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Hiring Seasonal Employees – Understanding the Benefits and Drawbacks

All businesses need to trigger their growth every month. But for seasonal businesses, there is a particular period of the year when they can grow and generate more profit. Just like the water drainage companies are more active in monsoon, lights, and other decoration stores on Diwali and color stores on Holi. But in order to do that, they need to hire seasonal employees. There are seasonal employment categories that are renowned more. But the success is obtained when the employer hires the right person at the right time. Once the season is over, such an employment offer is of no use. Thus for your seasonal business, you must understand the importance of hiring seasonal employees.

The payroll for seasonal employee is different from the payroll for permanent employees, the seasonal employees are paid on weekly or biweekly or just for the amount of days they worked and sometimes they are paid on hourly basis, to tackle this issue you can use a payroll management software, as it will help you process payroll of seasonal employees with ease.

What is Seasonal Employment?

As The fruits are seasonal. Just like that, the employees can also be called seasonal. This kind of employee or workers are the one performing jobs for particular months while staying unemployed or working somewhere else for the rest of the year.

To be precise, the agricultural sector shows the best example of a seasonal employee/ worker. Farming consists of sowing, tilling, and harvesting the land, which only happens once or twice a year. Thus the workers here are only active during such time. In layman’s language, the nature of such employees changes with the seasons.

Similarly, some small businesses are also active during a particular season of the year; thus, it is essential for the employer to understand the benefits and drawbacks of seasonal employees.

What are the Benefits of Hiring Seasonal Employees?

1. Cost-Effectiveness

The primary benefit of hiring seasonal employees is cost cutting. For the businesses that operate for a specific period only, the costs incurred for hiring employees and providing them payroll will be one time only when the company will be actively working. Moreover, as seasonal employees are a kind of part-time employees, they are subjected to a pro-rata-based salary. Thus reducing the payroll costs.

2. Support During Busy Periods

Bringing in seasonal workers during busy periods will take the pressure off your existing staff and provide much needed support, without requiring you to hire permanent employees who may not be required throughout the rest of the year.

3. Opportunity for Unemployed Workers

Seasonal employment can be a great opportunity for unemployed workers, it can help them pay the bills until they find any permanent job. It can also help them learn new skills which they can put into their resume.

4. Reduce Risks

In seasonal employment, the employees can be freed after the season ends. Thus, it is less risky even if you hired any misfit employees. You don’t have to spend a lot of time behind them or have to keep paying them as permanent employees. Always remember, if they are the best fit for your company, rehire them or make them permanent.

What are the Drawbacks of Hiring Seasonal Employees?

Any technology or method comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. Similarly, hiring seasonal employees may bring some inbuilt flaws that no employer would want.

1. Reduced Training Period

Due to the short span of a season, employee hiring and training are generally on a quick note, and thus the employees are less trained for the work they have been assigned to do. Due to lack of training, the employee won’t be productive enough and won’t be able to manage the burden of tasks. They develop less interaction with other workers and thus start to feel less interested in their work.

2. Commitment Issues

Because of the default mindset of leaving the job after the season, the employees don’t bring the much-expected output as they should. Due to their limited amount of employment with the company, they are not seriously attached to the job and take it for granted. This kind of employees lacks the commitment to the work, brings undesirable results, and turns down encouragement.

3. Lack of Loyalty

It is right that loyalty and trust come alongside each other. But it takes a more extended passage of time to build. And as the seasonal employment is for the sake of one season, employees leave at the end. Thus it is hard to maintain that significant loyalty in them. However, offering them more benefits and flexibility may help intensify the relationship of trust.

Takeaways

Whether it is seasonal employment or permanent employment, the regular practices of offering benefits and maintaining trust in employees are essential things for running a business. Sometimes employers hire just to get their work done with no importance to the relationship. But that’s not enough to survive in the market with daily ups and downs.

An employee needs benefits to get attracted to the job, and their work productivity is what the employer seeks. Thus all the processes are connected. If you need services, you have to offer some benefits to the opposite party.

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