position, just like you do for full-time positions, and be sure to define the job’s duration.

Conduct a thorough orientation program for temps that explains your company’s policies and procedures. Train them thoroughly so they’re prepared to do their jobs properly on day one.

Making poor temporary seasonal hires and/or managing them poorly can be costly to your company in terms of wasted time, lost money and damaged reputation.

In retail, for example, temps may be on the front line, dealing directly with your customers, in which case they are the public face of your company.

Having to replace seasonal employees who don’t pan out will cost you both money and valuable time you may not be able to afford to lose. You might consider offering a season-end bonus to encourage temps to stay for the duration of their term.

By following these guidelines, you’ll give your temporary seasonal employees the best chance to achieve success – both for themselves and your company.

(Posted November 2007)

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