Tips to Ensure Your Part Time Employees Provide Full Time Value

Part time employees are more important in today’s workforce than ever before. There are a number of reasons for this – a few of the top reasons companies have a significant number of part time workers includes everything from the need of employees to manage families and have a work-life balance, to issues surrounding health insurance and benefits.

Whatever the reason you have part time employees in your business, they’re important and there’s still the potential for them to bring your organization a tremendous amount of value.

Unfortunately for employers, it can be difficult to manage part timers in a way that’s motivating and inspires them to perform at an optimal level.

Here are some ways you can ensure your part time employees are engaged, satisfied in their job and are a valuable asset:

Hire Well

All too often mangers overlook the importance of being smart in the hiring of part time employees. Part time employees need to be an efficient resource, so it’s extremely important to understand the specific skills you’re looking for when it comes to finding a part time person and then fill positions accordingly.

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Just because it’s a part time job doesn’t mean that any person can fill the requirements. Create a part time recruitment process that’s as rigorous as the standards set forth for full time members of your workforce.

Thorough Training

Along with hiring, employers should also focus on how they train their part time employees. Often part time employees are the ones charged with being the “face” of a company and handling a multitude of customer service-based duties and responsibilities, which means proper training is imperative. If your part time employees are the primary liaison between your company and your customers it only makes sense that you would put a big emphasis on their training, right?

Consider developing an eLearning training program that’s specifically targeted to your part time employees—this will help motivate them and also let them feel like they’re really part of the team. When you thoroughly train these employees, they’re also going to feel like you see them as worth your time and worth investing in.

It can also be a good idea to pair eLearning-based training with coaching or mentorship-style training that comes from a full time employee. This will help part time employees learn about not just the technicalities of working for a company, but also about things like corporate culture—which is likely to simultaneously improve their overall level of engagement.

Also, just as you develop your full time employees, dedicate resources to continually training and developing your part time workers. Part time employees have the potential to become not just full time employees but perhaps even company leaders in the future so it’s important to focus on nurturing their talents and abilities just as you do for employees that work a full time schedule. You may find some unexpected talent if you’re willing to allocate resources to identifying and fostering the skills of part time employees.

Demonstrate Part Timers’ Importance

Part time employees are incredibly important to an organization, otherwise they wouldn’t be there. Ensure your part timers are aware of their importance and their role in the bigger picture of the company.

This can start with initial training, where you can include information about the goals and mission statement of the company in terms of how the employee can become part of the overall objectives of the company.

This concept can continue on a daily basis—recognize part time employees for their achievements and don’t let them fall through the cracks, particularly when they’re doing something great.

Something as simple as a thank you can go a long way to ensuring you have a high-performing workforce, including your part timers.