After spending several weeks — not to mention the busiest and most stressful weeks of the year for your business — with temporary staff, you likely have by now a sense of who you’d like to bring on permanently. In fact, holiday help is the best to hire because you have no risk in hiring them for a few weeks: if they’re not up to snuff, you don’t even have to fire them! They already expect that their gig will be over when the new year starts. But that time they spend working for you is valuable training time, as well as time for you to assess whether they’re a good fit for your company.
If you are interested in hiring one or two permanently, go about it the right way.
First, Make the Offer
Don’t assume that the seasonal workers you have your eye on are necessarily interested in staying on beyond the holidays. Many may be students who need to focus on their studies rather than working full time. But be ready to make the offer appealing, as well as flexible. If you do have a contractor who doesn’t have 40 hours to give you once January rolls around, maybe you can be open to them working part time.
Provide Appealing Incentive
If they’ve proven themselves over the holidays, consider offering a pay increase along with that job offer. This can be incentive to stay, especially if they enjoy working for you.
If you feel like their holiday work showed they are ready for additional responsibility, consider making the job offer include a step up in job title or responsibilities. For example, your sales cashier maybe now will be granted the key to the store and get to open up in the mornings. Not only does this cater to their ego, but it also shows that you’re paying attention to their hard work, something everyone looks for in a good boss.
If They Say No…
If they are unable to take the permanent position, ask if they are interested in returning to help you for the holidays next year. Keep them at the top of your list; the benefit here is that you won’t have to spend time training them next year.
Take Care of Transition Paperwork
Once you’ve gotten a “yes” from your worker, handle any paperwork you need filled out, especially if the individual was working as a contractor (or 1099) and now must be transitioned to a full-fledged employee. If you’re offering benefits, get those taken care of immediately as well so they can start taking advantage of them.
Make sure you approve the pay increase and let your accountant know as well.
Consider Transition Training
The “new” hire may already be trained in all facets of your business, but if not, spend a few weeks ramping up their knowledge to handle those new responsibilities. Now that they know they’re here for the long haul, they may have more questions about how the company operates, as well as their role within it. Be open to answering those questions.
Remember: you want this employee to stay with you for years to come, so in some respects, you need to treat this transition as a complete new hire. That way, you don’t miss any opportunity to set them up for success and ensure that they are capable of doing their jobs to meet your expectations.
Images: ”Full-time job grunge blue vintage round isolated seal/ Shutterstock.com“
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