No matter your industry, business structure, or individual niche, you’re bound to have ups and downs. It’s a natural part of owning and running a company. Even the best of the best can’t maintain record-topping margins or top tier engagement forever. As the saying goes, what goes up must come down, and that’s bound to happen within your business at some point.
However, if you’re a seasonal business, the situation is a little different. That downturn is as reliable as clockwork – negative for the frequency attached, but positive because you what to expect, which puts you in a rather unique position.
It allows you to actively plan for highs and lows in a way other brands and businesses can’t. Fortunately for you, a great way to start planning is to partner up with a staffing firm for all your hiring needs. Wondering why? Here are six ways using a staffing firm will benefit any seasonal business.
1. Reduces Liabilities
As wonderful as owning a brand can be, there’s always some level of risk and worries attached to it. Overlooking a couple important lines in a policy can lead to horrible consequences, leaving you unintentionally in violation of various rules. You can lose out on everything, from amazing employees to thousands of dollars in legal fees.
This is why opting for a staffing firm is a fantastic choice. Since your workforce is employed through the staffing firm instead of you, liabilities can be totally avoided or severely reduced. This will leave you in a much better position.
2. Decreases Administrative Costs
Selling goods or offering services may make you a considerable amount of cash, but you’ve also got to put a large chunk in to get that far. Remember, it takes money to make money, and administration costs alone add up fast. For seasonal businesses that only have a particular window where the income is still flowing freely, that can be a serious issue!
Using a staffing firm can offer some helpful savings, and sometimes significant ones. Pay the firm a single fee, and they’ll take care of payroll, social security, benefits, and every other financial reality that accompanies having seasonal workers. That means you pay less and don’t have to deal with the hassle of certain day-to-day operations, giving you more time and money to invest elsewhere.
3. Assists in Avoiding Hiring Mistakes
When business is booming and the market is competitive (as it always is), you don’t have a lot of time to sit back and deeply consider your actions. It’s the reality of doing business in a world where thousands of others can offer similar goods or services. Hiring mistakes are often the unfortunate result of this. After all, how are you supposed to make a thoroughly informed decision when you have to decide ASAP to keep your productivity and profits up?
Short answer: you’re not. It’ll hurt you on several levels, including finances, reputation, efficiency, and more. Hiring through a staffing firm keeps these issues at bay by allowing for less rushed decisions, thorough vetting of candidates, and immediate replacement of unsuitable workers, saving time and money.
4. Supports Fresh Perspectives
There are some downsides to owning a seasonal business, but they have their own unique benefits too. One benefit is the fact that seasonal brands get to play around more than other companies. Downtime enables them to conduct in-depth analysis, identify areas for changes, and experiment once they resume full operation. Rebranding, marketing strategy alterations, and exploration can occur more frequently and naturally, giving them a major leg up in some regards.
Partnering with staffing firms also supports this, with workers cycling in and out as often as product or service offerings. This invites fresh ideas and new perspectives, supplying your business with opportunities for further growth and change. Processes avoid getting stale as a result, and your company stays at the top of its game for longer.
5. Makes for Seamless Transitions
Remember how we mentioned that seasonal business welcomes an ever-changing cast of characters (i.e., workers)? That may be fantastic for giving your company culture and plans a much-needed breath of fresh air, but there are also some negatives attached. Perhaps the most obvious is that it makes hiring, scheduling, training, and everything else related a lengthy and costly processes.
A constantly shifting number of employees leaves plenty of room for inefficiencies, snags, and small annoyances. However, outsourcing these points to a staffing firm can bring large improvements here. Since they ensure candidates are the right fit, provide tons of needed training, and routinely handle temp workers, transitions in employment rosters and scheduling are completely streamlined. Seasonal workers can then join the team almost seamlessly, and you can get on with your critical business.
6. Help Your Business Find Balance
Speaking of seasonal workers, it can become incredibly easy to lose track of what you need from them. Times are changing, and sometimes we need to revamp past approaches to make them work in the future. Where July might necessitate all
hands on deck, December could just as easily require a handful of employees to pick up the very last of the stragglers.
It’s difficult to navigate that regardless of how experienced you are. A staffing firm’s expert knowledge helps identify the right employees needed, ensuring a proper balance. And what follows? Improved employee morale and turnover rates – fantastic benefits for any seasonal business looking to the future. Click here to learn how staffing firms can help your small business.