June 4th, 2021
A Guide to Filling Summer Job Positions Successfully
As a manager, the summer season means thinking about the vacation calendar and a potential staff shortage. With summer being the boom period for your business, you are likely to consider hiring part-time workers. While the idea is to fill summer job positions, you need to be strategic, just as you would be when hiring full-time employees. Below is a guide to filling summer job positions.
Are Summer Employees Essential?
The short answer is yes. Here’s why you need to hire summer staff for your small or large business.
1. You can finally complete your to-do list
Usually, your company will have a list of tasks that may not be urgent but require completion. Hiring summer staff skilled and knowledgeable to work on these projects could lead to better efficiencies and overall streamlining of company processes.
2. Summer employees could eventually become permanent employees
While your goal is to offer summer employment sorely, it’s crucial to think ahead. Therefore, it would be wise to build a positive relationship with summer staff who you believe could be a good fit and contribute to company growth.
3. Temporary staff help to boost innovative thinking
Summer employees can bring fresh ideas and solutions to problems that your team may have been struggling to solve. So, ensure they are present in discussions and meetings.
4. It’s an excellent way of nurturing talent
Hiring students for summer jobs helps develop their skills and exposes them to the world of employment. Remember, these students are tomorrow’s workforce. Therefore, giving them meaningful experience helps shape future leaders and innovators.
5. Summer staff help to balance staff shortages
The summer season is when many of your permanent employees would love to go on vacations. Bringing in summer employees helps to avoid overburdening the remaining workers and minimizes the risk of potential productivity loss.
How to Fill Summer Job Positions With Talented Candidates
Getting suitable candidates, whether they are from high school or college, matters. Here are our valuable tips for finding the most qualified applicants.
1. Hold hiring events
Holding a recruiting event at a local university or a job fair is ideal for attracting talented candidates. Put in the effort to make the hiring event unique. For instance, Taco Bell’s hiring parties which began in 2018, have become a success. Last year, due to the pandemic, the company hosted drive-by interviews, a different but unique hiring approach.
If you are unsure where to begin, here are a few recruiting events you may want to try once it’s safe to hold physical events.
- Micro hiring events. Such events include one-on-one meetings with recruiters or drinks at the university cafeteria.
- Hackathons. Hackathons are excellent opportunities to test students’ skills outside of the typical interview surroundings.
- Class presentations. Your company can send one of your employees to present what the company does, something related to the curriculum. Those interested can then reach out to the campus recruiter.
- Online job fairs
- Panel discussions
2. Develop a referral program
There’s a reason why your employees are the company’s most essential asset. Referral programs are but one of them. Hiring talented candidates could increase sales by 20% and productivity by 10%. According to Gallup, internal referrals are a surefire way to accomplish this goal.
Your employees have their separate networks, including old colleagues and classmates. Also, having worked for your company, they are fully aware of the work demands and company culture. Therefore, whoever they give referrals to will likely be a good fit.
Additionally, knowing a referral will impact their reputation, your staff will ensure they suggest highly qualified candidates. Gallup also found that the referral system differs depending on the job level. Simple emails and referral benefits work best for entry-level roles.
3. Post on highly-rated job boards
Another strategic method of filling summer job positions is posting on job boards, something a trusted staffing agency could do for your company. This staffing agency will identify the niche job boards for college students.
We also recommend engaging retirees. These people have decades worth of experience. Besides, workable schedules make retirees ideal summer staff.
4. Invite previous summer workers back
Remember when we asked you think long-term? Recruiting top talent is a challenge. So, you must do your best to retain the best employees. We recommend sending personalized emails to your best summer workers expressing your desire to hire them for current summer jobs.
5. Partner with a staffing agency in Fort Lauderdale
Working with PrideStaff will significantly reduce your stress of recruiting top talent. PrideStaff has extensive experience recruiting seasonal workers across various industries. Also, being active members of the Fort Lauderdale community, we have access to a vast local candidate pool.
That’s not all! Our intricate interview process involves performing background checks and rigorous interviews. This meticulous approach ensures any candidate we recommend is qualified for that summer job.
Tips to Help You Prepare for Summer Recruitment
Summer recruitment pre-planning goes a long way to ensuring you hire qualified candidates. Let’s explore a few things to do before you begin summer staffing.
1. Place a deadline for leave requests
Many employees will request to take time off during summer when the weather is perfect and schools are closed. To avoid a massive staff shortage that will leave your company in the lurch, place deadlines for leave request submission.
2. Track vacation requests
Monitoring your employees’ days off is necessary. And, we sure do hope you haven’t been manually tracking your employees’ leave requests. Make use of your human resource information system (HRIS) as it offers great flexibility. HRIS helps manage time, promotes transparency, reduces remittance mishaps, and fosters accountability.
3. Assess the previous summer’s performance
Examining the previous year’s summer staffing helps gauge your company’s position from business fluctuations to deficits. Such information will guide your current recruitment strategy.
4. Cross-train employees
Cross-training your employees keeps the wheel turning as it ensures staff can perform various functions besides what they were hired to perform. Cross-training comes in handy as it allows more wiggle room in scheduling staff.
5. Ensure your company remains compliant when hiring minors
Recruiting minors is standard for business owners, particularly during summer when schools are closed. If your company is planning to hire young students, you must ensure that you remain compliant.
The Fair Labor Standards Act lays out all child labor laws. We also recommend checking your state’s labor laws to see any other restrictions. The US Department of Labor has restrictions that prohibit minors from working in hazardous sectors such as machine and mining operations, logging, brick manufacturing, and excavation.
If unsure about your state’s labor laws, we recommend working with an experienced staffing agency conversant with such restrictions.
Partner With PrideStaff This Summer Season
Hiring seasonal employees this year can be painless if you worked with the PrideStaff employment agency. Our expertise and relevant experience make us the ideal staffing partner for you. Our services also include call center, administrative, and clerical staffing. There’s no need to wait until the last minute to start hiring. Contact us at 754.800.2850 to begin the process today!