How to Find, Hire and Train Summer Employees

If your company hires summer or seasonal employees, you understand the aches, pains and benefits of the process. Summer hires require a specialized recruiting, hiring and training strategy due to the short-term and low-intensity work. HRinMotion, LLC is here to help you throughout the process.

Hiring: Start early and begin with clear job descriptions that align with your organization’s mission. Because you’re competing with numerous other seasonal opportunities, start with previous summer staffers or referrals from part-time employees who are already familiar with the company. But don’t sacrifice the business’s bottom line—look for those who are passionate, flexible and hungry to learn.

Recruiting: Consider reaching out to channels with obvious seasonal employee candidates such as higher education institutions, and be willing to stray from industry-specific spaces. HRinMotion, LLC provides you with talent planning strategies and recruitment development to ensure you find the right employees for your seasonal needs.

Training: Be both patient and focused when getting seasonal employees up to speed quickly. Give your new hires the tools and resources to get there and provide consistent feedback so both employer and employee have an efficient and worthwhile season. Consider training on a few specific tasks and areas, instead of a wider spread of organizational operations so the short season’s work is more concentrated.

But once the summer ends, how do you go about re-staffing? While some summer employees could blow you out of the water and prompt a job offer, it’s important to evaluate your summer staff as a whole and determine any gaps or areas of work that still need to be addressed. Once you define areas of focus, begin the process again with recruitment for fall and winter staff.