Seasonal workers are often a forgotten group, but they are vital to the success of many construction companies worldwide. Without seasonal employees, many companies would not be able to survive the busy season. So the cycle continues: seasonal employees are hired, they work through the busy season and they are gone until the employer starts looking again in the spring. This works, but are your seasonal employees engaged and doing the best work they possible can? Take your seasonal employee engagement efforts to the next level with these three steps.
Train Smart
While it may be tempting to front-load all the training an employee is supposed to do, this is not considered best practice. When an employee is introduced to high volumes of information at once, they are much less likely to retain it all. Try breaking up training into smaller increments to increase retention and allow for skill mastery before moving on to the next chunk of their learning plan. By introducing smaller pieces at a time, employers also give the seasonal hire the ability to do some applied practice before moving forward. An added benefit of smaller bits of training is that employees continue to look forward to more information, increasing their engagement and performance and improving overall worksite safety.
Recognize Employees
Be specific when recognizing employees for their hard work. AT the end of a long day on the jobsite, it can be tempting for project managers to give broad recognition to the whole team for what they've done, which can make any employee feel as though their individual contributions aren't important to the company and might make them feel that they are viewed as temporary members of the team and that their contributions are therefore less important. The good news? This is a simple fix. Talk to managers about naming specific employees when recognizing good work ("Walt, thank you so much for fixing the mechanical issue we were having today. We stayed on track because of you"). Your employees will notice and perform better because of it.
Selectively Invite Back
Seasonal employees provide a great opportunity to fill gaps in your workforce and plan ahead. While it's hard to forget the pressure to hire enough seasonal employees in time for the busy season, don't use it as an excuse to hire back low performing employees. Be sure to only ask back the top performers from that year. While it might be tempting to ask anyone who's willing to commit to the following year, think about the message that sends to your employees, both seasonal and permanent. That would tell your employees that their performance does not matter and that the company is only looking for warm bodies. It's no secret that this could negatively impact performance in subsequent years.
Implementing strategies specifically designed to engage seasonal workers will pay off in the long run. You will have a more productive busy season and will be more likely to have the workers you need when the next year rolls around. The BirdDogHR Performance Management System is a cloud-based software that allows team members to direct their own career development toward mutually agreed upon goals. Schedule a demo or contact us today for more information.
