Finding Qualified People
Staffing For Seasonal And Temporary Needs
By Steven Pollack
Apr 7, 2006, 21:14

Finding part-time or seasonal help is important because most small retailers don’t have the resources to staff year round for the needs of peak demand periods.  Finding qualified employees is always difficult but even more so when the stress of the holiday season, inventory time, or a special store event requires attention to many other details besides staffing.

Another reason to hire a temporary worker is when you need to convert a paper system of customer receipts to an electronic customer database like Act.  In each of these instances your needs are time limited so you should be willing to pay above market labor rates to entice qualified people to take on a temporary job.

Paying higher than market will get you a highly qualified retiree or a stay at home mom who needs a little spending money. Trying to pay just what you think the job is worth, however, will likely net you lower skill applicants. Why would someone take a two month holiday season job at the same rate they can make at a permanent job?

Where should you look for temporary help?

If honesty, intelligence, and a good personality are important then you might consider hiring some of your customers.  You have already interacted with them so you have probably identified several good candidates already.  Ask them if they would be interested in part time work.  They will be flattered you think that much of them whether they accept or not.

If there is a reason this will not work for your situation then a very good resource is CraigsList.  This is the online equivalent of the classified section but with two important improvements.  First, it is free.  Second, it is read by a huge number of people who will respond immediately.  CraigsList is national but is broken down into city level ads.

For the purpose of employment there is a section called gigs for temporary job postings, and another job board for more typical job postings by work classification.  Using either one of these to post your temporary job will yield a large number of job seekers.

Another nice benefit of this system over a newspaper classified is that your listing can be anonymous.  You need to input your e-mail address in your listing but you can choose to have CraigsList annonymize it so the job seekers do not see it when they are responding to the listing.  Instead, CraigsList forwards their message to your e-mail address and you can respond to who you want.

I have used CraigsList several times when I needed 3 guys to help unload the import containers that come in once a month.  My business does not require this much labor on a regular basis so it is nice to be able to staff to my variable needs.  Paying a little extra is worth the assurance that I will get 15 to 20 applicants on short notice.