Are You Prepared for Seasonal Hiring? By Hire Dynamics CATEGORY: Blog POSTED: August 1, 2019 By Stephen Koch, Director of Field Recruiting Third quarter means one thing to most businesses – busy season is right around the corner. For over a year, organizations have been challenged with historically low unemployment resulting in fewer available candidates and increased wage pressures. And this is not a local issue. The matter has hit a national critical point. With demand up and supply down, the struggle is real in both recruiting and retention. The fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 3.7% unemployment rate in June indicates that the U.S. is still near the multi-decade record. As Director of Field Recruiting at Hire Dynamics, I’m part of a team who works through these issues on a daily basis. Whatever challenges you’re dealing with, chances are, we have first-hand experience and solutions. In kicking off our series on Seasonal Hiring, we’ll provide in-depth knowledge with recommendations and tactics to help companies prepare. Today we have identified the top five things to ensure that businesses like yours are prepared for a successful busy season. You’ll want to follow our blog series over the next few weeks as we go deeper into each of these points, revealing more tips and specific strategies backed by case studies and resources. The time to attract qualified talent and actively address this issue with a strategic plan is now. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail. Top 5 Things Employers Can Do Now to Prepare for Seasonal Hiring Streamline the Hiring Process What is your company’s speed to hire? Can you complete the entire hiring process in one visit? How long does it take for your company’s background checks to be completed? Is everything that is checked necessary? How many years back do you really need? If your background checks take more than few days, top candidates will already be working at the competition by the time that you’re ready to hire them. Consider putting pending checks to work until their backgrounds are processed. Culture What kind of culture do you have? Are you a Great Place to Work? How do managers treat talent? Do they have a relationship with their immediate manager? What kind of onboarding and training do you offer? At Hire Dynamics, our goal is for 20% of talent we place with our clients to be hired on full-time. Retain top talent by offering a 30, 60, and/or 90-day incremental increase and/or an end-of-season completion bonus. Our proprietary Work4HD App increases fulfillment rates, hiring quality, speed and efficiency while appealing to Millennials and other technologically savvy job seekers. Stability and Length of Assignment How do your hours look? Are they the same every week for the whole season? Top talent will not stick around if they receive 40 hours one week followed by 25 hours the next, without foreknowledge and consistency. Is this a strictly seasonal assignment or can they be considered for longer-term opportunities? Overtime can be a great selling point for some talent while burning out employees, so upfront communication is key. Have you considered part-time and/or weekend shifts? When businesses miss the mark at peak, it is often because supervisors who have had 8 direct reports suddenly have 40. Have you considered adding team leads for your peak season? Value Adds What is in it for talent? Taking a deeper look into what your organization can extend to talent as a value-added incentive can be an effective strategy. Be creative and think outside the box: Can they take advantage of employee discounts? What kind of work do they want to do and how flexible can you be? Are we offering cross-training in different areas or allow them to pick up additional shifts? Talent can make themselves more attractive for future placements by gaining more experience. What kind of coaching will they receive? Offer Competitive Wages You must be above market rate to attract and retain top talent. Set yourself up for success by paying what your closest competitors do or better. You cannot afford to be even fifty cents below in this competitive environment. Know what the competition is offering and if you need to increase your rate, show that you are serious by increasing it by $1 or more. Call your local Hire Dynamics representative to place an order for talent that is ready to work for you this season! And follow our blog series, Preparing for Seasonal Hiring, as we reveal more tips, resources, and specific strategies that you can use. © 2019 Hire Dynamics, LLC
