Integrating Seasonal Employees: Top 5 Strategies That Can Enrich Their Onboarding Experience

Organisations often have to chalk out a plan to hire seasonal employees when there is a sudden uptick in consumer demand.

Now that the holidays and festivals aren’t too far away, they have to come up with a solid plan to integrate them quickly into the workforce whilst delivering an excellent onboarding experience.

Given below are 5 ways that can help you do just that.

1. Come Up With a Training Plan

Temporary employees should be treated the same as full-time employees; they need the same amount of training, manager commitment and coordination.

To create a lasting onboarding experience for your part-timers, create a seasonal training program that is well balanced and time sensitive by using spaced training.

It is recommended to choose spaced training over frontload training from the first day of work as it allows temporary workers to get used to their new roles without feeling overwhelmed.

Training your workers by implementing a one-day training module on the first day leaves seasonal employees with little skill development to look forward to. Information overloading on the first day also lowers overall retention levels; your workers will quickly forget almost everything they learned.

Spaced training, on the other hand, is an effective way to break down information into small pieces that can be taught along a specific schedule.

A great way to employ this type of training is to use mobile apps to start the onboarding process before a new employee’s first day at work so that you can reward top performers by giving them extra time off or other benefits as they progress through their training programs.

2. Focus On Their Overall Career Advancement and Learning

To meet consumer demands, it’s likely that many organisations will hire students. As many students return home for vacations, many employers offer seasonal work. If you want to attract students to your organisation, remember that this age group is looking to be engaged and learn new skills.

They’re not just in it for the salary. Many students will be interested in the possibility of advancement within a company and being able to come back when they’re done with their educational pursuits.

Those who have graduated may be interested in turning temporary work into permanent employment opportunities. By offering learning and development opportunities, you’ll engage your temporary workers better and also deliver a fruitful onboarding experience.

3. Club Part-Time Workers Will Full-Time Employees

Part-time seasonal employees will likely have questions about their roles and responsibilities and how they’re supposed to work when customer demand spikes.

And that is why it’s better to club them with someone who has been at your company longer. Someone who is seasoned and has been around for a long time will ensure that temporary workers never go off-track.

What’s more, they’ll be able to handle most of their questions which may reduce the risks of errors or misjudgements.

4. Those Who Perform Must Be Rewarded

It is important to train your seasonal employees, reward top performers for their efforts and encourage talented employees to return for more work. With this approach, you will be able to retain them on a more permanent basis and attract other great candidates.

But keep in mind that it’s crucial to set clear standards and have systems in place to measure productivity in order to evaluate the performance of your employees. As for the reward for performance, you can always introduce monetary incentives.

That said, there are many other methods that you can adopt to reward seasonal workers that don’t involve straight-up incentives.

For instance, you can offer paid memberships to fitness enthusiasts or provide an all-paid access to tools or upskilling platforms. You can also show appreciation for their hard work by giving them more responsibilities, or inviting them to contribute their ideas and suggestions.

5. Make Them Feel Included and Visible

Although seasonal employees are not permanent, they should feel as if they are a part of your company. This can be accomplished through the inclusion of seasonal employees in company events, team meetings, and organisation-wide incentives.

By enabling a sense of camaraderie among your new seasonal employees, you vastly improve your chances of getting hold of great workers again when the next season arrives. What’s more, when your seasonal employees leave, they’ll be quick to tell the world that you treat all your employees equally.

Needless to say, your reputation will improve. As a result, you’ll be able to quickly fill your vacancies with exceptional talent when the seasonal demand spikes.

When your busy season comes around again, you will be able to attract new workers by offering them opportunities for growth and a sense of belonging.

By creating a workplace where all employees feel included, and by offering seasonal workers benefits such as insurance, you can generate a great employer brand that will attract more seasonal workers to your company for years to come.