How to Hire Seasonal Workers: Detailed Guide

For many companies, hiring seasonal or holiday workers is an integral part of running a successful business. Your success can hinge on finding solid and reliable seasonal workers for the winter holiday rush, a dip in your full-time staff during summer vacation, or any other period in between.

In this guide, you will learn how seasonal workers differ from other workers, when it makes sense to hire temporary workers versus adding to your permanent staff, and the logistics behind it all.

Table of contents

• Who is considered a seasonal or holiday worker?
• When does it make sense to hire seasonal workers?
• What employment laws apply to seasonal and holiday workers?
• How to hire holiday workers
• Best practices when recruiting great seasonal workers

Who is considered a seasonal or holiday worker?

A seasonal worker is a person who is typically hired for a short period of time—a few days, weeks, or months—and provides assistance during particularly busy periods.

Often, these seasonal peaks begin and end around the same time each year. For example, many retailers hire additional customer service representatives

When does it make sense to hire seasonal workers?

The good news is that seasonal work is predictable, so you’ll be able to anticipate and plan for when you’ll need some additional help. Depending on your exact situation, there may be multiple times throughout the year when your business needs to engage in holiday staffing.

Beyond specific seasons, you can also predict when you’ll need to hire temporary workers during peak times within your industry. Accounting firms often need to hire seasonal help in the months before taxes are due. An e-commerce store selling children’s toys may need to onboard holiday workers to handle a rush of orders in December. Many full-time workers also decide to take time off during the summer months.

What employment laws apply to seasonal and holiday workers?

Employment laws vary between regions. Because seasonal employment is temporary, and sometimes contractors, you may need to follow different rules than you do for your full-time team. Laws regarding holiday workers can exist at the local, federal, and state or province level. They may impact how you handle a variety of employment matters such as:

• Scheduling
• Paid time off
• Benefits
• Overtime
• Taxes

If you aren’t sure what you need to do to be compliant, it’s always best to double check with an attorney. Look for a lawyer skilled in employment law for the region in which you are hiring seasonal workers—they’ll be knowledgeable on the appropriate rules and regulations.

How to hire seasonal workers

When it comes to filling seasonal and holiday jobs, you’ll want to streamline the search process. Finding a larger number of qualified workers in as little time as possible is often essential, in part because other companies may have the same hiring needs and be looking to increase their staff as well.

The best practices below will help you find the best seasonal workers for any job, at any time of the year.

1. Develop a hiring process for holiday workers

Because seasonal workers will be with your business for a shorter time than their full-time, year-round counterparts, you will want to develop a separate hiring process. Although there may be some similarities between your seasonal and full-time hiring processes, there are nuances you’ll want to keep in mind.

First, it’s crucial to post your seasonal job openings well before you need to fill the positions. A general rule of thumb is to post the position(s) the season before the one you need additional hands. An e-commerce company in need of additional customer service support for the winter holidays would want to begin collecting applications from seasonal job seekers in the fall. To handle a summer rush, a company may want to start the hiring process during the springtime.

Second, you’ll want to determine your exact needs before searching for potential candidates. There’s a good chance that you’ll need several seasonal workers with very different skill sets, such as:

• Web developers to make sure your site stays online during holiday sales
• Customer service representatives to answer the phone during busy seasons
• Accountants to process an influx of tax paperwork

2. Create a job posting for seasonal roles

Once you’ve determined your specific seasonal needs, you can craft and post great holiday worker job descriptions that will attract the right candidate. It’s important to accurately describe each position offered.

When you create your job posting, there are a few ways to make it clear you are hiring for a seasonal role:

• Job title: Be sure to include “seasonal,” “part-time,” the exact length of time, or something similar
• Job description: Typically, job descriptions that are clear and concise get the most responses. To find the right candidate for the seasonal position, indicate what level of expertise and specific skills you require for the role.
• Pay rate: Be transparent in what the pay rate and method will be for your seasonal position.

Decide how much visibility you would like the job posting to have and look at whether or not there are ways in which you can amplify the post to get more applicants. Some job search sites will allow you to pay a nominal fee to promote a job and attract a larger pool of candidates.

You can also choose to amplify the position on your own through your company’s social media channels, and encourage your followers to set up job alerts on job sites, and ask your best workers to share the openings with their friends and family members.

3. Interview potential holiday workers

When it comes time to interview seasonal workers, the process probably won’t be quite as long as it is for year-round workers.

