Five Smart Business Reasons to Plan Your Seasonal Staffing Needs Now

SAVE TO PDF

It happens earlier every year.   Stores are mixing together Halloween and Christmas (and even Thanksgiving) merchandise together.  You walk into the store looking for a costume to wear to a Halloween party, and you have to walk by holiday lights, stockings and (even) Christmas trees to get to it. It is still October; but across the country – recession or no recession – retailers and merchandisers are already stocking up and preparing for the holiday season.

And why wouldn’t they?  The National Retail Federation predicts that holiday spending will rise an estimated 2.8% this year to more than $465 billion.  Many shop and store owners can make up to 40% of their revenue during the holiday season, and consumer spending drives roughly 70% of the nation’s economy.

However, the holiday season is not just busy for retailers.  Manufacturing companies, customer service departments, shipping/delivery companies, airlines, restaurants and (even) photography studios are about to enter their busiest
time of the year.  So how is a manager or owner expected to meet this increase in demand?

There are a couple of options:

  1. Overtime – This is a viable option, but it is not without risk.  Longer hours can eventually lead to employee burnout, lowered productivity and increased absenteeism and turnover.
  2. Direct Hire – Hiring more employees is certainly another way to handle the surge in volume that is to be expected these next couple of months.  The problem is that once demand has died down, these workers need to be laid off which is time consuming and can impact unemployment insurance rates.
  3. Strategic Staffing – This is a third option, and it may be the smartest choice.  In simplest terms, strategic staffing is the planned use of temporary employees to accommodate seasonal or other workload fluctuations.

When it comes to successfully managing the holiday season, careful planning can make all the difference. Here are just a few of the reasons to start addressing your upcoming seasonal staffing needs with Snelling right now:

  • Access the best candidates – before your competitors do. Some employers will wait until November  to begin hiring in earnest. Get a jump on the competition! Snelling can recruit the most qualified candidates now before other seasonal employers reach them.
  • Create your plan before seasonal demand becomes overwhelming. Given the persistently high unemployment rates,  many businesses believe that they will have no problem finding quality candidates.  It
    is true that this year’s seasonal job market will be flooded with applicants; however, finding the right ones may be even more difficult, given the sheer volume of candidates. Work with a Snelling professional now to outline your
    upcoming needs, so that they can assume the burdens (in both time and money)  of recruiting and screening candidates.
  • Run “lean and mean.” Seasonal temporaries can handle surges in demand without impacting fixed expenses.  Snelling can recruit in advance of your needs, to ensure you have qualified candidates ready to work, for
    the exact period of time you need them.
  • Shorten learning curves. Training new employees for seasonal work slows down production and drives costs up.   Snelling only delivers seasonal workers with the needed skills and experiences required.  If requested,  we can also develop customized training and orientation materials to get supplemental staff up-to-speed more quickly.
  • Make great hires. If you do have direct hire needs, strategic staffing will allow you to see how our carefully screened, highly trained temporary employees perform on the job. Our People+ can demonstrate their skills, dependability and cultural fit while working on assignment for you, before you extend an offer for employment. Discuss our temporary-to-hire option with your Snelling staffing representative.

To implement a personalized strategic staffing solution for the holidays,  Snelling Staffing Service’s highly trained professionals will meet with your key decision makers to discuss how demand varies throughout the year. After analyzing the demand curve and formulating your workforce needs, we can help you design and implement a comprehensive workforce solution to manage the ebbs and flows your business cycle with our contingent staff. When demand surges, we will assign highly skilled and trained temporaries to handle the additional volume. Once your demand flows down to normal, the supplemental employees are assigned elsewhere.