Six tips to help you motivate temporary staff
The best employers we work with are really good at motivating and engaging their temporary staff. They also tend to be the employers that temporary staff are attracted to and want to work with again.
How well temporary staff are treated has a real impact on an organisations reputation as an employer. Let’s face it, temps are as much as part of the local community as full time staff and they share their experiences (good and bad) with people who you might want to recruit in the future.
Six tips that will help you to get the most from temporary staff.
Adopt the right mind-set.
The first thing we notice about employers good at motivating temps is that they adopt a mind-set, across their organisation, that temps are a really important part of the team. It’s important to treat them as if they are permanent staff. Temporary staff are a flexible and often specialist part of a team and provide extra resource when needed. Skills are important but employers also benefit massively if temporary staff are also enthused and energised.
Get them on board.
When hiring permanent staff we all know that a good recruitment process includes a good induction. Don’t skip good ‘on-boarding’ for temporary employees either. A proper welcome and initial training can play a key role in making temps feel valued, more effective and they can also play a part in any hand-over process for a new person coming in. Think about enlisting permanent employees as mentors, they can support temporary staff and also act as your ‘eyes and ears’ day to day.
Make them feel involved.
Help temps to understand your culture and what you do. Communicate regularly and involve them in internal meetings – for any member of the team to feel like their work has value, they must understand how it relates to the overall department and company goals. Don’t take the attitude that they won’t be with you when a project finishes, so why involve them in the planning. If you do, not only will the temp worker lack understanding, but you may miss out on some great idea
Provide Feedback
Let your temp employees know how they are doing! Like any employee, they will appreciate the feedback. This will also help them grow and improve. Because temp workers know they have a limited time at a job, they are usually very eager to implement any suggestions you give them, and you are likely see improvements right away.
Say thank you!
Actively look for things your temporary staff have done well and give them a genuine thank you for something specific. A generalised thank you can feel more like a pat on the head for coming in. When you thank someone for something specific it helps to make them feel good about themselves, their managers and the company. Everyone wants to know when they do a good job and they are more likely to continue with the type of performance you want.
Good people are also more likely to want to work with you again and they send out positive messages to the rest of the world about you as an employer.
Provide benefits.
Benefits packages are now the ‘norm’ for permanent staff because it is recognised they help to motivate people and take care of their wellbeing, traditionally temps have missed out. Whilst it may be difficult to include temporary staff in your company benfefits package, ethical agencies like First Base provide temporary staff with a wide range of similar benefits so that they don’t feel left out.
Employers and candidates tell us that First Base is their first choice for help with their recruitment requirements and their personal career progression. If you would like to know more about how the First Base team could help you, contact us on 01453 755330.
