Getting busy as Christmas approaches? Here are Recruitive’s top 8 tips for recruiting temporary workers.
What does Christmas mean to you? A time of joy and good will to all men (and women)? Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nibbling at whatever extraneous parts you neglected to cover up? Tinsel, lights, mistletoe and embarrassment coupled with a dreadful hangover?
For many businesses, the weeks leading up to Christmas are the busiest of the year and, therefore, a time when extra staff are needed on a temporary basis to handle the extra demand. We’ve put together a list of tips you might find come in handy as you gear up for your busiest time of the year.
- As Mariah Carey so irritatingly sang to exploit peoples’ fondness for the holiday season: “All I want for Christmas is you”. Who do you want for Christmas? How many do you need? How do you intend to attract them and how are you going to keep track of all the applications? Have a plan before you start!
- How do you attract large numbers of applicants at short notice? If you are looking to bring in students, be where they are! As well as regular job sites, when it comes to pulling in young people you need to be savvy enough to be all across (sorry for using such poor vernacular but apparently that’s how they speak nowadays…grrr) social media. Wherever the young are conversing in their strange language of grunts and squeaks, you need to have a presence – grunting and squeaking along with them. Then, when you have piqued their interest, make sure you have a great, fully functional website to link to with the necessary recruitment software on board – coincidently, just like the websites Recruitive specialises in designing and building.
- Advertising at colleges and universities is also a great idea. They might be horrible little oiks but at least they are receiving an education and so are therefore literate and may one day take their places in civilised society. If they need the money they will jump at the chance.
- Another way of achieving this is to spread the word amongst your existing staff that there are temporary vacancies available. It is often the case that they have a son/daughter/niece/nephew looking to earn a few quid before returning to university in January. A major benefit of doing it this way is they are less likely to be slackers if they know their mother/father/uncle/aunt is keeping an eye on them.
- So far we’ve looked at bringing in young people, and they are probably what you think about when discussing Christmas temps, but don’t forget the older recruit. There are great benefits to giving temporary work to retirees. They bring with them a wealth of experience and skills after spending most of their lives in a workplace situation. They will be easier to train to do the job, be more willing to put the effort in, can communicate intelligibly and most of all may be grateful for the money, company and chance to be back doing something worthwhile.
- Now that the multitude of applications are pouring into your inbox, what do you do? How do you keep track of them all? You need to be able to store the information on every single one of them and be able to access it instantly. You need to be able to request documents from each of them and store them appropriately. You need to know where in the recruitment process each candidate is. You need to be able to keep a line of communication going with all the stakeholders: HR, the management team, heads of department and the candidates themselves. You need to be able to produce documents and letters from pre-prepared templates, oh and be able to devise the templates yourself…etc. The list goes on. Let’s face it, you need Recruitive’s industry-leading Applicant Tracking Software, problem solved.
- What type of recruit are you looking for? Does it matter? It’s only a temp! Yes, it does matter, it matters very much. Every person you recruit, no matter what length of contract they are awarded, is a representative of your company. Every single one of your staff carries with them your brand, especially those who are employed to be customer-facing. Your brand is everything so make sure the people you recruit understand that and represent your business properly and with pride.
- Be grateful! Even if you have brought someone in for a few weeks in December, let them know how grateful you are for their efforts and how welcome they will be if they decide to come back for Easter, the summer sales, Black Friday or next Christmas. A little gratitude and recognition go a long way. Plus, you won’t have to spend time training a new recruit if they return. If they are students, they may consider a career with your organisation upon graduation which means you get first shout for some of the best and brightest our education system has to offer and, who knows? They might be able to speak properly by then!
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