Hiring seasonal employees is entirely different from Hiring permanent staff. Your chosen candidates should either be quick learners or should have considerable work experience. There is no time for extensive training. Your offer is just for a short duration. The only way out is to probe candidate with regard to work experience and skills.

Following are six tips to help your efforts in this regard.

1. Do you need a temporary team?

This is the first question you should ask when planning to hire seasonal workers. The increase in your business may be minor. And your round-the-year team may be enough to handle it. Or the increase of sales may not happen during the same period every year. If this is the case, you may not need a Temporary team to help you.

2. Start at the earliest

You decided that you need help to handle the seasonal increase in your sales. It also happens in the same period every year. Now comes the question of hiring.

Make sure that you are advertising the requirements as early as possible. Begin hiring at the onset of summer itself if you need a team for the holidays. This ensures that you have enough time to train the staff.  Be practical with regard to their responsibilities and the duration of their job.

3. Begin with your customers

Your customers are the best to hire to help with your business. They know a lot about your brand. They remain loyal to you because they love your company. Take advantage of this goldmine.

You can advertise to your customer base without even the slightest of hesitation. Communicating to them too is sure to be a breeze.

Start by offering employee discounts on a specific number of items. This will prompt your most loyal customers to join your firm as staff.

4. Give them the required training

Being temporary does not eliminate the need for good training. You just have to make it a bit faster. They have to run where your year-the-round team just has to walk. Remain available to answer all queries and inform them of the same. If you are time-bound, let your senior staff support you.

5. Treat them well

Being temporary does not mean that your holiday hires are less skilled than their year-round counterparts. Encourage them to get involved in all aspects of your business. Seek feedback from them and act on the suggestions you receive. You should also encourage them to ask questions and offer suggestions.

6. Talk to your insurance agent

This is an area where businesses often make fatal mistake. They live under the impression that temporary workers don’t need insurance protection. It is only when something that happens that they think of it. By that time, they would have almost drained your budget to nothingness. Don’t be one among them.

Discuss your plans of hiring temporary staff with your insurance agent. The expert will explain the possible liabilities and help you accordingly.

Finally, end the contract as an open-ended relationship. Temporary job is often an opportunity to test their reliability. The team may have great candidates that you can include in your round-the-year team.