Summer is approaching, and it’s time for employers to start hiring for summer seasonal jobs.  If your business needs extra manpower during the summer months, it’s time to kick up the gears in your efforts for recruiting seasonal workers.  Especially if you need to hire a high volume of workers for summer seasonal jobs, it’s important to have a few strategies in place.   The competition for talent in the job market is high, so if you don’t plan ahead, your business is likely to suffer.  Here are some tips for recruiting seasonal workers and attracting summer talent:

1)  Decide who you want to target and how

The likeliest candidates for summer seasonal jobs are high school students, college students and retired seniors.  You can further decide the ideal candidates you want to attract for summer talent by evaluating your company culture and the duties that are involved in the jobs you are hiring for.  Once you decide the candidates you want to target, consider the best places to find them.  If you are looking for college students, start establishing relationships with local universities.  If you want to hire more high school students, consider sponsoring one of their sports teams.  Another great method for recruiting seasonal workers is to target your customers, since they are already passionate about your brand.  Advertise that you are looking for help on your company website, and at your brick and mortar establishment if you have one.

2)  Have job descriptions up to date and ready to go

It’s likely that the procedures and duties involved in your summer seasonal jobs aren’t exactly the same as they were five years ago.  To attract the right summer talent, make sure you have job descriptions that accurately list the duties involved, as well as the skills needed.  When recruiting seasonal workers, skills aren’t the only thing you need to be looking for, however.  Attitude is just as important, especially if you are hiring for customer-facing positions.

3)  Invest highly in training employees for summer seasonal jobs

A big mistake many employers make when recruiting seasonal workers is failing to train them thoroughly.  This can hurt your business in several ways.  First, when you just throw new employees into the fire without any proper training, they are likely to become overwhelmed and end up quitting.  Second, if the seasonal employees you hire aren’t trained to deal with customers, your customer service will take a nosedive, along with your sales and reputation.  Third, some of these seasonal employees may wind up in full time positions.  Try to attract summer talent that you would consider keeping with you long term, and invest in training seasonal employees with that mindset.

4)  Don’t get lazy with hiring procedures for seasonal workers

To ensure you are complying with labor laws, be sure to follow the same hiring and interviewing procedures for seasonal workers that would with any employee.   When recruiting seasonal workers, make sure you document them thoroughly in the talent management system you use, and see to it that they fill out all the appropriate paperwork.

5)  Offer incentives for seasonal workers

If you are recruiting a lot of seasonal workers, it’s likely some of them won’t work out and you will need to hire more employees later in the summer.  But to help ensure that the right workers stick around, offer special perks such as bonuses for seasonal workers that stay until the job is complete and you no longer need them.