When you hire new employees, do you consider the seasons?
One of the challenges in workforce management is overlooking busy and slow seasons. This unpredictability can cause businesses to over hire during peak seasons, only to realize that they no longer need the same number of employees in a few months.
Managing your workforce strategies efficiently is crucial to ensure proper budgeting for seasonal recruitment. In this article, we’ll provide actionable tips to help HR and finance professionals navigate fluctuating workforce needs.
The Workforce Rollercoaster
Market demand often changes based on preferences, trends, economic conditions, and seasonality. Some months require businesses to hire more employees to compensate for the peak seasons. However, demand may stabilize or even dip, disrupting workforce needs and creating a cycle of seasonality.
Many other factors can affect demand:
- Demographic changes
- Innovations
- Government policies
- Technological advancements
This complicates the process of predicting demand, making it more challenging to realign budget and recruitment efforts.
The Challenge of Planning for Seasonal Surges
Despite regular planning and resource allocation, there’s one thing businesses can always count on—change is inevitable, and it’s a standard component of management.
- Predictions aren’t perfect. Businesses can forecast workforce demand based on data from previous years. But even forecasts can’t accurately predict unexpected swings in workforce demand.
- Annual budgeting isn’t flexible. Most businesses allocate a budget for the whole year, not per month. While it’s a standard business practice, there may be better ways to budget for potential changes in the market.
- Recruitment takes time. HR professionals rely on these budgets and predictions. However, talent acquisition is not a quick process. It usually takes a month just to fill an open role, and it may take longer depending on the position.
- Not all new hires stay. There’s always the risk of hiring the wrong individual, eventually leading to turnover.
All these variables can contribute to the challenge, risking businesses losing valuable resources and money.
8 Tips for Proper Management and Budgeting for Seasonal Recruitment
Data-driven decision-making is necessary to succeed in your recruitment efforts, and it’s even more efficient when paired with proven strategies.
Here’s how you can manage seasonal workers and ensure proper budgeting:
1. Create a good relationship between HR and finance teams.
HR and finance teams must work together to deliver the best results. HR teams can explain to the finance department how certain factors may affect workforce demand.
While consumer demands and holidays can help predict busy seasons, it’s best to be prepared and expect the need for more seasonal employees.
What if you have a budget for 50 employees, but a surge in staffing needs requires you to hire an additional 20? HR teams may struggle to find new applicants, potentially causing a loss in sales. Furthermore, the following months might require fewer employees.
This is why it’s important for HR and finance to continuously find ways to fill new roles from both the demand and budget perspectives.
2. Allocate resources by seasonality using data.
Data will always be an invaluable tool for businesses. Use predictive analysis to forecast your recruitment needs. By looking at historical data alone, company decision-makers can predict seasonal labor needs more accurately. This can prevent your business from hiring too many (or not enough) employees, allowing for a more efficient budget allocation.
With historical data, you can allot a fixed monthly budget. Different industries experience varying seasons, so it’s important to identify and assess your highs and lows.
Once you evaluate the seasons, allocate more budget for peak seasons and less for off-peak seasons. This helps create a benchmark for HR teams by creating a low and high limit depending on the demand.
Read more: Holiday Chaos Cure: Why Balance Isn’t Always the Answer
3. Set up a contingency fund.
Unfortunately, even data can’t foresee everything. Funds may need to be transferred from different business areas, which can disrupt the business. Some unexpected expenses include:
- IT projects that require quick implementation
- Competitors’ new products and services affecting sales predictions
- Internal ventures, products, or services without enough historical data for forecasting
- Changes to laws and regulations concerning privacy, security, and data storage requirements like GDPR or CCPA
- International policies affecting labor costs
Aside from forming a synergy between your departments, it’s necessary to establish contingency plans dedicated to talent acquisition. This ensures your HR department has enough budget if an unforeseen event affects the business.
4. Plan for flexible workforce solutions.
Having a system for fast recruitment can elevate your hiring strategy during unexpected fluctuations.
- Scale up: Consider offering part-time, freelance, or project-based positions that can be brought in quickly when needed.
- Scale down: On the other hand, once the demand levels stabilize, you can end the contract and maintain a smaller workforce.
This strategy allows you to scale up or down depending on demand without hiring full-time employees. It can also attract fresh perspectives and innovations that full-time employees might not have.
Don’t forget to balance your workforce based on your company’s needs and preferences. This will avoid the diminishing of institutional knowledge and culture-building.
5. Streamline onboarding and training.
The quicker you hire, onboard, and train employees, the sooner you can focus on core business functions. This can increase efficiency and productivity during times of uncertainty.
Invest in technologies like applicant tracking systems (ATS), unified communication platforms, project management programs, and automated training modules to ensure smooth transition and operation.
- Applicant tracking systems can reduce the time-to-hire and screening process.
- Automation helps streamline recruitment workflows and ensure consistency in applicant evaluation.
- Project management and collaboration tools help new hires get up to speed and communicate efficiently with their colleagues.
While these modern tools can be initially costly, they can significantly improve your recruitment process and ensure new hires have the support they need and can quickly adapt during peak seasons.
Read more: Build a Rock-Star Accounting Team: Tips for a Winning Training Program
6. Create a strong talent pool.
Building a talent pool requires years of interaction with qualified professionals. Recruitment will yield both positive and negative results. Turnover is an evergreen risk. Despite this, it’s best to keep a database of all your employees and candidates.
Having this talent database instantly gives you a pool of potential candidates to contact when you need to hire fast. Also, if you’ve already worked with a seasonal employee, chances are they’re still in part-time gigs. This proactive approach gives you a head start when seasonal hiring spikes occur.
Maintain good relationships with candidates and employees. For those rejected during recruitment, provide feedback and assurance that they’ll be contacted once a position opens. Stay in touch with those who leave your company, as they might become available in the future.
Read more: 5 Effective Approaches to Connect with the Younger Workforce
7. Leverage temporary staffing agencies.
One of the best solutions for filling seasonal positions is to partner with a staffing agency, such as Masis. Staffing agencies have a wide range of talent available, ensuring you find the right candidates quickly when needed.
The best part is that you don’t have to do it alone. Staffing agencies are dedicated to finding suitable workers for businesses. Whether you need part-time, project-based, or permanent employees, staffing agencies like Masis can support your needs—and with our Rapid Hire service, you don’t have to worry about workforce demand fluctuations.
Read more: Temporary Staffing Solutions: Bridging Staffing Gaps and Fluctuating Demand
Face seasonal challenges with Masis Staffing.
Masis Staffing delivers Service at its Peak—offering complete workforce solutions that go beyond filling positions. With 25+ years of experience and over 100,000 employees placed, we help you hire quickly, efficiently, and confidently.
Contact us today and discover how Masis can elevate your workforce.
