Design a Powerful Engagement Strategy for Your Seasonal Workers

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Employee Engagement is Important for All EmployeesThere is a strong relationship between a company’s profitability and its employees’ engagement levels.  Profitability – especially during a small window of time – is of extreme importance to seasonal businesses.  A lot of money has to be made during the peak sales period in order to survive the “valley” of low sales.

Because of this, employing quality seasonal employees and keeping them engaged is of upmost importance.  If you do not focus on them and their level of job satisfaction, you could easily isolate your customers, lose business and (therefore) lose money.

In many ways, you must focus on their satisfaction levels in the same way as your full-time (year-round) employees.

For example, you must:     

  • Provide a comprehensive orientation / onboarding process.  Your seasonal help may have no experience working in your business / industry, and are working with people they do not know.  To avoid isolation, every employee should be integrated into the company in the same manner.  However, there may be time constraints associated with bringing on seasonal workers.  Therefore, adjust and concentrate some aspects of your onboarding program.  For more information on establishing and planning an onboarding process (link to article), visit our Client Resource Hub.
  • Communicate – Take the time to talk with your employees, not just give them orders. Acknowledge them, thank them for their contribution, and work to build consensus and buy-in from all employees.  Remember, whatever goals you set, your employees will be the ones to reach them.  Find out what tools they need and act on any feedback you may receive.  One of the fastest ways to deflate engagement and damage morale is to ask employees for their opinions and points of view and then ignore (or be perceived as ignoring) them.

In some ways, engaging your seasonal workers is more crucial.  You need these workers for a reason – your business is cyclical (80% of businesses are).   Because of this you must:

  • Add value to their job – It is true that many seasonal jobs are considered menial or entry-level.  These jobs have to be done, but no one wants to admit they are the towel-folder at the hotel pool, or they put up and/or break down event tents during the busy wedding season.  Help these workers see that that what they are doing contributes to the greater goal….for example, to give people great vacation and/wedding memories.
  • Do not overwork – Yes, your “busy season” is just that – busy.  Days are long.  However, exhausted workers are disengaged workers and disengaged workers cannot provide the level of service needed to maximize your revenues.  So work to give your employees some level of “off-time”.  Do not schedule shifts back-to-back, provide for full days off and try to limit shifts to 8 hours (in some states, overtime kicks in after 8 hours of work/day).

Your goal is to seamlessly integrate your seasonal workforce into your operation. Disengaged, disinterested seasonal workers will never fully meld with your existing workforce.  This can impact your bottom line.  Companies with the most engaged employees have a 19% increase in operating income, while those with the lowest levels had a 32% decline.

People do make a difference.  No one knows this better than Snelling.  Our goals are the same:  allowing you to work smarter, not harder, while increasing your profitability.  So, with the peak hiring season already upon us, contact Snelling today.  We can work with you to find your perfect fit seasonal worker – one who melds seamlessly into your organization and allows you to reach maximum profitability.

NOTE:  A full-color, downloadable PDF is available