Seasonal Hiring Considerations: 5 Ways to Plan for a Smooth Season
Is a round of seasonal hiring on your organization's horizon? ADP's Tiffanie Ross shares five ideas for effectively engaging, onboarding and offboarding a seasonal workforce.
Demand for talent fluctuates with the season in many industries, and some organizations have more pronounced seasonal hiring demands than others. In all cases, targeted strategy, planning and execution are absolute necessities.
If high-volume hiring is just around the corner for you, now is the time to plan. This year's seasonal hiring crunch will be exacerbated by a unique combination: a pandemic-related labor shortage and a global "re-opening" that's bringing customers back into public spaces like retail stores and restaurants.
It's on HR leaders to put a plan in place that ensures hiring practices are in alignment with hiring goals, including those related to recruiting, interviewing, onboarding, employee engagement and offboarding.
Tiffanie Ross, Senior Director of AIRS, powered by ADP, shares her insights on seasonal hiring and how organizations can better navigate its ebbs and flows. Here are five approaches to help organizations ensure smoother seasonal hiring.
1. Go Where the Candidates Are
Ross recommends broadening the organization's sense of which candidates might be interested in seasonal work to reach new talent pools. In addition to students and recent graduates, there are individuals such as retirees and military spouses who may not be able to make a full-time commitment, but might still be interested in working for your organization.
When it comes to connecting with seasonal workers, traditional recruiting methods and technology simply aren't enough. Ross encourages employers to go where the candidates are, even if that means exploring a new platform or digital space. Especially with younger candidates, it's important to harness the power of social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Employers need to understand where seasonal workers spend their time, have a presence there, and connect with them there.
"Understanding where social media and 'feet on the street' tactics can help drives candidate flow," says Ross. "You can't simply rely on your applicant tracking system. You must do outbound recruiting."
2. Make It Easy To Apply
According to the 2022 Recruiting Benchmark Report by Appcast, 67% of US job applications were completed on a mobile device in 2021, and that number is even higher in sectors that heavily rely on seasonal workers, such as hospitality and food service.
Ross recommends that organizations get creative with signage to stand out and make it easy for candidates to apply. Digital advertising methods such as QR codes and text-to-apply options can attract and engage potential talent at places such as gas stations, high school sporting events, gyms, and community spaces such as libraries, churches and retirement centers.
The more you can make your application process truly mobile-friendly, the bigger selection of candidates you'll have, and the faster your responses from them will be. In fact, as part of its strategy for filling 100,000 essential seasonal positions last fall, UPS announced that candidates could receive a job offer within 30 minutes of submitting an application.
3. Offer Attractive Benefits
Ross notes that seasonal workers typically do not have access to health care, so businesses can offer this coverage to their seasonal staff members to gain a competitive advantage. Larger employers, such as Kohls, even provide a free onsite wellness center for seasonal associates and their families.
Offering additional perks to seasonal workers, such as frequent and fast payment options, signing bonuses, discounts with local vendors like grocery stores, public transportation subsidies, reimbursement for meals, and employee discounts, can help organizations attract and retain candidates.
4. Be Mindful of Onboarding (and Offboarding)
There's nothing stopping your seasonal staff from becoming a long-term asset, according to Ross, so building a good relationship is crucial. For businesses that are recruiting and employing a high number of seasonal workers, the onboarding process is an important opportunity for brand building. Workers who have a positive onboarding experience may want to return again next season, and they can also help you attract more candidates through recommendations and referrals, essentially acting as brand ambassadors for your organization.
Ross also points out that final interactions with organizations can leave lasting impressions on seasonal workers. Taking a standardized approach to offboarding your seasonal workers can help your organization stay in compliance, and it can increase the likelihood of your seasonal staffers becoming boomerang employees who return to their seasonal roles in the future.
5. Keep Your Seasonal Employees Engaged
After a successful onboarding process, employers must ensure that their seasonal staff are engaged and morale is high. Due to the nature of their roles, seasonal workers are often working under immense pressure, which can take a toll.
Ross emphasizes that employers can combat seasonal burnout by ensuring that employees are fairly compensated for overtime and extra hours, and by encouraging them to take regular breaks.
"Providing recognition, rewards and fun incentives can also help cultivate a positive atmosphere and boost motivation," says Ross. "Asking seasonal employees for regular feedback and allowing them to share their opinions is another excellent way to help workers feel heard and keep them engaged."
Make a Plan for Smooth Seasonal Hiring
Seasonal workers play essential roles in the success of many businesses and enable them to meet peaks in demand at key times, so it's important to acknowledge the value that these employees contribute. Adopting a more formalized process to identify, attract and connect with candidates can help organizations grow this talent group. Offering pathways to full-time employment for those who want more can demonstrate respect for this group and convey that seasonal workers are by no means less important.
Learn more
Creating positive employee experiences for better business outcomes
