Sure, it may be beach weather outside right now. But if your business gets busy around the holidays, it’s time to start planning your holiday hiring efforts for winter seasonal jobs. Many industries see a sharp boom in business around the holidays, including retail, food service and transportation. Even if things don’t get busier during the holidays at your company, you may be looking for coverage for full-time employees that take time off.
It’s a job seeker’s market these days, and we are already seeing lots of opportunities for winter seasonal jobs popping up. Target plans to hire 100,000 seasonal workers this holiday season, Macy’s is hiring 80,000 and UPS is hiring 95,000, just to name a few. For most of these companies, their holiday hiring volume is either the same or higher than they were last year. So, if you plan to compete for workers to fill your company’s winter seasonal jobs, you better pull out all the stops.
Post Your Winter Seasonal Jobs with EmploymentAlert and Jobdiagnosis
If you want to reach the right pool of talent to fill your seasonal employment opportunities, advertise your jobs with EmploymentAlert and Jobdiagnosis. Both of these job search sites specialize in customer service, retail, food service and seasonal jobs, and combined they receive at least 1.5 million website visitors per month. Job seekers can search the type of job they want in the location they desire and click to apply. With EmploymentAlert and Jobdiagnosis, job seekers can also sign up for daily email alerts that match them with jobs that fit their interests and skillset.
Attract Quality Talent to Fill Winter Seasonal Jobs at Your Business
To get started with your holiday hiring, make sure your job descriptions are updated and thoroughly state the skills and experience (if any) needed for every position you are recruiting for. Don’t forget to hire for attitude as well; include any personality traits that you want in your staff members. This is particularly important if their winter seasonal job requires them to deal with customers.
Here are some more tips for attracting quality talent for winter seasonal jobs:
- Offer rewards and competitive employee pay and benefits to seasonal workers. For example, Amazon offers attractive benefits to all of its employees including part-time and seasonal workers, such as health, dental and vision insurance, tuition reimbursement, flexible scheduling and bonuses.
- If they excel in their seasonal role, give employees the chance to pursue full-time job opportunities with your company. UPS is also known for promoting many of their seasonal associates to full time positions; up to 37% of workers that fill their winter seasonal jobs turn into permanent players.
- Create a seamless and convenient candidate experience when creating your online job applications. If your job applications are too complicated or time consuming, candidates are likely to give up and move on to the many other seasonal employment opportunities out there. Simplify the online application process as much as possible, ensuring it is mobile-friendly as well. According to an e-mail marketing study from McKinsey & Company, Google reported that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site they had trouble accessing, and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.
- In addition to posting your openings for winter seasonal jobs on job boards like EmploymentAlert and Jobdiagnosis, promote your holiday hiring in other ways as well. This includes posting job advertisements on social media networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and using those networks to build a pool of potential talent. Also, ask your current employees to refer any friends or family they have that they think would be a good fit for your company. If you like the performance of your employees, chances are they know someone else with similar work ethic, skills and personality traits.
For more advice on hiring, managing employees, trends in the job market and more, visit the EmploymentAlert blog. Employers face a competitive job market these days, and the job search and recruiting landscape is ever-changing, so it’s important to stay up to date in order to succeed with your holiday hiring efforts this year.
Author: Jessica Cody
Jessica Cody, a native of Fairfield County, Connecticut, has a background in online marketing and public relations. Currently, she works at VHMNetwork LLC in the role of Marketing Analyst. She is a graduate of the University of Connecticut, where she studied Journalism and Political Science. She is also an avid runner with a passion for the outdoors.
