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Five Benefits of Hiring Temp Personnel
5 Benefits of Hiring Temporary Workers
A boost of manpower at your company has many benefits, but this influx of staff also comes with its own set of challenges. So why you should consider hiring temporary workers in the first place? Whether you’re stocking up on staff for the summer tourist season, or bringing on extra talent for a special project, short-term hires can help your company in a number of ways. Here’s a look at the top five benefits of temporary hiring.
It provides flexibility in an unstable economy
Smaller companies have to be able to adapt their team during busy or low periods, but hiring and firing permanent staff can be time-consuming and detrimental to morale. “Being able to bring on more workers or scale back the workforce to respond to the ebbs and flows of demand is highly desirable to business owners,” says Liberty Staffing. Temporary staff can also provide a quick fix for sudden turnover, long-term leaves, and special projects.
It gives your company access to new skills
The cliché of the temp tends toward lower-level admin roles, but the reality is that temporary staff can bring new skills and perspectives to their role that can, in turn, improve efficiency or streamline production. If a new project or product requires skills outside of your team’s area of expertise, a temporary employee can provide that new talent to keep things moving.
It saves you money
While the exact logistics of temporary hires differ from company to company, the process is usually far more cost effective than making a permanent hire. Hourly rates can sometimes be implemented rather than a salary, and with reduced – or at least short-term – availability to benefits and other company perks.
It can lead to meaningful hires
Finding employees that are the right fit for your workplace is always a challenge. Temporary employees, on the other hand, can provide employers with the chance to evaluate workers over a longer period of time without committing to a permanent offer. It can also alleviate some of the urgency associated with filling an opening in your permanent staff – having a short-term employee in place during your recruitment process ensures you take your time finding the right hire.
It can boost morale
The addition of short-term employees can also help the overall workplace mood. “When your employees are forced to work double shifts, to work nights and weekends, and to take on extra roles and responsibilities because you’re shorthanded, morale can quickly decrease,” says Liberty Staffing. “Your employees can get stressed, become exhausted, and burn out.” Offering extra help during your company’s busiest periods (or when personnel turnover leaves your under-staffed) ensures your core team stays happy and productive.
Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.
Wrapping Up Summer Season
Seasonal employees are a vital force in many local businesses. Before your summer employees head out, there are a few things you can do to wrap up the season and start planning for next year. If you want to acknowledge a worker’s contributions and leave the door open for them to return next season, follow these tips.
Review the Employment Contract
It’s important to know how to properly terminate your seasonal workers, which is usually described in the Employment Contract. Some seasonal contracts end on a set date, but others only end upon notice. If that’s the case with your company, ensure you give your employees enough notice (usually two weeks) that their contract is ending.
Acknowledge Their Good Work
As with any employee, it’s a good idea to conduct performance evaluations to ensure your workers know that their hard work is recognized and appreciated, particularly if you’d like them to come back next year. Seasonal workers who know they’re valued may be more likely to return.
Provide an Opportunity for Feedback
Giving your workers the chance to provide feedback in an exit interview can go a long way to improving retention. The opportunity to have their say can improve employee morale and help them feel valued, in addition to building a mutually supportive work environment. Employee feedback also provides you with valuable insights on what you’re doing well as a manager and where your business or leadership needs to improve.
Would They Like to Return?
Share your hiring projections for next year (e.g. how many individuals you plan to hire, and whether you will be promoting experienced workers) and ask your valuable workers if they’d like to return. Do this sooner rather than later so they don’t start job hunting elsewhere.
Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.
How to Keep Talented Employees – In the Roaring Fork Valley and Beyond
How to Keep Talented Employees – In the Roaring Fork Valley and Beyond
A key to a successful business is retaining talented and experienced employees. Few things in business are as costly and disruptive as loosing key employees in your organization. This rings true especially for the Roaring Fork Valley, where the talent pool is limited from purely a numbers standpoint. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the average turnover rate is close to 9 percent per year, but it’s more than double that in a seasonal resort community like Aspen, Basalt, and the lower valley. So what can a business do to retain their employees and keep things running smoothly?
