How To Motivate Your Christmas Temps

How To Motivate Your Christmas Temps How To Motivate Your Christmas Temps 26 Nov 2018 Sonia Czajkowska The festive season for many businesses means investing in new hires to help cope with increased demand. Hiring temporary staff or Christmas temps allows a company to easily manage the workload during this busy time in a cost-efficient and flexible way. The concept of ‘temporary working’ has gained popularity in the last ten years with more than 800,000 employees in the UK currently working as temporary workers. More and more industries are offering temp roles during holidays to deliver quality service during these busy times. These industries are not restricted to sectors which traditionally experience increased business activity during the holiday season, such as retail and hospitality.  In fact, our consultants in the hospitality and business support sectors are seeing a rise in the demand for temporary workers during the festive season, a trend that continues to grow every year. Hiring new staff at this time of the year can be challenging for employers, but this should not deter them from having a proper on-boarding process for the temps. The seasonal nature of their contract does not mean that employers do not need to invest time and money in their Christmas temps - the fact that they are providing their services at the busiest time of the year should be acknowledged and appreciated by employers. Employers should be aware by now that motivating and rewarding staff is the key to achieving maximum productivity and greater staff retention. The same principles should be applied when dealing with Christmas temps, considering that you may decide to re-hire the temporary employee or offer them a permanent role.   Here are our top three ways in which you can motivate your temporary workers. PROVIDE TRAINING There is no better way to convey to your employees how valuable they are than by providing them on the job training to ease them into the role. You can enlist your permanent staff to ‘buddy-up’ or mentor the new temp recruits, helping to make a part of the team but also giving them an opportunity to interact with their co-workers. Also, entrusting your existing staff with greater responsibility can be good for morale. REWARDS It’s just as important to incentivise the Christmas temps as it is to incentivise their permanent co-workers. There can be no bigger motivation than rewarding the good work of your employees, which is why you need a reward system in place for the temps. Anything from praising their work in front of their peers/team, to rewarding them with gift cards on completion of a task can boost the morale of your temps and make them work harder. OFFICE ENVIRONMENT In our recent post we discussed how the psychology of an office workplace can impact the employees who work there. This especially holds true during the festive season. It is important that your work environment reflects positivity and enthusiasm to match the holiday spirit. Fostering a sense of fun at workplace will relax your Christmas temps who are new to your office and it will establish your reputation as a good employer brand in the minds of the new recruits. Adopting a culture of after-work get togethers, team lunches and team building activities can help in building an attractive office environment which in turn will motivate the staff to work enthusiastically. HOW WE CAN HELP With Christmas just around the corner, do you have all of your staff holiday requirements covered? We’d be delighted to be chat to you and discuss how we can support your company's requirements for temporary staff over the holidays and more. Eden Scott Aberdeen has dedicated consultants specialising in providing temporary and ad-hoc staff in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. We can help with any staff requirements within the hospitalitycatering sector, such as waiting and bar staff, kitchen assistants, porters and chefs of all levels. If you have events coming up and are short staffed for the busy Christmas period please get in touch with Sonia on 01224 653 372 or sonia.czajkowska@edenscott.com     If you’re looking for the assistance across the business support and or/office services functions, such as receptionists, administrators, project co-ordinators and so on, to cover holidays and absence throughout the holiday season, please get in touch with Jai on 01224 653 386 or jai.reynolds@edenscott.com We can help you cover anything from a part or full-time temporary cover to one day cover, a few weeks holiday or sickness cover, or longer term maternity cover. Eden Scott also covers a range of disciplines on a permanent and temporary basis including construction, supply chain and procurement and finance and accounting.