This is part two of our “Seasonal Hiring” blog series. Part one discusses the benefits of using a staffing company to help meet seasonal staffing needs.
It’s no secret that recruiting should be a year-round effort. But carefully planning your recruiting and hiring efforts in Q3 can save you a tremendous amount time and money when the busy holiday season rolls around. Many industries rely on sales spikes during Q4 to meet their goals and carry them through the next year. Retail, manufacturing, warehousing, shipping and logistics, call centers and customer service are just a few industries that need to add substantial staff to keep up with the holiday surges.
For employers, recruiting in Q3 for the holiday surge can help avoid hiring mistakes that often arise from making rushed decisions. For candidates, it means less competition as the holidays approach, and a better chance of landing the desired position.
3 Important Things to do in Q3
The fourth quarter goes by fast. In order to stay ahead of the curve you need to have a plan in place. Here are some quick tips on assessing and planning your seasonal staffing needs.
- Assessing your needs: The summer lull is a great time to look back on your successes as well as the things you could have done better during last year’s holiday season. Did your staff end up putting in a lot of overtime? Has business picked up in the past year? How many sales will you need to make this year to meet or exceed your goals? Those are all questions you should answer before you start the recruiting and hiring process. Once you’ve determined how many additional hires you’ll need, it’s time to develop a recruiting plan.
- Developing a recruiting plan: A recruiting plan means more than figuring out what departments need resources and going over resumes. You want to attract the best candidates to get the job done. You also want to reach out to your top performers from last year to find out if they’re available and interested in returning to work this year. Developing a plan will not only allow you to recruit and hire more quickly, but also save you countless hours down the road.
- Shortlisting & Interviewing: Once you have a plan in place, it is time to start gathering applications and create a shortlist of candidates for each position you’re looking to fill. Shortlisting will help ensure the quality of the candidates you will be interviewing as well as you save time. Without a list of select candidates, you will only be wasting time interviewing unqualified applicants. Make sure you carefully document every interview so that you can easily review and compare applicants afterwards.
Of course enlisting the help of a staffing company like Adecco to do the recruiting for you will help make the whole recruiting, shortlisting, interviewing, and hiring process even easier. You can then start the holiday season with highly qualified employees — while your competitors are struggling to even get started with their recruiting efforts.