Look for reliability over experience
For most seasonal roles, previous experience in your specific industry matters less than you might think. What matters far more is whether someone will actually turn up, on time, ready to work, for the whole period you need them. A few ways to get a read on this during hiring:
- Ask about their availability honestly and directly, including over Christmas, New Year, and any other dates you know will be tight.
- Ask why they're looking for temporary work specifically, since the answer often reveals how committed they'll be.
- Check references where you can, even a quick phone call to a previous employer.
- Notice how they communicate with you during the hiring process itself; someone who is slow to reply or vague about availability now is unlikely to improve once they're on the payroll.
Get the practical and legal basics sorted early
A few things are easy to overlook when you're hiring quickly, but they matter:
- Right-to-work checks still apply to temporary and seasonal staff, so build time for this into your recruitment timeline.
- Contracts should set out clearly the length of the role, hours, and pay, even for short-term positions.
- Calculate pay and holiday entitlement correctly for the period worked; seasonal staff are still entitled to holiday pay, accrued proportionally.
- Health and safety induction still applies, however brief the role.
Getting these basics wrong can create problems that outlast the busy period, so it's worth laying the groundwork even under time pressure.
