The holiday season is upon us, and with the holidays come staffing needs that your warehouse may not be prepared to support. But when it comes to preparation, now is the time to get workforce planning locked and your seasonal teams ready to roll. Here are three things you can do today to make sure you are prepared for any peak holiday season staffing needs.
- Forecast Based on Past Staffing Needs
The need for more employees during the holidays is unique to your business. How many people you’ve hired in the past, how prepared you’ve been for the influx of work during that time, and how much you invested in those extra workers will all influence your decision on how many workers you will need this year. If you hired more than you needed last year, but expect to have the same amount of work, include that information in your planning at this point so as not to over (or under) staff this holiday season.
- Think Outside the Hiring Box
When considering hiring seasonal employees, it is essential to assess the business, and related workflows, to make sure that tasks are set up in a way most conducive to hire, train, and draw productivity out of seasonal employees quickly and efficiently. This includes, but may not be limited to, identifying work which either doesn’t require an extended learning curve or work where training documents and support exist for rapid ramp-up. Seasonal employees, as the name suggests, often don’t have a lot of time to fully immerse in the business and learn about the end to end workflow before being productive. They are often expected to come in and start delivering results even though they only have a minimal knowledge about the business requirements. Therefore, most business which have been successful in deriving the most value from seasonal employees do so by minimizing the onboarding cost and having a good understanding of efficient training resources available for the seasonal employees.
- Cozy Up with Your Staffing Provider
While seasonal employees are with the company for a short period of time, it is important to recognize this as an excellent opportunity to identify the key individuals who are fast learners, passionate about the business, are eager to have an impact, and are a good cultural fit for the organization. Some of the seasonal employees form the best full-time employees if given the opportunity. All seasonal employees are required to understand the aspects of the business to be productive. They are often also required to interact with the customers and represent the company positively and professionally. This presents a great extended interview opportunity that offers a lot more context than a typical short interview process as well as multiple concrete data points using the actual deliverables.
At All-Star Personnel, we are committed to helping you find the right people for the job, whether it’s holiday staffing or long-term contracts that fit your business needs. Connect with our staffing team to learn more about what options would best serve you this holiday season.