While you might ask candidates for full-time roles to participate in several rounds of interviews, you may ask applicants for seasonal jobs to take part in just one or two conversations. Doing so can help you expedite the interview process and fill multiple positions quickly.

You can further streamline your holiday worker interview process by preparing a concise list of questions to ask each applicant. Examples of good questions for seasonal hires include:

• Have you ever worked in a position with a seasonal rush?
• Do you understand this role is not permanent?

• Why are you searching for a seasonal job?
• Do you have a flexible schedule?
• What is your availability during the workweek?
• Are you available on weekends?
• Are you available to work holidays?
• Are you familiar with our product/brand?

Aside from the interview questions above, you may also want to ask questions specific to the position. For example, if interviewing for a customer service representative, you can ask questions that help you learn more about prior customer service experience. These questions may be very similar to ones you ask full-time candidates, such as:

• How would you handle a customer complaint?
• What comes to mind when you think of exceeding customer expectations?
• Can you tell me about a time you helped an unhappy customer and resolved the situation?
• How well do you work under pressure?
• Are you able to work between the hours of 2 pm and 10 pm?

Asking questions like this is a helpful way to see if the candidate could excel in the role.

4. Onboard your new holiday worker(s)

One of the best ways to ensure a smooth transition for new hires is to establish a standard onboarding process.

When holiday workers join the team, they must fill out the correct forms required by the government to maintain compliance. These forms are typically different than those filled out by a full-time permanent staff member.

In addition to streamlining the paperwork side of onboarding, you’ll also want to develop a special training plan for seasonal hires. Because a seasonal worker is only with your company for a short period of time, you may not have time to send them through your company’s standard 90 day probationary and training plan.

Instead, you’ll want to find ways to make the training process as efficient as possible. You can do this in a few different ways.

Train hiring managers

Hiring managers will need to be prepared to support seasonal workers and focus on essential training points. Leaders will also want to prepare their full-time team members to work with the seasonal staff, including relaying expectations for everyone’s roles and responding to any questions or concerns.

Invest in the right tools

Because the onboarding process is much faster with seasonal workers, you’ll want to invest in the right tools to onboard temporary teams as quickly as possible. By hiring seasonal support on Upwork (or bringing any temporary worker to the platform via Any Hire) you can streamline this process. You won’t need to add your seasonal team members into your usual HR or payroll system—contracts, classification, and payment are all handled through Upwork.

Reward great work

When onboarding your seasonal workers, outline any rewards offered for high performance. For example, this could be the opportunity to work with the company again the following year (a retention benefit for high-performers) or a financial incentive if a seasonal project is completed early.

Best practices when recruiting great seasonal workers

When it comes time to engage seasonal workers, you’ll find there’s a lot of competition to hire the best. Keep these tips in mind to make sure you source strong candidates.

Consider using platforms that can help with vetting and screening

To make seasonal hiring as efficient as possible, consider using a job platform that will help with screening. When using Upwork, for example, you can:

• Post a job and review suggested talent profiles, then reach out to the ones you like the best
• Post a job and wait for professionals to send you proposals
• Work with one of our Talent Scout™ recruiters to develop a shortlist of qualified candidates

Regardless of the method you choose, you can quickly review talent portfolios and experience to determine who will be the best fit for your needs.

Think about your long-term needs

Although likely most of your seasonal workers will be only short-term hires, you should think about the big picture, too. Whether it’s working with the seasonal worker again during the same time next year or potentially using them to fill a similar full-time position down the line, make sure to note which temporary workers were great to work with.

If you found your holiday workers through Upwork, you can easily add them to your Virtual Talent Bench™ and quickly contact them again in the future.

Reevaluate your needs throughout the season

Check in from time to time during the season to make sure you don’t need to hire any additional staff to take on an influx of work. Even if you carefully planned your capacity needs in advance, you may find that business is booming more than expected.

You’ll want to be able to quickly bring on additional staff if needed—another instance where your Upwork Virtual Talent Bench and Talent Scout recruiter will come in handy.

Always focus on hiring great talent

Seasonal hiring doesn’t have to be a difficult task. By focusing on finding high-quality talent with specific skills, and leveraging technology to make the process easier, you can stay ahead of the holiday scramble and maintain business continuity with ease. Create or log into your Upwork account today to post a first job and find the perfect holiday workers for your needs.

‍

This article is intended for educational purposes and should not be viewed as legal or tax advice. Please consult a professional to find the solution that best fits your situation.