A seasonal employee works during a predictable busy period every year, such as holidays, summer or harvest. The best seasonal programs bring the same people back.
| Seasonal | Temporary | |
|---|---|---|
| Timing | Same peak every year | Any limited need |
| Rehire | Often the same people return | Usually different each time |
| Planning | Can be planned months ahead | Often short notice |
| Typical industries | Retail, hospitality, landscaping, tax prep | Any |
For one-off needs, see temporary employee. For a returning seasonal worker, see boomerang employee.
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A garden center has 40 full-time employees year-round. Every spring it adds 25 full-time seasonal workers for about 100 days. For those 100 days the workforce is 65 full-time employees, above 50.
Because the period above 50 is 120 days or fewer and the employees above 50 are seasonal workers, the seasonal worker exception can keep the center from being an applicable large employer, as long as the rest of the count also works out. The owner confirms the full count, including part-time equivalents, with an adviser before relying on it.
The bigger savings are operational. The center invites last year’s best 15 seasonal workers back in January, before they take other jobs. Returning staff need half a day of onboarding instead of three, and the store is fully staffed a week before the first warm weekend.
Start from the first busy day and count back. If the peak starts in late April, onboarding needs to finish the week before, offers need to go out about three weeks before that, and outreach to last year’s returners should start in January or February. Writing those dates on a one-page calendar keeps the season from starting with a scramble.
Plan the end too. Decide in advance how the season will wind down, who will be offered extra weeks or a permanent role, and how final schedules will be shared. A clear end date avoids the season drifting on without anyone checking hours or headcount.
A tax office adds 8 seasonal preparers each year from January to mid-April. In the past it advertised in early January and was still interviewing in February, its busiest month.
This year it contacts last year’s 8 in October: 5 agree to return. It advertises for 3 more in November, finishes hiring by mid-December, and runs a 2-day refresher for returners and a 5-day training for new staff in the first week of January. Every preparer is working clients by the time the first returns arrive.
Seasonal employees work a predictable peak each year. Temporary employees fill any limited need.
Non-exempt seasonal employees are owed overtime like other employees, with limited exceptions for certain seasonal businesses.
They count, but an exception applies if the workforce is above 50 full-time employees for 120 days or fewer and the extra employees in that period were seasonal workers.
Ask them before they leave, keep in touch, invite them early, and make returning easy with short onboarding.
Two to three months before the peak for new hires, and earlier for returners, who often decide where to work long before the season starts.
Yes. Many employers use the season as a trial and offer permanent roles to the best seasonal staff at the end of it.
Announcements by location, department or role, and a company feed with surveys and read confirmations, so frontline staff see the same news.