The hospitality industry has peak and off seasons that impact the demand for staff. Holiday periods, summer or winter vacation months, conferences and special events all change your staffing needs.
During quieter months, it may not make good financial sense to retain all your staff and manage salaries for redundant positions. On the other hand, having a full workforce is vital during peak seasons when all your rooms are fully booked and you need to cater to a full influx of guests. During these times, you cannot afford to face a staffing shortage.
You need to turn over rooms quickly, maintain facilities throughout the day, cater to guests with minimum wait times, and provide overall five-star service. Seasonal hiring is an efficient way to streamline your seasonal staffing needs, and it’s crucial for providing quality services and accommodations that help you maintain your brand.
The Benefits of Seasonal Hiring for Hotels
Your hotel can benefit from seasonal hiring practices in several ways.
You Gain a Competitive Advantage
The greatest benefit of seasonal staffing services is the ability to fill employment gaps during your busiest periods and gain or maintain your competitive advantage.
During peak seasons, there is enormous pressure on staff to perform their best. This is a natural result of catering to more guests at a time. An influx of guests means tighter deadlines all around.
With enough staff, you can provide outstanding service during your busiest times. While it is always vital to maintain your service standards, it often matters more when catering to seasonal guests. Your seasonal guests are paying premium prices for their experience, meaning expectations are higher.
Insights also show that over 40% of hotel patrons will leave a positive review if they had a good experience and that 48% will leave a poor review after a negative experience. Additionally, more than 80% of people will often read reviews before booking a stay at a hotel, and it is clear that these numbers matter. You can give yourself the competitive edge you need by hiring seasonally to ensure top service.
You Boost Operational Processes With Access to Top Talent
When hiring seasonal staff, you get direct access to a talent pool of experienced individuals who require minimal onboarding and training. Partnering with a hospitality staffing company streamlines the process. With this approach, hiring professional seasonal employees saves you time, costs, and resources associated with onboarding and training.
You also boost operational processes and efficiency by having enough staff to streamline various components, including:
- Extended business hours for restaurants and other entertainment areas.
- Schedules and handovers.
- Quality control.
- Last-minute stand-ins.
You Enhance Workplace Culture
Another benefit of hiring seasonally is that you can offer your valued, permanent staff time off during the holidays. The hospitality industry is demanding year-round, and the expectations and stress on hotel workers only increase during holidays and other peak times.
With more flexible working hours and downtime, staff enjoy a boost in morale and may work more productively. Distributing your staff’s working hours more evenly is an excellent way to show tenured staff appreciation.
The Benefits of Seasonal Hiring for Staff
The benefits of hiring seasonally are clear-cut for hotels. However, are any skilled staff actually interested in working seasonally? The answer is a resounding yes, as seasonal hiring benefits candidates, too:
- Seasonal hiring provides individuals who need flexible working terms with good earning potential.
- Candidates enjoy the opportunity to add roles at prestigious venues to their resume without committing to long-term contracts.
- Candidates with other seasonal jobs can supplement their income accordingly.
- Seasonal hiring may pave the way for other opportunities candidates are hoping for.
Best Practices for Hospitality Seasonal Hiring
By incorporating these best practices for seasonal hiring, you effectively prepare for your peak seasons and help ensure you hire the right candidates.
Opportune Preparations
Preparing for seasonal hiring is essential to ensure you can hire trained, experienced staff. While staffing companies have an extensive pool of talent, top talent is booked out quickly, and in exceptional cases, all seasonal employees may be completely booked for peak seasons.
A good time frame to follow is starting recruitment at least two to three months before any busy seasons. However, analyzing your historical data is best to help predict your staffing needs. This method is beneficial in the following ways:
- You get a more accurate time frame of when you will need extra staffing and how soon in advance you should prepare for additional staffing needs.
- You can gain insight into how much extra demand you have for each peak season. That way, you can determine how much extra staff to hire per busy season.
- Assessing your historical data helps you understand where you need the most additional staffing. You may need more housekeeping staff, kitchen staff, door staff, wait staff, or managers.
- With this data in mind, you allow yourself time to plan and budget accordingly as well.
Source Candidates From a Reliable Company
The most streamlined way to hire seasonally is by partnering with a reliable company that offers seasonal staffing services. While you can head up the recruitment process internally, it requires extensive time and resources. Creating and posting a job advertisement, wading through applications, setting up appointments, interviewing candidates, and drawing up contracts are time-consuming and resource-intensive commitments.
Working with a trusted staffing company allows you to get immediate support. The company’s candidates will be vetted professionals with seasonal hotel work experience.
To get started, it can help to write up a comprehensive job description so that you can easily communicate your needs with the hiring company. You can also elaborate on your company culture and the type of staff that would suit your establishment best. For example, does the position require someone more formal and reserved or more outgoing and charismatic?
Offer Competitive Benefits and Set Clear Expectations
It is key to set clear expectations for seasonal staff that you can communicate with your staffing company. You will naturally share your needs and expectations, compensation package, and benefits with the hiring company you partner with, but you should also communicate this information with staff during onboarding.
While the seasonal staff will require minimal training, you should not skip the onboarding stage. This is the time to help your seasonal staff feel as welcome and equipped as possible.
Sharing the following during onboarding can be advantageous for your business and the seasonal staff:
- A comprehensive tour of all facilities and staff areas
- An introduction to management and co-workers
- The standard for emergency procedures, including where all exits are located
- Schedule confirmations and all remaining paperwork
- Company values and culture
- All safety and compliance protocols
- The standard for uniforms, handovers, and reporting
- Necessary access and login information for hotel systems
- Customer service training that details your establishment’s standards
- Performance expectations
- Access to available resources and support
Experience the HotelStaff Advantage for Your Hospitality Seasonal Staffing Needs
Hiring seasonal employees is the most streamlined and efficient way to ensure all your staffing needs are met during peak seasons. At HotelStaff.com, we offer custom seasonal staffing services and other professional staffing solutions for the hospitality industry.
We have an in-depth understanding of your hospitality staffing needs and are committed to providing you with exceptional talent. We have experienced professionals available across the board, ready to assist with housekeeping, food and beverage, front desk and administration, hotel security, janitorial services, and other roles.
We also provide you with a tailored staffing strategy and immediate and ongoing support so that you can manage peak seasons. To prepare for your busy season by hiring for seasonal positions, schedule a free consultation with one of our helpful staffing experts today.
