The holidays are a busy time for everyone in the business world. Whether your organization is a service, product, retail, or industry, the volume of work can be high during the holidays. To keep up with the business demand and alleviate some stress off of employees, temporary workers can be a successful fix.
To get your holiday staffing needs put into place with these key steps:
Take it back a year
To figure out your organization’s unique holiday staffing needs are, take a look at the previous year’s holiday figures. Examine your financial gains and losses, and where you need to put your focus this holiday season. Did you hire the right people for the right job? Did you place your temporary staffers in the right positions, or were there positions that needed more attentions? Is there anything different this year than the previous year that you will need to account for when hiring seasonal staff?
Make a plan
Once you know the lacking areas that can be improved, things that worked in the past, and new office endeavors that must be filled, it is time to put a plan into place. Now you can narrow down the ideal candidate skill sets and traits for your holiday temporary staff. It’s a myth that temporary workers are not as skilled as permanent employees. However, the most reliable and qualified temps will typically be recruited well before the holiday season is underway. So making a seasonal staffing plan as soon as possible will increase your likelihood of snagging the best temps for the job.
Bringing the temps on board
Make the transition as smooth as possible for holiday temps and for your permanent staff by creating a unique training process designed specifically for the seasonal staff. Decide exactly what the expected duties will be, rules and limitations, and who is responsible for temp worker productivity.
Prepare Current Staff
It is important to communicate with your current team, whether full time or part time, the temporary staffing plans for the holidays. Make sure that your employees know what to expect: (1) how many temps will be working seasonally, (2) how long they will be working, (3) what the temps responsibilities will be, (4) who the temps will report to, (5) and then finally address any potential concerns.
Some employees may feel threatened by temporary staffers. Just ensure them that having temp workers will not take away from permanent staffers jobs, but will help make everyone’s job easier, increase productivity, and keep the holiday spirit high!
The process of finding the right talent to fit your holiday staffing needs can be more efficient and effective with the partnership of a staffing firm, like Alternative Staffing. Give us a call at 843-744-6040