Seasonal Staff and the Challenge of Remaining Compliant

Guest blog by Malcolm Bland of Timely Intervention Ltd

As the festive season approaches you may be considering increasing your shift cover with new or temporary seasonal staff. Unfortunately, it is a fact that newly appointed employees are at greater risk of injury or making mistakes than longer term employees.  A surprisingly high proportion of incidents occur during the first few days of a new job.  Here are three simple tips to avoiding injury and customer incidents that might result in loss of trade or claims.

1. Don’t shortcut the interview stage.  Having a ‘warm body’ does not qualify someone to work.  Make sure the person you select, has the aptitude and attitude you need, do not hire a liability.

2. Find the time to orientate the newly hired person with their place of work, pointing out risks, hazards and operating procedures.  People who are thrown in at the ‘deep end’ usually drown.

3. Ensure new hires are trained before they begin the job.  Waiting to see if they survive the first shift is not ‘on the job training’ it will also offer cold comfort if your customers or employees suffers an injury or you loss trade due to poor service.

Employers in industries such as hospitality face a number of challenges when taking on seasonal staff, because there is still the necessity to be legally compliant and therefore irrespective of the length of employment all employees are required to have basic compliance training. Around 50% of employers in the UK have turned to e-learning to train staff as it can save up to 70% in training costs, however there are industries that have yet to reap the benefits of e-learning. With the festive season upon us and seasonal staff numbers increasing I’m sure we will see an increase in the numbers of employers using online courses to quickly and cost effectively deliver compliance training at the point of need.

To support employers at this busy time a range of hospitality and retail compliance online courses have been discounted by 30%. Visit http://www.elearningmarketplace.co.uk/seller/timelyintervention/ to view courses starting from under £5.