• Home > Blog > Small Business Success > How to Hire and Manage the Best Seasonal Employees

• By Jill Wyatt
• Oct 18, 2019
• 4 mins read

How to Hire and Manage the Best Seasonal Employees

With the holidays right around the corner, it’s time to think about how to hire and manage seasonal employees. There’s certainly a lot to keep in mind. But the challenge of hiring comes with real potential. The right seasonal hires can drive growth when you need it most.

When considering how to hire seasonal employees, you’ll need to assess a wide range of issues. These include:

•  Specific tactics for the holiday season.
•  Historic challenges in seasonal hiring.
•  Current budget and projected holiday revenues.
•  The ability to onboard and train new workers.

All of these issues have a huge influence on how to hire seasonal employees for your business. You need workers you can afford, trust, and equip to function effectively. With this in mind, here are a few specific tactics you can use to position yourself for success.

Get Started Quickly

An Indeed report pointed out that seasonal hiring is highly competitive. This makes an already difficult hiring environment even more challenging. Many businesses need to hire during the holidays, so it’s vital to start hiring once you know what your needs will be. As such, it’s important to:

•  Forecast your needs early so you know what to expect.
•  Start reaching out to former employees to assess their interest.
•  Create job descriptions and set up a referral program so you’re ready to hire right away.

Taking these steps helps you make hiring strides before last-minute competition heats up. There may be times when you need to hire more staff down the line. But it’s easier to hire employees earlier on, rather than waiting and falling behind the competition.

Refine Your Hiring Practices

According to Indeed, you’re highly reliant on clear job descriptions to attract talent. When you think about how to hire seasonal employees, you’ll need to also consider how you will describe the work that needs to get done. Make sure you are using terms like “seasonal” or “temporary” in the job titles. This way it’s clear to those searching job boards. It can also help you stand out on search engines when workers specifically seek short-term, seasonal jobs. Indeed also mentioned that published job descriptions should be clear about work roles, skill needs, and issues around compensation.

A blog from Patriot Software pointed out that seasonal workers tend to be less committed to their jobs. They also tend to lack loyalty to your brand. These issues are understandable as seasonal workers aren’t around for long. But the way you go about hiring new employees can promote loyalty and commitment. When you’re open and clear about expectations, workers are more likely to know what they’re getting into and less prone to causing problems down the line.

Hiring is often about fit. When your hiring practices set clear expectations for you and potential workers, you’re more likely to find contributors who fit your needs. The issue of how to hire seasonal employees isn’t just about getting noticed. It’s also about keeping them around. Expectation-setting gets this process off on the right foot.

Focus on Retention

Getting workers in the door is only part of the equation when it comes to hiring seasonal employees. Retention is critical. The Indeed report mentioned earlier provided some advice. It’s important to treat seasonal staff with the same degree of respect as your permanent workers. Which means you can’t place them in a poor situation and expect to get quality results. Instead, provide open communication and think of the interactions with current seasonal hires as laying the groundwork for future hiring next year.

In some cases, you may actually need to start a new round of hiring in the middle of the holidays to avoid burning out your seasonal hires. Doing so can limit stress on your existing staff, creating a stronger experience.

How to Hire Seasonal Employees? Always Think Ahead.

No matter the time of year, it’s vital to be proactive when hiring seasonal workers. If you think ahead at every stage of the seasonal hiring process, you position yourself with the future in mind and avoid staffing emergencies.

As you make your plans, you’ll also need to consider your financial situation. Capital limitations often hold small businesses back from investing in seasonal employees. Financial options, such as a bridge loan, can give you the cash flow and flexibility you need.

Small business loans from alternative lenders like QuickBridge can give you the flexibility to plan ahead and best position your business for success.