How to Attract the Best Seasonal Workers

Attracting top talent to a seasonal position can be a tall order, and when it comes to your busiest times of year it’s crucial to have the right number of people as well as the best people you can on staff. Hiring for these positions comes with the added challenge of making decisions quickly and often that means less vetting of potential candidates before hiring them.

Create a full-proof recruitment strategy using the four tips below to ensure you are attracting top talent at the outset, and create your best rotation of seasonal staff yet.

Tout your technology.
Especially if your seasonal staff skews younger. Gen Z, entering the workforce now, expects to have technological solutions. Use digital communication tools or employee scheduling software, so employees can stay up-to-date on important announcements and their schedules– all from their phones.

Don’t forget to embrace technology in the hiring process as well. Make use of recruiting tools to organize all your job postings and sort through applications in one place.

Allow room for growth.
Don’t limit a seasonal employee to one season. You can attract highly motivated seasonal workers if you are up front about the possibility of turning it into a full-time position. If a prospective employee is interested in working for your business, they will get their foot in the door any way they can. Advertising the possibility for growth will help attract those that would like to stay around. If you don’t have room on staff for another full-time employee, make the seasonal position a permanent one. Many students will go back to the same job during summers even if they could be making slightly more somewhere else. Not having to worry about finding another summer job is a big perk to this demographic – and you get fully trained workers as the foundation of the next busy season temp staff.

Start an employee referral program.
Referral programs have many benefits including resulting in a hire 75% of the time, higher staff retention rates, increased performance over other employees, and those employees continue the referral cycle. Kickstart your employee referral program with incentives. They can range from an extra PTO day to a cash bonus to a tangible prize.

Showcase your workplace.
Significantly fewer teens are looking for or taking jobs, so to attract the best talents from a dwindling pool, you need to set your organization apart. You can set your establishment apart in a myriad of ways. You can focus on what separates you from your competitors, showcase skills that employees will gain through this job, offer an employee discount on products, have a more lenient phone policy– especially for a generation that treats their phone as an appendage, having a sanctioned time to check it is a big draw. Whatever you can do to separate yourself from the pack will help draw in top talent.

Seasonal hiring doesn’t have to be a buckshot approach. Get creative with your differentiators and how you promote positions. Use the recruitment strategies outlined above to attract a larger, higher quality group of applicants. Make this busy season your best yet!