With the holiday season approaching, it’s time to think about how well your company is engaging your seasonal staff. These employees go through the employee life cycle (especially the onboarding and training process) in a condensed period. This same group of talent represent your brand during peak volumes and high pressure situations while customers often use their biggest voice to share stories of their interactions with your employees on the internet – influencing brand perception with your key stakeholders.
Whether you’re a retail company preparing for the influx of shoppers, a business in the hospitality and tourism industry, or perhaps a logistics company getting ready for increased deliveries, there are some important considerations when working with your seasonal team:
- Training and Orientation
Seasonal staff are often rushed into their roles, with onboarding focused on very clear tasks. Focus on sharing the customer value proposition, company behaviours, employer brand and personality. You are essentially throwing this talent to the masses in an effort to best represent your image. Take the time to review your formal training and orientation program for temp and seasonal workers – is the brand and EVP content clear, comprehensive and delivered in a manageable timeline? How are existing staff involved in welcoming new hires? Encourage collaboration and discussion between existing and new staff to help new hires understand what to expect throughout the season, and where to turn for extra support – brand ambassadors will be particularly helpful in mentoring your seasonal team. With good training and orientation, seasonal employees will be more prepared to embody your company’s values, and have stronger performance as a team through challenging situations. It is not too late to implement 30 minutes dedicated to the company purpose, Customer and Employee Value proposition and brand experience.
- Lifecycle Alignment with EVP
Take action to ensure that seasonal workers’ time with you is well aligned with the EVP and employer brand. When contracts with seasonal workers end, talk to them about their experience and ask for feedback and advice for future. Do they know what career options look like in the future at your organization? Educating this talent pool on what long term career stories look like, helps to spread the word about your employer brand and can change perceptions amongst millennial talent. You may also want to hire star performers as full time employees, or bring them back for the next season – employees who had a positive experience are more likely to stay with your company, or keep it top of mind as their company of choice. 80% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family. Take advantage of this tremendous opportunity to deliver a great Employer Brand experience in the short time you have this large talent pool.
- Communication, Exit and Seasonal Alumni Strategy
Don’t forget to include your seasonal team in your ongoing employer branding efforts! They can easily be missed in your annual employee engagement surveys, or regular communication meetings. Ensure that you have tools or procedures in place to capture feedback and their perceptions about their work experience. Consider using seasonal worker specific surveys, focus groups, and exit interviews to discuss their experience, and compare it to other roles they may have held external to your company. Feedback from seasonal workers provides a unique look into your company’s employer brand. It captures the pulse of what your company is like during busier times, and will enable you to improve the training programs and seasonal employment process for the future.
Invite this talent pool to be a part of ongoing emailers, or newsletters. Many will be returning to campuses that you will look to recruit from in the months ahead.
Working effectively with your seasonal employees will keep your customers happy through the holidays, create opportunities to gather new insights on your EVP, and strengthen your employer brand.
For more insight and information about how to power your brand with the Seasonal Employee Experience, contact Stacy Parker, Managing Director through email at Blu Ivy Group sparker@bluivygroup.com
About Blu Ivy Group
Blu Ivy Group is a leading employer branding and employee engagement consultancy that aligns your organization with contemporary workplace paradigms. Blu Ivy Group’s mission is to help client’s build award-winning people practices, inspire extraordinary employee engagement, and cultivate unique and desirable workplaces.
Blu Ivy Group provides integrated solutions in employer brand and engagement research, strategic consulting, employer brand integration, creative and talent communications.
Blu Ivy Group is a trusted partner to many of North America’s most respected employer brands. For more information, go to www.bluivygroup.com