Temporary employees are a strongly debated topic in the business world. While many companies are worried about bringing employees who will only be around for a few weeks to a few months for special occasions, in truth temporary employees are often the smartest decision a business can make. If you have a significant shift in workload based on the season, yearly deadlines, or special projects, temporary employees can make a huge difference in both productivity and staff morale. The key is to bring in the right people by working closely with your recruiting agency. To make sure you have everyone you need by onboarding day, try these industry tips for seeing the best possible temporary employees every year.
1) Plan For Temporary Hires Months in Advance
Temporary employees in a business environment for tasks like accounting and customer service can’t be picked up outside the home improvement store, they take time to find, interview, confirm, and schedule. Ideally, you want to be organizing your next temporary employee recruitment wave the moment your busy season dies down. Let your recruitment agency know that you’ll be needing another wave of temporary employees the same time next year so they have plenty of time to find the right people.
2) Define What You’re Looking For in Detail
With long-term employees, you have time to find diamonds in the rough and refine them over a few months of onboarding and in-office training. With temporary hires, your position details need to be much more definitive and reasonably strict so that you can be sure that everyone on your temporary team already knows everything they need in order to get the seasonal work done quickly and efficiently. From task familiarity to industry skills, be very specific about what you’re looking for in your temporary hires.
3) Get Employee Recommendations
It’s important to remember that your existing employees know what they’ll need from their temporary team members during their stay. Ask your staff for specifications they’d like included in the job listing and consider taking their input during the recruiting process as well. While you don’t have to use every suggestion dropped in your inbox, the insight from your team who are personally familiar with the work at hand will give you a very clear and thorough view of who you’re looking for.
4) Share Your Company Culture
Your company culture is the core of how your employees work together. Ideally, your temporary employees will mesh well into the year-round environment. By sharing your company culture early and helping candidates to self-select based on compatibility, they will be able to mesh more easily with your existing teams and adapt to your procedures smoothly. Whether your regular team tends toward serious work time or joking together to let off steam, your candidates and recruiters can both use insight into your company culture to ensure that your time with the temporary hires is enjoyable and productive.
5) Bring Back Favorites If They’re Available
Some of your temporary hires will live a lifestyle or have an annual schedule that aligns well with your yearly needs. If you really enjoyed a few of your temporary employees because they were fun to have around, great workers, or were particularly talented, keep in contact with them and let them know that they’re welcome back next year. The best way to be sure that your busy time of year will go exactly as planned is to know who is coming and that you can count on them.
Hiring temporary and seasonal employees is a natural part of business and has been since humans invented agriculture. Whether you need accountants to round up the fiscal year or extra hands on deck to handle a seasonal increase in customers, the temporary employees you hire are still an important part of the team. For more advice and tips on recruiting valuable temporary team members, contact us today!
