What Is Temporary Staff Training?

Approximately 738,800 temporary employees were employed by US retailers last year throughout the festive season. Perhaps even more compelling is that just 60% of agricultural workers put in more than six months of the work year. There are many more instances where hiring temp employees is necessary. Consider ski areas that only require ski instructors during the winter. Or places that only need lifeguards in the summer.

If your company encounters cyclical lows and highs in the consumption of its products and services, temporary recruitment, also referred to as seasonal hiring, is the solution. When revenues don't completely cover the costs, it will save you several months' worth of wages and taxes.

However, because they are "temporary," transitory labor does not guarantee success during the busiest season. Hiring seasonal workers can provide you with a new set of difficulties.

Temporary Hiring Is Not a Quick Fix

While being completely aware that they're not a regular team member, temporary labor is typically thrust into the peak days of the year and required to function at the most significant level. This approach is risky for a team you'll rely on to see your company through the busy season. The answer? Offer temp staff training to your temporary staff. This strategy is significant for various reasons. The most active season of the year is typically when a temporary staff is placed and expected to perform.

Best Practices for Temporary Staff Training

You may already be persuaded of the value of training your seasonal workers. But you're presumably also considering the best way to put this into practice. Here are our top three suggestions and strategies to assist you with your temp training.

Regular Interval Training

While initial induction training is necessary, you should be careful not to burden your temporary staff with an excessive seasonal training load. You've heard it said: The secret to everything is balance. Therefore, aim to schedule consistent training throughout the year instead of planning all of it at once.

In the onboarding process, go over the most critical tools and skills. Ideally, you should prioritize the areas essential to carrying out the job. Keep the team-building and engagement exercises until later, saving valuable but less critical training. A more sustainable training load—one that inspires rather than terrifies—is obtained by scheduling continuous activity at regular intervals.

Even the finest amongst us sometimes find it intimidating to begin a new job. Even more so if you're a temporary employee starting a new group during the busiest time of the year and are just deemed temporary. So much for staying in your comfort zone!

Because of this, providing your seasonal personnel with on-the-job training and a "buddy" at work might be a valuable strategy for ensuring their comfort and competence. They are more likely to pick things up fast and feel like a part of the team when seasonal employees are paired with an established, permanent employee.

Creating Lasting Training

The next difficulty after investing in seasonal training is ensuring that all the knowledge gained during that training truly manifests as attitudes and behaviors in the workforce. Here, management is crucial. The management should encourage employees to use their new skills in the workplace and promote seasonal training. Managers can encourage good employee behaviors in part by rewarding them.

We're talking about rewarding seasonal workers each time they put what they've learned in training into practice. This methodology could be anything from verbal praise for excellent work to material rewards like cash bonuses or vacation days. Seasonal workers are encouraged by this kind of appreciation to put their newly learned information, abilities, and skills into practice.

The Advantages of Digital Temp Staff Training

Setting aside time for training might be challenging. Seasonal workers are frequently required to contribute to achieving sales goals and other corporate objectives. This expectation adds a slight inconvenience to training. The logistics of seasonal training don't have to be a nightmare, though. Even team-building exercises don't require the entire team to be present in the same place. How is that even possible? Through eLearning programs and online training.

Various cutting-edge technologies, including gamification, dynamic infographics, branched scenarios, and analytics, are available through eLearning. With these technologies, you can develop a convenient, entertaining, and optimized seasonal training program for retention and learning.

Furthermore, season workers can gain information and skills in manageable pieces when needed by using quizzes, discussion forums, and videos. In this way, employees' busy work schedules can accommodate training rather than the other way around.

However, if you decide that online seasonal training is the best option, pick the ideal LMS to conduct your training.