Retention tips for seasonal staff

Having a hard time retaining seasonal staff? If they’re not properly prepared, your much-needed seasonal staff in Canada could end up leaving as soon as they’ve arrived.

 

The process of recruiting seasonal staff in Canada is time-consuming, costly, and can be frustrating and highly labour intensive. And after spending all the time, money and resources that go into recruiting employees into Canada, employers can still lose their newly arrived workers; if staff aren’t properly prepared for living and working in a new company, they may simply turn around and go home. If you want to keep your employees and maximize your recruitment investment, you need to have a retention strategy in place.

 

Manage your employee’s expectations

Effectively managing the expectations of your new workers will increase retention, build loyalty, and ensure your workers understand what the employment experience – and the experience of working for your company – will involve.

 

  1. Set clear expectations

 

  1. Uphold and deliver on those expectations

 

  1. Provide opportunities for questions

 

Clearly outline your company’s expectations for seasonal staff member

Be specific about job responsibilities, housing, payroll, days off, employee benefits, etc. team members that have this important information before accepting a job offer will be less likely to leave due to misunderstandings.

 

Deliver on those expectations

If an employee is initially informed that a job is 40 hours a week with opportunities for overtime, but they arrive to a 35-hour position, they will feel cheated and betrayed. Instead, we recommend that you under-promise and over-deliver. Start off by telling your team members that a job will start at 35 hours a week, then provide additional, optional work hours upon arrival; they will see you in a more positive light, and you will have a happier, more satisfied employee.

 

Give them a chance to ask questions

Many of the countries that new Canadian workers in Canada come from have cultures that frown on questioning authority figures. By providing a safe, non-judgemental environment in which all questions are answered, you can build trust and camaraderie, and give them the sense of the open, friendly culture of your company.

 

TIP: Manage expectations by under-promising and over-delivering.

 

In addition to the partnerships mentioned above, we also share resources with two other targeted job boards.

www.aboriginaljobboard.ca is a national resource for first nation job seekers looking to work across Canada.

www.canadayouthworks.ca is a national job board for youth with barriers to the job market.

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