Staffing up for the Holidays? PI Worldwide Offers Four Tips for Making Smart Seasonal Hiring Decisions

WELLESLEY, Mass., Nov. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- 'Tis the season for organizations across the country to ramp up their hiring efforts in preparation for what experts predict will be a strong holiday sales season. According to reports, companies like Kohl's and FedEx are expected to hire 10%-50% more employees than last year. Overall, retailers are projected to add more than 800,000 seasonal workers in the October to December period – the largest hiring volume since 1999, according to career transitioning firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas.  

While organizations recognize hiring the right employees and onboarding them effectively must be top priorities year round, the holidays can make these practices even more stressful. Considering retailers, for instance, stand to make as much as 40 percent of their annual sales in the next three months, businesses can't afford to make poor hiring decisions up front.

According to PI Worldwide research, the top two challenges businesses face when hiring seasonal workers are "Making hiring decisions too quickly due to time constraints" and "Building a new hire's skills quickly enough to be proficient at the job." Fortunately, workforce analytics and assessments can help managers accurately identify the right candidates and get them productive quickly. Additionally, PI Worldwide recommends the following four hiring practices to help companies get the most return on their seasonal staff investments:

1. Streamline Screening with Assessments: For those managing hundreds or thousands of holiday hires, technology and data-driven tools like workforce assessments are easily administered to candidates pre-hire through an HRIS or other automated system. Even for smaller hiring volumes, the ability to standardize the hiring process with assessment data accelerates the process and allows for more consistent screening. The insights and data helps hiring managers make better decisions about job fit and optimize onboarding activities.

2. Assess Your Existing Talent Pool: Use data from your current team to decode how to replicate success in new hires by measuring the behavioral aspects of your top performers. Leverage this data to create statistical job models so you can improve hiring success rates.

3. Build a Solid Job Description: Use a job analytic to determine the behavioral requirements of specific roles and to ensure the subsequent job description is comprehensive (by capturing the necessary Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other attributes for success), competitive (by incentivizing your target candidate), and current (based on recent updates and validated data associated with your most successful employees in that role). This will increase the likelihood of attracting the best fit candidates.

4. Dedicate Resources for Onboarding: By leveraging data collected at the pre-hire phase, organizations will ensure training is targeted to the individual's behavioral drives and learning styles. This will help employees ramp up more quickly so they are ready to deliver the optimal customer experience during the busy holiday season.

By incorporating talent analytics and following these hiring tips, managers, employees and customers alike will benefit from a productive and engaged workforce this holiday season. To learn more, view our 2014 Holiday Hiring Guide Infographic. For more information about data-driven workforce solutions and expert tips from PI Worldwide, please contact:

Karen Pantinas
Davies Murphy Group, Inc.
[email protected]
781-418-2413

About PI Worldwide
Trusted advisors to a global client base, PI Worldwide and the 400 experienced consultants at our 45 member firms change the way clients find the right people, develop leaders at all levels, and achieve growth goals. Founded in 1955, PI Worldwide pioneered a new approach, based on the Predictive Index® assessment, for optimizing the performance and potential of individuals, teams and organizations. The company offers a unique combination of behavior and skill assessments based on a proven methodology incorporating data, technology, knowledge, and business expertise. More than 8,000 clients drive dramatically better business results by leveraging our data-driven solutions in 142 countries. Learn more at www.piworldwide.com.

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20131030/MM07482LOGO

SOURCE PI Worldwide

Related Links

http://www.piworldwide.com