How do you increase the productivity of temporary workers?

Whilst many businesses worldwide are currently reducing their working operations and moving many staff over to the government Furlough scheme, others are ramping up operations to deal with specific needs and demands that COVID-19 has placed on the country, and indeed, the world.

A sudden influx of staff into a business of any size can cause a huge range of challenges, it can test a businesses culture, it’s operations, it’s onboarding process and even it’s morale.

Supporting your business in times of need

Benefits of hiring temporary staff

In this article, we bring together some ways for businesses facing this sudden influx in temporary workforce to ensure new staff quickly feel part of the business and give maximum productivity. It is uncertain how long the lockdown will continue and temporary staff numbers will remain or even increase, temporary staff could easily become longer term employees and even permanent members of staff.

Benefits of temporary staff include:

1. Enables your business to manage fluctuations in workload
2. Enables you to assess future talent
3. Maintains staff flexibility

Disadvantages of hiring temps:

1. Training becomes a recurring activity
2. Morale issues & reliability
3. Safety issues

Better onboarding means better performance & productivity

You may only be recruiting to meet temporary needs, but those needs are just as important as if recruiting for a permanent role.

Which means your temporary workers need to be just as competent as your permanent employees. How you onboard your new recruits plays a fundamental role in empowering your people to give their all from the outset.

If you consider that it takes up to a year for a permanent employee to get truly up to speed, your temporary workers will be long gone before then! So how can you reach a greater level of commitment and productivity in much shorter timescales?

Investing in an onboarding programme could lead to up to 50% increased productivity vs staff that are learning on the job.

Guard against long-term reputation damage and revenue loss

Temporary workers, whilst only in your business for a restricted period of time, can have a more long-term impact. Both staff morale and brand reputation are at stake.
Ensuring those new recruits are able to represent your brand as soon as possible is an absolute must. Onboarding seasonal employees properly is your most powerful weapon against long-term reputation damage and revenue loss.

Keeping your temporary staff productive

There are ways to enhance the productivity of temporary workers, regardless of their working hours. You also want them to get something out of working for your business. It is a two-way exchange.

Creating the on-boarding programme before the temporary worker joins the business will enable you to start the programme from the minute the job offer is made. The programme should be designed specifically for your temporary staff. Try and cover the specifics of the work they will be doing:

• Remember to specify the specifics of their job role
• Who they will report to
• How success will be measured
• Any autonomy within the role
• Creating a pairing with permanent staff members

Uniform and temporary staff

Dress codes are often used in the workplace and there are many reasons why an employer may have one, for example workers may be asked to wear a uniform to communicate a corporate image and ensure that customers can easily identify them as well as creating a sense of belonging.
A uniform may also be introduced for health and safety reasons, for example health care workers for hygiene reasons and engineers while operating machinery.

How do you increase the productivity of temporary workers?