Advancement
Not everyone can be the person in charge or a supervisor since there are a finite number of “upper-level” positions in the Valley. To keep your talented and experienced employees, they need to be engaged and excited about their work. They need to be influencing decisions, solving problems and making a bigger impact. And while this traditionally comes with formal promotions, advancement can also be accomplished with evolving job descriptions and responsibilities. Checking in with employees to get their ideas related to business practices and policies will help them feel valued and will allow their voices to be heard – thus giving them a stake in the success of the business.
Recognition
The best leaders don’t take credit – they give it. A simple pat on the back or “job well done” goes a long way in terms of motivation and productivity for employees – not to mention the overall moral of an organization. Simple gestures such as brining in snacks, hosting a luncheon, or awarding certificates when goals are reached can incentivize employees to keep working hard. When employees get positive feedback they feel more emotionally connected to the leaders and the company; thus, they are less likely to jump ship.
Competitive Compensation
The desire to make more money is a very common cause for employees to leave their jobs. Whether they can actually secure a new position with a higher compensation package is yet to be proven – but the yearning is ever present in the valley because of the incredibly high cost of living. A study done by WorldatWork, the Hay Group, and Loyola University found that 83% of organizations will pay key employees above the going market rate to keep them, and 73% say this is an effective retention strategy. Obviously this has to work with the bottom line, but if it costs approximately 50-200% of an employee’s annual salary… Well, the extra compensation could well be worth it in the long run.
Clear Vision
Erika Anderson, a Forbes Magazine contributor and national known leadership coach, believes lack of clarity is one of the reasons people leave organizations, period. Employees need to know the reason for what they’re doing and how they contribute to the vision of your company. If you are clear about what you want to accomplish as an organization and enlist the support of your staff to help bring the vision to life – people will not only stay, but thrive.
Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.
Roaring Fork Millennials – Ideas for the Workplace
The U.S. and many international marketplaces have been dealing with multiple generations in the workforce since the beginning of capitalism. This already challenging dynamic is becoming more complex as the average retirement age skyrockets. Thanks to the financial crash in 2008, many Baby Boomers are forced to work, at least part time, well in to their seventies. According to the Labor Force Demographic Data and the Bureau of Labor, by 2014, nearly one-third of the total U.S. workforce (32%) will be age 50 or older. This will be a significant increase from 27 percent in 2005. With Generation Y or Millennials beginning careers, it means the number of working generations has reached an all time high.
So what is the big deal with 22 year-olds working with 67 year-olds? The issue is summed up by the age-old term – the generation gap. This phrase is used to describe how older and younger generations have different interests and communication styles in one moment (i.e. parents and their children). Traditionally the “gap” resolves itself as the child grows up and becomes very similar to their parents. This paradigm has shifted dramatically in the post-Baby Boomer era. Generational replication is not happening for young adults have different values, ideas, perspectives, work and communications styles than their ancestors – causing a true shift in how generations relate to one another.
At work, generational differences can affect nearly everything, including recruiting and hiring, building teams, dealing with change, motivating, and managing. With such a variety of people with a wide range of ideals, values, and goals – there are bound to be miscommunications and misunderstandings. This causes tension and adversely affects moral, employee interaction and productivity.
The Generations
Understanding who people are and where they come from is paramount to navigating the multi-generational workplace. Obviously you must be careful not to stereotype individuals based on when they were born, but studies show there are commonalities in viewpoints, values and behavior in generations. The nomenclature may vary but below is a generational grouping snapshot:
- Veterans, World War II, Traditionalists – born 1922-1945, value conformity, discipline, one-on-one communication, the radio shaped their worldview, they “make do or do without” and were able to sacrifice
- Baby Boomers – born 1946-1964, the largest generation ever, competitive and job focused, all about paying your dues, optimistic, want to change the world, influenced by the advent of television
- Generation X – born 1965-1980, informal, skeptical and independent (latchkey kids), take care of themselves and results-driven, always asks “why”, influenced by the advent of the computer
- Generation Y or Millennials – born 1981-2000 – a social generation on many levels, confident, flexible, love technology, want feedback, serve the community and achieve NOW, communicate via email and connect 24/7, the internet rules all
Suggestions for the Workplace
Being aware of inter-generational troubles is one thing, but truly addressing and managing them is another. The biggest and first step is to truly accept that all people, especially individuals from different generations, are different than you. It sounds so elementary but we get caught up in our own egocentricity and forget that everyone has a valid and varied perspective on the world and therefore on the way they communicate in and out of the workplace. Below are a few tactics that are based on this foundational idea.
