As the summer heats up, thoughts turn toward backyard barbecues, pool parties, and summer vacations – which means that, while the days are getting longer, your corporate productivity may be slowing down. The heat is on to find ways to keep your employees engaged with their jobs when they’re in the office – and to keep the business moving when they’re not.
Regardless of your industry, you can engage with a staffing firm to provide vacation coverage for a number of roles within your organization. Here are a few good reasons why using staffing agencies for vacation coverage can benefit your company:
Get the Job Done
Deadlines don’t take summer vacations. Often, many companies use the summer to prepare for the busy fall ahead. But if employees request time off for that long-anticipated road trip across America or multi-day trip to the amusement park, that can mean pushing deadlines into the middle of conference season or launching your latest product or service later.
While temporary employees may not be able to make executive decisions while key players are away, they can help your department keep up with the tasks that would otherwise pile up on your employees’ desks. Temp staff can take on administrative work, customer service roles, and even warehouse and production jobs with ease, integrating into the fabric of your department and allowing your team members to come back to a “to do” list that lets them get their priorities done.
Raise Morale
Temporary vacation coverage provides twofold benefits to your current employees:
First, it allows employees to take their vacation time to rest, relax, and recharge. No one likes burnout – and by allowing your employees to fully enjoy their summer vacations without stressing about missing a deadline or having to spend the whole time answering frantic emails, you create a non-toxic workplace. Downtime can help employees get their creative juices flowing, and they return ready to tackle new challenges with a positive mindset.
Second, it alleviates the burden on employees who aren’t taking time off. From the warehouse to the cubicle, most jobs require a reliance on other people to do their jobs. If a link in the chain is broken, even for a few days, that can create bottlenecks that stop productivity altogether or shift extra work onto other employees, who are then at risk for burnout themselves. Temp staff can pick up the slack and ensure that your employees have the support they need to get their jobs done efficiently.
Improve Your Employer Brand
A happy and healthy workplace isn’t just great for your current employees – it’s also a great way to show job seekers that you’re an employer that cares. If you’ve maintained your company’s productivity despite the summer slowdown and made sure the environment was conducive to your employees’ emotional health, then there’s a good chance that future employees will hear about it.
Employees talk – on their social networks and to their friends and acquaintances. Make sure that they have good things to say about how your company handles the summer months by using temporary staffing to fill in the gaps. While there’s no guarantee this will improve your score on Glassdoor, you can at least set the stage for positive responses to your brand and even referrals to top talent from current employees who are happy with how you handled their vacation requests.
Get creative!
Temporary staffing can help improve your summer in a number of ways. Get creative with how you leverage your temp workforce. Want to offer your employees Fridays off, but don’t want to lose customer service or other important functions from 9-5? Temp staff can help! Want to give parents who need more time with their children in order to avoid higher childcare costs during school vacations? Hire part-time temporary workers to cover the afternoon hours.
Work with an experienced staffing firm, like Nelson, to find the solution that works best for your organization – and ensure that the temporary workers you bring in are the cream of the crop. However you structure your vacation coverage, make sure you start planning as early as possible so no one in your organization feels the heat!
You can learn more about temporary staffing for vacation coverage by contacting your Nelson representative today!
