Businesses that need to hire additional employees for a seasonal rush know how important it is to start the hiring process before the rush begins. To maximize your productivity while keeping costs down, it’s also important to create a seasonal hiring plan.
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Why Create a Seasonal Hiring Plan
A seasonal hiring plan is a blueprint to follow for planning, acquiring, deploying and disbanding an influx of new seasonal employees. Having a plan in place does 3 key things:
- Ensures you hire just the right amount of people - so that you’re distributing the work evenly and not overpaying for unnecessary labor.
- Pinpoints exactly when you need to begin hiring.
- Front loads the work of planning so that you’re not trying to tackle a big onboarding project during the busiest time of the year.
Creating a seasonal hiring plan will ensure a smooth transition into the busy season, as well as a smooth transition once it’s over.
Creating a Seasonal Hiring Plan
When creating a seasonal hiring plan, follow these tips.
1. Start early
The sooner, the better. You want to have a plan in place that you’ll start executing at least 2-3 months before the start of your busy season. This gives you plenty of time to actually execute your plan, provide training as needed and be ready for the rush. It also gives you more of an opportunity to find qualified talent. Employees have many seasonal options to choose from, and if you wait too long to hire you may need to hire whoever is available - not necessarily who is the best fit.
2. Create clear and comprehensive job descriptions
Defining your needs and requirements is critical. This will help you narrow your scope and to attract the right-fit candidates. When creating clear job descriptions, include the following:
- A list of specific tasks for the position (ex: picking, packing, transporting)
- Any physical requirements (ability to lift 20 pounds, ability to stand on feet for 5+ hours, etc.).
- Required qualifications, education or other certifications.
- Work hours and the total duration of the position.
- Pay rate.
For seasonal jobs, it’s important to be clear and direct - it should be obvious that this is a temporary position and when it will end.
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3. Identify a staffing partner
Finally, you’ll want to find a staffing partner well ahead of time that will help you take your job descriptions and match them with the right people. This takes the heavy lifting of sourcing employees out of your to-do list.
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