No blanket communication strategies
You simply must adjust the mode and language in which you communicate based on the generation and the individual. Boomers may prefer to communicate by phone or in person. Millennials grew up being in constant communication with peers and coworkers so are accustomed to emailing, texting or sending instant messages. Figure out what works best for the recipient, not your favorite method.
Work environment
Offer different working options like telecommuting and working offsite. Focus on the results employees produce rather than on how they get it done. This will give employees some flexibility on how they want to work and put everybody, regardless of where they spent most of their time working, on the same scale to measure success. Telecommuting can also encourage Boomers nearing retirement to stay on staff longer since the option allows them to ‘gear down’ their workloads.
Dealing with changing work/life balance
It is easy to judge a Millennial for taking the afternoon off on a sunny day to take a bike ride or hit the ski hill for some turns, when your background as a Baby Boomer is all about dedication to a profession and “working to live”. Conversely Generation Xer’s might think Veterans “don’t have a life” and take work a bit too seriously. Once again we have to honor the work ethic and values of everyone. As long as the work gets done, does it matter?
Encouraging mentoring
Mentoring is somewhat a lost art in the modern working world. Supporting mentoring programs and structures in organizations increase cross generational interaction and has a host of positive benefits. Older workers have expertise and wisdom to share while younger employees have a fresh perspective and typically an incredible grasp on technology. Putting together brainstorming sessions from all age levels means more viewpoints and more creativity. Why not capitalize on the differences rather than be hindered by them.
Sources:
Harvard Business Review
Forbes Magazine
The Center for Association Leadership
AARP Leading in a Multigenerational Workforce
Fairleigh Dickenson University – Generation Research
Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.
Insider Tip: 5 Tips to Save Time
With all of the electronic “clutter” in todays world, we tend to get distracted from doing the important things. Here are 5 ways to deal with that clutter
- Reduce inbox volume. It has been reported that the typical business owner gets 100-200 emails per day. If you spend just 2 minutes on each email, that’s a lot of time! Save time by reducing the volume of email you receive. Unsubscribe to lists that clutter your inbox. If there are subscriptions that you want to receive but typically don’t have time to get to them right away, use filters so they will go directly into designated folders to look at later. And most important, touch email only once!
- Improve emails that you send. Start using shorter, more efficient messages in your email. When possible, simply put your message in the subject line and leave the body blank. When you send an email to multiple people at once, if possible, tell them to NOT “reply all.” This will help others reduce their email volume too. Another way to avoid multiple back-and-forth email strings is to use the phone more often.
- Clean up your inbox. Most inbox programs offer you the capability to create folders. Use this feature to create an efficient filing system for email. Create categories to keep emails where they will be easily retrievable.
- Limit the time you spend online, especially on social media. Be intentional about your online activities. Enough said.
- Process your “stuff” quickly. Every day we get bombarded with “stuff.” It just comes our way. Use the 2-minute rule…if you can execute on this item in 2 minutes or less, do it NOW! If it is going to take longer than that, put it on your To Do list for later.
Insider Tips from Gary Hartman, local Growth Coach
Hot Jobs, Inc. recruiters work closely with both clientele and candidates to create a successful placement by identifying, screening, as well as helping with retention according to the clientele’s personnel needs. We service the Roaring Fork Valley and surrounding areas including Glenwood Springs, Basalt, Aspen, New Castle, and Rifle, with our corporate headquarters located in Carbondale, Colorado.