May 09, 2008

Small Business Tips: Prepare For Summer Staff

Summer job trends present opportunity to prepare for season, be thankful for current business benefits

If you know anyone looking for a summer job, or if you have been in that situation yourself, you know that seasonal hiring has a life of it’s own. Pools need lifeguards, working parents need summer sitters, landscapers need beefed-up crews, and teenagers need something to keep them busy. No matter how you look at it, seasonal hiring for summer jobs is underway.

Those of us who run a small business may be preparing to hire an intern or assistant for the summer months in order to lighten the load and get more done. But watch out, because according to CareerBuilder.com’s latest survey of more than 3,000 U.S. employers, summer workers may be acquiring bigger paychecks. Twenty-four percent of employers plan to pay their summer hires and/or interns more this year than they did last year. Nearly half (47 percent) plan to dish out $10 or more per hour; 7 percent will pay $20 or more per hour. Twenty-nine percent anticipate paying between $8 and $10 per hour while 11 percent expect to pay less than $7 per hour.

The survey reports that the most popular summer positions being offered include:

Office support (28 percent)
Customer service (19 percent)
Landscape/maintenance (14 percent)
Research (14 percent)
Restaurant/food service (8 percent)
Construction/painting (8 percent)
Sales (8 percent)

So as we plan for summer support staff, it kind of makes you think of all the summer jobs that you might have had to endure in the past. For instance, probably the worst summer of my life entailed kitchen duty at a retirement home. The reason? I have a weak stomach, and scraping “used food,” from the plates into the garbage resulted in my gag reflex being on constant alert. So to provide some humor, the survey also revealed that opportunities arise in unconventional areas as well. When asked about the most unusual or memorable summer jobs they’ve ever held, workers shared the following responses: