Hiring for the Holiday Rush
It’s that time of year, again. No, not the holiday season, but the time when you should be thinking about hiring for it—ideally, months in advance. That’s how long it can take to attract the right talent. And even then it takes a combination of strategy, flair, and a bit of luck.
The luck part we can’t help you with, but our tips on seasonal hiring leave little to chance. Best practices include:
Starting your candidate search early: Okay, so we’ve already mentioned
this. But we can’t emphasize enough how that extra time will stop you from having to recruit the candidates no one else wanted. These would be the ones that have no soft skills or are likely to let you down at a minute’s notice. By starting your search with plenty of time, you’ll have your pick of the best seasonal employees. You’ll even be able to create a database of backups should things not work out exactly as planned.
Writing a succinct job advertisement: Your job advertisement should, of course, tell candidates what you expect from them. But, it’s as much about what *they* can expect from *you*. Information like salary, benefits, and incentives are as important to temporary staff as permanent ones. Saying that, you don’t need to go on for pages and pages. Give succinct details. You can follow up with the right candidates during the messaging phase.
Advertising your job on a range of platforms, including social media: Think about who is included in your candidate base. High school students coming of age? College students home for the holidays? Maybe retirees looking for a little extra cash? Job boards might reach the actively searching candidates, but for those only passively looking, social media could be the way to reach them. Remember, a retiree is likely to favor Facebook whereas a high school student wouldn’t. So it’s important to upload to a range of social media platforms with this in mind.
Passively sourcing candidates with profiles on career sites and seasonal job boards: Not all job seekers are actively looking for employment, but that doesn’t mean they’re not interested. Scouring job boards for candidates with the right criteria is a great way to find talent for your team. It’s also pretty flattering for the headhunted candidates. While flattery might not get you everywhere, it certainly helps!
Asking current employees for referrals: Staff referrals are the most valuable resource when it comes to hiring, with an average of 24 percent of hires being the result of referrals. Referred employees also tend to be the most satisfied, and in turn are the most likely to refer good candidates, themselves
Reaching out to potential candidates via email, both past employees and new-to-workforce: You’ve received a stack of applications, and you’ve passively sourced a stack of others. Now you have a long list of candidates to reach out to. Introduce yourself and your company in an authentic way. Use email to reach out to new prospects or reconnect with past employees. An email will also give you enough room if you want to send a career page message, which is where you could elaborate on incentives to secure those passively sourced candidates.
Reaching out to potential candidates via text message, both past employees and new-to-workforce: With more and more people using a cell phone solely for their online needs, text messages instantly connect you to your candidates. And, a massive 91 percent of people say that they always have their phone within arm’s reach.
If you employ all, or at the very least some of these practices, your company should have the competitive edge in hiring the best seasonal staff. And yet you can streamline the process even further by using templates for your advertising and messaging.
We’ve come up with six templates that will help you establish a friendly, professional, and consistent tone of voice.
For more details Please Contact Us and get your Free PDF
