Do you hire seasonal staff for the summer? If so, now is a great time to start thinking about your hiring needs. Bringing on additional help for the summer season can be a bonus for your business but it does come with some challenges. Keep reading for some tips on how to hire smart this summer and how Stockpile easy inventory solution can make things easier on everyone.
Know What You Need
If your business booms in the summer chances are you could use some extra staff to keep things running smoothly. Before you advertise for extra people it's a good idea to know exactly what type of staff you need. While almost anyone can learn to work a cash register and assist customers there are some specialty skills that could be beneficial. If you need more than just support staff be sure you include those details in the job description. The last thing you want to do is waste time screening applicants who can't meet your needs. You might benefit from having someone who could help out with payroll or other accounting tasks, light landscaping, or some other seasonal task. If this is the case put your wish list of qualities in your job ad. You may be pleasantly surprised by the difference it makes in the quality of applications that you receive.
Ask the Right Questions
Don't rush the interview process. While it can be tempting to spend as little time as possible reviewing applications and interviewing candidates you don't want to overlook any red flags and end up making a bad hire. Choosing the best possible candidates is always a good idea. A good temporary employee could come back for future summers or end up applying for a full time job after they finish school. Returning employees save you time during the selection process and require less training and onboarding support in the future. You also want to be sure that you are hiring staff that will be reliable. Someone who is just looking for a temporary job may not have the same work ethic as someone who is looking for long term employment. You can't afford to have staff that doesn't show up for work or someone who spends more time in the break room than they do working.
Be Clear
Make sure that your expectations for your temporary employees are clear to both the new hires and your regular staff. If there are certain tasks that should only be done by full time employees make sure that everyone is aware of this. You don't want accidents or mistakes to occur because someone was completing a task without proper training. In some cases regular employees feel like they are superior to the temporary staff. To avoid any conflicts this could cause have a talk with your full time staff before the new people start. Set expectations as to how you'd like the newcomers to be treated and make sure that everyone is on the same page. You could even assign a buddy to each newbie so that they have someone on staff to go to with any questions or concerns.
Be Available
Summer often means summer vacations which means various staff members are out of the office. Make sure that someone is always available to answer questions or handle any unexpected issues that may arise. Nothing makes a business look less professional than a staff full of new employees who don't know what to do and don't have anyone to ask for help when a customer voices a concern. Making sure that everyone knows where to turn for help can make even the greenest staff look capable and knowledgeable.
Use Stockpile
Inventory issues are often a headache for even long time employees. Using Stockpile easy inventory solution is the best way to eliminate these issues for everyone. Because Stockpile is fully customizable you choose which fields to include in your item records. This means your records house all the data that employees could need about a product. Stockpile is so easy to use that you can quickly train new hires on how to use the system. Plus, Stockpile is free to use so you don't have to worry about the high cost of adding extra users for the summer. Often your current employees are familiar with your inventory. They may just know where certain things are kept and whether or not you have any in stock. New employees don't have that same knowledge base but if they have Stockpile easy inventory solution they won't need it. They can easily check inventory and locate exactly what they need. Not using Stockpile yet? What are you waiting for? Try Stockpile today!
