Hiring additional employees to meet the demands of peak seasons is a necessity for many companies. The following seasonal staffing tips will help you meet business demands and prepare for the hiring process ahead of time. Planning the hiring process now helps you ensure smooth onboarding, and the best ways to prepare new workers for shaping the experiences of your increased customers. When you consider that these new employees receive considerably less training than your usual workforce, yet interact with more customers, it’s easy to see how creating a plan directly impacts your company’s overall revenue and satisfaction ratings.

Plan the Hiring Process Ahead of Time

You plan your ordering and production needs well before peak season, and doing the same with your hiring is just as important. One of the most important seasonal staffing best practices is making sure you have enough time for interviews and recruitment. Conducting proper interviews helps you add quality employees that best represent your organization during stressful seasons. By planning the process well before its time, you have the proper people and channels in place to maximize employee potential. Pre-planning the hiring process gives you time to implement screening and hiring tools that assist with management and weeding out candidates that may not be a good fit. When hiring staff understands the timeline and requirements for peak-season recruitment, the entire process becomes easier to manage and control, which directly impacts the quality of new recruits.

Selective Staffing Improves Outcomes

Hiring normal hourly employees generally gets more attention than peak-season staffing. The reality is, these seasonal employees are just as important as your regular workers. When you consider that most seasonal employees have less interest in the overall success of the company, selective staffing becomes a requirement. Most seasonal employees fall into different recognizable categories. Some want extra money during the holidays. Others have free time due to college schedules. There are also those who want to reap the benefits of employee discounts during high-spending holidays. These candidates may not have the skills you typically want in your seasonal hires, but they could make a difference in the customer experience. Rather than solely focusing on experience in the areas for which you are hiring, considering soft and interpersonal skills can result in higher-quality outcomes. While a person with serious customer service experience may not be your usual choice for a warehouse position during seasonal recruitment, you may find that workers with these skills place more emphasis on doing their jobs correctly so that the customer service aspect goes more smoothly. Additionally, these employees can be the difference between a customer purchasing once and actually becoming loyal to your brand. Providing adequate time for interviews gives you the chance to interact with potential hires, which helps show interpersonal skills and overall attitudes. Keep in mind that these potential employees will interact directly with your customers when they are at their most demanding. Finding peak employees that bolster customer confidence in the brand keeps them coming back well after those workers are employed.

Look for Candidates That Want Seasonal Positions

Regardless of when your peak season staffing needs arise, there are likely plenty of people looking for jobs in those particular time frames. Recently graduated college students may need income while they are deciding where their careers will take them. Positions within your company will help them start creating professional relationships for the future. You should also consider retirees that are looking for part-time work, and take advantage of their experience from past positions. These older workers tend to be more reliable, helping reduce the need to continually address seasonal recruitment during your busiest times. Students on breaks from school or looking for income opportunities after their days end are other possible options for customer-facing positions. They learn valuable skills and may become loyal to the company, which means they are likely to return in future seasons.

Optimize Job Descriptions

One important tool in your seasonal staffing best practices toolkit is your job descriptions. Making sure that seasonal postings are accurate and reflect what you are looking for helps candidates better understand the positions. Simply reposting old descriptions does not always provide an accurate view of the position or your business. Use search engines and determine what keywords are ranking the highest. Use those terms in your own job descriptions to boost rankings and front-page placement. It’s also a good idea to make sure the person writing the job description really understands the position. If necessary, have the writer shadow workers in each position that you are hiring for before writing the descriptions. This provides useful insights that an outsider might not recognize. Planning out your peak hiring with these seasonal staffing tips may help you find better applicants and improve hiring outcomes. Making a few changes in the hiring process can lead to better recruits that present the best faces for your company image. When you have workers that address the needs of your current and new customers during the busiest times, it helps facilitate brand loyalty and improves revenue opportunities throughout the year.