Tips for How to Hire Temporary Employees

Tips for Hiring Temporary or Seasonal Employees

Hiring temporary employees can often be trickier than hiring permanent ones. For one thing, your candidate pool will be a lot smaller. For another, most organizations aren’t equipped with the right knowledge or tools to make proper hiring decisions.

Now, just because you are looking for seasonal or short-term workers doesn’t mean that you can select just anyone. Since your company’s reputation is in their hands, these individuals must be skilled, hardworking, and professional. Finding such employees for a temporary position may sound impossible, but it isn’t. Simply follow these tips and you will be able to choose just the right people.

Effective Tips for Hiring Temporary Employees:

Start Your Search Early

One of the biggest mistakes companies make when hiring temporary employees is putting things off until the last minute. Most organizations imagine that it will be relatively easy or simple to fill this position. As such, they don’t make the necessary effort until it is too late.

Now, there is no specific scheduling or timeline to follow with this hiring process. Nevertheless, you will find it useful to start looking for capable candidates months before the position needs to be filled. This will allow you to take your time sorting through them and picking out the right one. As a result, you will not be forced to hire any old straggler.

Write an Excellent Job Description

Another thing that you will need to work on is the job description. In an attempt to sound more exciting, many companies tend to write over-the-top descriptions that are jam-packed with buzzwords. While this may make for a more attractive posting, it isn’t going to help you out too much.

If you want to lure in the right candidates for a temporary position, it is important to let them know exactly what you are looking for. This way, an individual will be able to look at the posting and determine whether he or she has the right experience and skills for the job. Not to mention, a good job description will also give these individuals some idea of what to expect.

Due to this, specification is of the utmost importance here. Offer up plenty of details in terms of experience, skills, and more. While you may not want to give away too much about the position you are hiring for, make sure to include key responsibilities and information.

Time tracking software is also helpful to keep track with computer activities and productivity, monitoring, attendance tracking, integrations and more.

Consider Unusual Candidates

A traditional talent pool may not be suitable if you are looking for temporary employees. After all, many people are looking for full-time jobs. This is why you may want to consider university students as they are often searching for ways to make some additional money.

In particular, you may want to consider hiring international students. As long as they have the right type of visa, you will be able to hire these students for a short period of time. Such a candidate pool will be ideal for you since these students usually only want short-term employment.

Another current trend is hiring senior citizens. These individuals often don’t have other commitments but do have an enviable skill set. Of course, as you can imagine, there are certain physical or technological limitations to such a candidate pool. However, if this isn’t an issue for you, then senior individuals may be up for the job.

Look for Company Culture Fits

When considering a temporary employee, it is important to go beyond their skills and capabilities. While this is certainly important, it isn’t the only thing to look for. Keep in mind, it is just as vital that the temporary employee is a good fit for your current company culture.

While this is something organizations typically do with long-term employees, it is just as important to focus on with the short-term employees as well. Understand, when somebody is a good fit for the company culture, they are able to really come into their own and work to the best of their abilities. Not to mention, they as well as the rest of the team they are working with will get along much better too.

Do the Necessary Checks

With temporary employees, it can be tempting to avoid doing any background checks. After all, they will only be working with you for a short period of time – does it really matter? Well, the answer to this question is a resounding yes! You should always run the necessary inspections and checks on anyone you wish to employ.

Part of this process can be handled with the help of online web searches. There are a number of websites that will allow you to dig up basic information about potential employees. The next step, after this, will be to check references personally. Make a few calls to discover whether those glowing recommendations were actually warranted.


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Take Time with the Interview Process

On a similar note, you should also avoid rushing the interview process. In fact, try to have a similar process as when hiring permanent workers. Now, you may be able to skip certain assessments with them. Also, candidates for temporary positions may not need to speak with quite as many supervisors. Apart from this, though, make sure to have a thorough interview process.

When doing this, you will be able to accurately determine whether or not a particular individual has the necessary skills and experience. For another, the more meetings you have with them, the easier it will be to identify whether they will be a good fit or not.

Offer Flexibility

When hiring temporary workers, it is a good idea to try and focus on flexibility as much as possible. Keep in mind, most people have other commitments such as school or other part-time jobs. They will be unable to give these up simply to take up the position you are offering them.

Thus, if you do want to find better candidates for these temporary positions, see if you can offer them more flexible working hours. By doing so, you will be able to automatically widen your candidate pool quite a bit. In turn, you will have an easier time finding the best possible individuals for the job.

If you really want to hire the best possible temporary employees, then you should follow the guidelines mentioned above. While they are comprehensive, they will also make it a lot easier to locate and hire the right people.

 

About the Author –
Eric Lawton has spent many years in the Human Resources sector in multiple industries. This has allowed him to hone his hiring expertise and figure out the best way to find the right people for the job. Now, he enjoys sharing what he has learned with anyone who wants to learn more.