Retailers may be hiring fewer people this holiday season, according to some projections, but hiring is expected to be up in other industries.

Because transportation, supply-chain and many other industries are expected to hire a lot of workers this holiday season, it’s important for companies to start hiring seasonal temps now.

Waiting too long can lead to trickle-down effects that result in other bad decisions being made. In the rush to get holiday temps on board, managers are susceptible to lowering their hiring standards, ignoring cultural fit and cutting corners on employee training.

Lower hiring standards

A frequent and expensive mistake caused by waiting too long is to reduce hiring standards for seasonal workers. The thinking is these workers aren’t going to be around for long, so a bad hire won’t cause significant damage.

The Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) has found the cost of reduced hiring standards is five times what bad employees who are brought on board receive in compensation. These hiring costs are measured in terms of wasted advertising, interviewing and training of the employees, as well as the adverse effects these bad temps have on the morale and productivity of full-time staff.

While management may not be concerned about hiring bad holiday temps because “they’re not going to be around permanently,” it doesn’t mean that other workers and customers are likely to excuse it.

Cultural fit not considered

Careless seasonal hiring decisions made during the holiday rush can result in bad fit workers who cause friction in the workplace. If just one of your seasonal hires interferes with the chemistry and flow of a cohesive team, it can minimize involvement, and perhaps even lead to worker turnover.

Often, however, the reason a holiday temp worker doesn’t seem to be a good fit with the regular team is because management doesn’t invest time to incorporating temp workers into the team. New hires are often given formal introductions, included in staff meetings and incorporated in after-hours social events.

Cutting back on training

One of the most significant errors managers make with respect to seasonal workers is to cut training costs by simply training temps on the job. In this situation, newly hired holiday temps are thrown into the deep end and asked to sink or swim.

This irresponsible on-the-job training forces co-workers and possibly customers into involuntarily participating in a worker’s learning process. On-the job training almost always decreases customer experience. Furthermore, forcing a customer to deal with a worker’s learning curve during the busy holiday season is usually bad for business.

The true cost of training is not assessed simply by the hard costs of wages and materials. The actual cost is determined by the lost revenue a badly trained seasonal worker causes.

At Action Group, we work hard to make sure our client companies are well prepared for the holiday season. If your company is in need of a custom staffing solution for the holidays, please contact us.