As the holiday season quickly approaches, many company leaders across the country begin to wonder about one glaring issue; should temporary employees be given holiday bonuses? Some companies will say “Yes”, while others will say, “No”. There is no concrete answer to the question, but there is plenty of support for both sides of the argument.
Take a moment to decide how handing out holiday bonuses may help or hurt your business this year.
Temporary Employees Deserve Holiday Bonuses
Even if the temporary workers are with you only for the holiday season, they very well could be with you for the busiest time of the year for your company. This means that they will be relied on to work their hardest and keep your customers as happy as possible. They might have been hired to fill spots left vacant by employees on vacation or who are traveling for the holidays.
The success of your company is based almost solely on the performance of your team. If you employ temporary workers during the holiday season, it is almost a no-brainer to reward them for all of their hard work with a bonus when their time with your company is complete.
Positives of a Holiday Bonus for Temps
When you reward temporary employees with holiday bonuses you are building a reputation that will help in the future. Those temporary employees will be more inclined to work for your company again if called upon and they might be more inclined to refer your company to other highly skilled temporary workers they know. Both of these items will help your company remain successful when the busy period returns.
Handing out bonuses to temporary employees during the holiday season shows them how much they are appreciated. It also helps to motivate them to continue to perform well if they are scheduled to remain with the company past the holiday season.
Temporary Employees Do Not Deserve the Same Benefits as Full-Timers
On the other end of the spectrum, many companies will argue that since temporary employees are not full-timers, they do not deserve the same benefits. This argument can be considered valid since the company typically does not provide temporary workers with health benefits. Instead, those benefits are provided by the staffing agency that supplied the worker to the company.
So, based on this argument, why would a company give its temporary workers holiday bonuses when they don’t even supply them with traditional benefits? Some companies can get away with such an argument, but could face backlash from the temp industry. For example, the company could garner a bad reputation for not appreciating their temporary workers if they do not administer holiday bonuses.
It is completely up to your company whether or not temporary employees should be given holiday bonuses, but the positives far outweigh the negatives in this argument, which should be reason enough to make it happen.
