Tips For Hiring and Training Seasonal Employees

For those of us who live and work in seasonal climates, hiring and training seasonal employees can be a challenge. Finding the right person for the right job can be critical to an operation.

Far too often we hire the first person who walks through the door, hope they are a good fit for the position and then train them on the run. Why? Because we desperately need to fill the void and we have not taken the time to research what goes into finding someone who is the right fit for the job, and who will return year after year.

Hiring

Finding the right person comes down to the following practices:

1. Get out in front of your employee needs. Analyze what your needs are in the off season.
2. Once you have determined where your vacancies will be for next season, get the word out to hiring resources. Don’t forget to encourage those who play golf at your facility.
3. Keep a watch for retired employees. Post notices at local schools. There are many teachers who retire each year who are looking for part time or seasonal work. 
4. Be careful not to fall into the trap of only hiring student help. The problem there, of course, occurs when the student returns to school and your permanent staff is left to handle the day-to-day operations.

Training

Once the staff has been hired for the season, the training begins. This training should apply not only to the oncoming staff but for the permanent staff as well. Each area of the operation should have a written document of their operations manual. This manual serves as a reference for how to perform each task.

The following are additional tasks to include in training.

1. Develop a “Daily Promise.” This is a written document that each supervisor in each department reviews with their staff each day. 
2. The “Daily Promise” includes activities that each department will encounter for the day. It gives high-level details of any outside groups coming in, as well as, daily customer service focus points.
3. Customer Service focus points can be developed in the off season. You will need about 25- 30 focus points. These points are ideas and thoughts, which focus on improving the facilities custom service.  

With the proper dedication to hiring the right person for the right job and then devoting time to training them for their job, I believe your customer satisfaction levels will increase.

Chad Seymour is the head PGA golf professional at Westfield Group Country Club and has been a golf professional since 1979.