Shawnee Love   •  
February 3, 2010

Although the groundhogs may be predicting 6 more weeks of winter, the Okanagan’s summer season will be upon us soon enough. So how do you go about bringing on summer help? If you don’t have a collective agreement that discusses how to bring on seasonal help, here are my “cole’s notes” of what to do to ensure you have the right people in the right places at the right times.

1) Start early. Employers, who want to get the pick of the university or high school crowd, are already contacting schools to put in their requests for the best and the brightest.

2) Know your needs. Figure out how many positions you have to fill, what those positions are, and when you need the employees to start. Track each job as you fill it so you stay on top of what is needed.

3) Have a recruitment plan. Think about where you can find the people you need. Great sources of candidates include:

• Returning seasonal employees. If you haven’t been keeping in touch with your seasonal staff from last year, it is time to call them up (only the ones you want to have back of course). Find out how they are doing and whether they would be interested in returning to you for a guaranteed summer job. Returning employees are such a great way for a business to reduce recruiting and training time and costs. Want to further distinguish yourself from other companies? Include Valentines Day chocolates or a Starbucks coffee card with the offer letter to say thanks to your returning employee. Small gestures like these add a memorable touch and might get you a further referral.
• Referrals. Tell your employees and returning seasonal employees that you are hiring for the summer and ask if they know anyone they can recommend. Consider giving a reward and remember to say “Thank you” for a successful referral.
• Schools. Befriend career counselors and advertise with school career centers in January and February. Make sure they know you are hiring and are telling their students about your opportunities. Follow up regularly and let them know when you’ve filled your roles.
• Companies that only operate in the winter. Call the operations managers at your local ski hills and find out if they would be willing to point their exiting employees your way. This process of cross referrals has the makings of a beautiful relationship based on a shared work force without overlapping or conflicting seasons. The employees win too with good seasonal jobs and the chances to stay in the Okanagan throughout the year.
• Retirees. The Okanagan has a wealth of active, energetic retirees who love to be involved and have great knowledge and experience to share. They are also able to stay on later into the fall than students which is great if your “summer” business doesn’t end on Labour Day.

4) Do reference checks. I’ll talk more about the importance of reference checking seasonal hires at a later date, but suffice to say, references are an important part of recruiting. Saying that, I don’t recommend reference check returning seasonal employees because you already know how they worked out.  And candidates from strong referrals might only need a quick call to confirm they are as wonderful as their referee said they were.

5) Train well. My top 3 reasons for training seasonal employees are:

• Well trained employees do a better job.
• Employees feel valued by your training investment which increases the possibility they will return next year (i.e., saves you time and money).
• You meet your obligations to Worksafe BC which has rules in place about orienting young workers to the job and work environment.

A final piece of advice about seasonal recruiting is that the best way to get insight into your seasonal recruitment program is to ask your seasonal employees. Do exit interviews before your seasonal employees leave, compile the information, and look for opportunities to do better the next year.

Good luck and Happy Seasonal Recruiting!