Reap full benefit from temporary teammates

Temporary workers aren’t just for the winter holidays. Your organization might experience a busy time during any season, or you may need extra hands on deck to handle special projects. Temporary workers can be valuable parts of you team if you treat them as such from the start.

Boost their contributions with these tactics:
•Training. Even a fast-track on-boarding program will give temporary workers an introduction to your products and processes. “At many retailers that I’ve worked for in the past, you just gave them a badge and off they went,” says Mark Tesseyman, managing director for the retailer Bonmarché in the United Kingdom.

• Bonuses. To ensure that workers don’t abandon the stores just when Bonmarché needs them, the retailer pays retention bonuses at the end of a busy season. You should include temporary staff in routine motivation efforts as well. “It’s about pumping them up,” says Dennis Reid, managing director of Retail Performance Specialists. “Give them daily targets in operations, customer service and sales. Give them product-knowledge quizzes.”

• Mentors. Pairing temporary staff members with your top performers creates a win-win environment. While learning the ropes, temps can take on responsibilities that would otherwise keep veterans from focusing on higher-level concerns.

– Adapted form “Here Today, Gone Tomorrow,” Liz Morrell, Retail Week