How to Hire & Retain Seasonal Summer Employees
/Do you rely on seasonal employees to make it through the summer?
A seasonal employee is defined as someone who works less than 120 days per year for your business. More than 70% of employers anticipate hiring seasonal summer employees.
Below, we’ve compiled our best tips for how to source, hire, and manage your seasonal staff!
Be Detailed and Direct in the Job Description
It’s always important to be detailed in job descriptions, but even more crucial in short-term, hourly positions. Give candidates as much information as possible in order to find the right people and expedite the process. Be upfront and realistic about job requirements.
Also keep in mind the fact that seasonal employees could turn into permanent employees! Make sure to mention if there’s a possibility for that, and you may attract even better people that you can retain long-term or invite back next summer.
Don't Ditch the Interview Process
Even though these are most often short-term positions, it’s still important to conduct interviews. Summer months are often busy, and you want the right fit - someone who works well under pressure and can keep up with the rush periods.
Often, in person is the best way to get a sense for someone. Harri provides extensive, mobile-friendly interview resource tools for employers to use (pro tip: Being tech-savvy is a surefire way to attract hard-working Millennials and Gen X-ers on summer break).
Onboarding is Key for Compliance
The summer season is hectic enough--don’t complicate things by getting slapped with thousands of dollars in fines.
Harri’s digital onboarding process allows employers and candidates to send an e-sign all crucial hiring documents, giving you carefree compliance.
Keep Employees Engaged
Short-Cycle Turnover is a direct result of an unhealthy work environment. Employees who leave within 90 days of their hire date may account for as much as 15% of a company’s total labor costs. Within the confines of a short season, you can’t afford to lose seasonal employees to SCT!
Cultivating an engaging and collaborative work environment can help cut down on Short-Cycle Turnover and thus the associated costs and distractions.
Boost retention by keeping employees abreast of company updates and opening the lines of communication between staff and management, and gathering their feedback. Tech-savvy tools like Harri’s TeamLive offer real-time collaboration features such as instant messaging and the ability to share updates across the organization newsfeed-style, as well as data-rich surveys upon clocking out.