5 Strategies to Manage Seasonal Employees

Businesses that only earn profits in certain seasons cannot afford to hire employees year long. Larger seasonal companies may be able to afford to pay employee salaries for the entire year but small companies need to let go of workers off-season which means every year they need new hires.

Finding the best talent every year might not be as easy as it sounds hence here are a few strategies that will help you hire during the season.

1. Prefer Hiring Through Referrals:

Instead of searching for hires from the outside, ask for referrals from your current employees. The success rate of hiring employees via referrals is higher than the ones that come to interview through other channels. Existing employees understand the organization needs and expectations and refer the kind of employees who will fit into the organization hence give more preference to all the referred candidates. Moreover, your employees will also be satisfied that the company values their opinion and hiring their referrals will improve the work environment by making it more friendly.

2. Offer to Rehire:

Make it very clear in the contract about the amount of time you will be needing their services. Many skilled workers may not be interested in seasonal jobs as it brings a certain amount of uncertainty in their career. To retain the best employees during the season so that they do not quit in the middle, assure them that you will rehire them the next season. Mention it as a clause in the contract as well, if needed. This reassurance may build confidence about the company and employees will show more interest in working in your company.

3. Work Towards Building a Friendly Office Environment:

In small businesses, almost every person knows others hence it is a good place to work as all the employees knowing each other and forming bonds create a positive working environment which makes the employees feel comfortable.

To increase the comfort level, one strategy that you can apply which most large companies use is hiring one mentor buddy for every new hire so that they can flawlessly blend in the system.

4. Make them Feel Valued:

Most seasonal companies make the mistake of not valuing the seasonal employees as much as they value the permanent ones. By using this strategy, the seasonal hires will also take this job for granted and not deliver their best. Encourage them to get creative and ask questions about the work. Employee engagement program should be put in place and employee recognition should also be given to motivate the employees. These employees should be treated as permanent employees and their grievances should also be taken seriously. Satisfied seasonal workers will put in extra hours to give better output hence more profit.

5. Retain the Best:

You may hire employees just for the season, but it is not necessary that you will have to end the contract of all of the employees by the end of the season. Retaining the best can be actually more gain to the company than financial loss. If you freshly hire employees every year, setting up the entire business functioning line and explaining the company's expectations and the tasks need to be done every year for the new hires, which are time-consuming and hectic tasks. Retaining a few will make sure that the process is smooth as they will train the new hires every year and supervise them.

You may face issues with the funds during off season, hence instead of going completely off the market, plunge into a side business which will help keep the company afloat during off season. Invest in a profitable market such as Bitcoin trading with the help of trading sites such as de.thebitcoinscode.com which will help you generate good returns to pay salary to your valued employees and take care of other business bills.

Seasonal business can be difficult to profit from but if you apply the right strategies, it is not impossible to build a successful business out of it.