Organizations across all industries looking for flexibility and cost-cutting opportunities view temporary employment as a handy solution. 

Seasonal workers help fill in gaps during peak demand (such as shopping during the holiday season). They’re also handy during special projects such as opening new storefront locations and office moves when you need skilled, short-term staff that won’t break the bank.  

Despite being cost-effective, temporary workers are often just as qualified (if not more) than most full-time workers. 

In this article, we’ll take you through a guide of how to hire temporary employees.

Hiring Temporary Employees: What You Should Know

It takes an in-depth understanding of the roles you intend to fill to get stellar workers for your seasonal jobs. As a human resources manager, you will need to understand the skills required, the hours per week expectation, and job-specific demands and challenges.

The right temporary worker should be at least as sharp and eager to adapt as your existing, full-time employees. That’s because there is little time to train a temporary worker since they’re paid an hourly rate and they need to fit into the demands of the role immediately. 

• Independent and agile
• Quick on their feet
• Good communicators
• Fast learners
• Confident and self-assured
• Passionate and results-oriented
• Display integrity 

When putting out a hiring advertisement, be sure to list the job requirements and expected qualifications in detail. Many hiring managers forget that, and the result is often junk applications with candidates of mediocre qualifications.  A well put job description should serve as a filter of its own, discouraging unqualified candidates and encouraging top performers to apply.

The key here is to position your brand as an industry leader that only hires trailblazers. Great employees are out there, and they are looking to get hired by the best employers. The right staffing agency can help to package your brand into one that draws interest and turns heads. 

That could include the following things:

• Boldly presenting the value that your company provides and its market position.
• Reconciling your mission statement with your work culture to resonate with the candidate’s needs.
• Writing targeted job descriptions that also prove compliance with the labor standards act on working hours and minimum wage.

Read more about staffing:

 

How to find and vet a professional staffing company
Top US staffing industry trends and challenges
Top 5 staffing issues in organizations

Most hiring managers only consider the position’s required technical skills and abilities. That’s not enough on its own.  Apart from skills and experience, temporary workers need the right personality and attitude to handle their responsibilities.

For job positions like material handling and electrical work, it’s necessary to have stellar communication skills on top of technical expertise. Hiring managers that aren’t screening for these are doing their organizations a disservice. 

The first step in the recruitment process should, therefore, be collecting a pool of highly skilled candidates. The next and critical step is to filter based on attitude and culture fit.

Companies need an expedient hiring process for seasonal workers to meet organizational demands. Nonetheless, the interviewing process needs to be comprehensive. Many employers don’t spend enough time interviewing candidates, and that’s where problems start.

Staffing agencies can help with stepwise interviews, starting with a phone or video interview. This initial screening will help to further narrow down your list for in-person interviews. You can also adopt the group interview strategy before one-on-ones to test a candidate’s confidence and communication skills.

It’s a common blunder for hiring managers to overlook cultural fit in the recruitment process for temporary employees. Organizational fit should be a top priority even when hiring temporary workers.

After considering their technical skills and personal attributes, filter on to find candidates that integrate and gel with your teams well. When interviewing a candidate, ask yourself this question: “Would I ever want to have lunch with this person?”

The recruitment process for temporary hires is always rushed due to strained budgets and the desire to fill staffing gaps quickly. However, that shouldn’t be a reason to carry out incomplete checks.  Make sure to take the time to verify the qualifications and skills of the potential part-time worker, or an independent contractor.

If you’re rushed for time, a temp agency can expertly fill in the gaps. They’re adept at finding and sourcing part time, short term employees as well as regular employees hired on a permanent basis. 

Then again, no matter how short their contracts are, ensure you do a background check. 

With the prominence of the gig economy, 90% of organizations are filling positions with the temporary workforce. Temporary employees are hired for many reasons, most notably:

• To save on labor costs and the administrative and training expenses associated with full-time hires.
• The need to deal with increased workflows from temporary assignments and supplement the performance of permanent employees.
• To save costs on rewards and benefits and avoid the perception of wage inequality.
• To avoid liabilities and respond to budget constraints.

Given the critical roles that part-time employees play in organizations today, you will need an effective employee recruiting process to get the best workers for the job. The above master plan should help you get rockstar temp employees that can ensure a smooth hiring process leading to an improved bottom line.