Seasonal hiring is beginning to pick up. Businesses often need extra hands during the holidays, and package carriers like the United Parcel Service begin their seasonal hiring efforts as early as August to be fully prepared for the increase in activity toward the end of the year.
Kohl's has already started its program for hiring more people to work the store, according to Human Resources Executive Online. One major goal of the company is to make the experience fun and enjoyable for the person being interviewed.
"I am such a strong believer in the candidate experience and employment brand," said Ryan Festerling, senior vice president of HR at Kohl's. "Referrals and having a positive experience are such an important part of [our] business. Whether [candidates] take the job or not, having a great experience with Kohl's as a brand is so important to this company."
Kohl's also takes the time to really investigate potential employees by conducting full background and drug checks on every seasonal applicant – whether temporary or not. the theory behind this is that one bad seed can spoil the experience for people coming into the stores to shop. Instead, the company wants consumers to be impressed with the professionalism of staff to go along with a sense of holiday cheer. As such, Kohl's encourages its managers to tell stories about past holiday experiences, letting workers know about anything that might happen in the current year.
"This is a fun time for us," Festerling said. "This is our Super Bowl. We're looking for a lot of people for a defined period of time to join in that fun with us, providing that great customer service."
Human resources also uses the time to inform seasonal workers about new programs and benefits packages through email campaigns. It even treats its new employees as potential brand ambassadors
Best practices for seasonal recruiting
Recruiting.com offers its own tips for those who want to hire the best applicants and have a great holiday season no matter what business it being conducted. For some industries, the busy season can be the summer when people vacation more often. For others, it can mean the tax season. Whenever a company finds that it needs more people during a certain time of the year, it's good to follow a few points of advice.
The first is to begin hiring early and be thorough managing the process. This means making a very descriptive job posting and it also means checking backgrounds and doing drug tests.
An additional point of advice is to consider hiring returning employees from seasons past, since they will have already been vetted.