Seasonal Worker Surveys: The Key to Timely, Actionable Feedback

September 27, 2024

Surveying seasonal employees presents unique challenges and opportunities, as this workforce is often on the front lines, directly interacting with customers, guests, and clients. Understanding their experiences and acting on their feedback is essential for maintaining a positive work environment and delivering consistent service quality.

Aligning Survey Timing with the Business Cycle

Timing is crucial when surveying seasonal employees. Unlike full-time staff, their tenure is limited, so gathering feedback at the right time is essential. Surveying at key moments in the employment cycle ensures actionable insights can be gathered and applied before the season ends.

Survey Early to Mid-Season: Instead of waiting until the end of the season for a post-mortem pulse, consider surveying employees about one-third of the way through their tenure. By this point, they’ve experienced onboarding, training, and the early work environment, giving them valuable insights into how the organization could improve. Feedback collected at this stage can be used to make real-time adjustments, improving the rest of the season for both the employees and the organization.
Seasonal Kick-off and Exit Surveys: Consider launching a focused “season kick-off” survey at the start of the employment cycle to assess early impressions of onboarding and training processes. An end-of-season pulse survey can serve as a tailored exit interview, focusing on what went well, what could improve, and what might entice workers to return next year.

The Importance of Timely Data Access

Survey timing isn’t just about when you ask employees to complete a survey; it’s also about when and how you act on the data captured. Seasonal workforces demand rapid feedback loops. If you wait too long to analyze results or take action, the insights lose their impact, as the employees may have already completed their seasonal contracts.

Turning Around Results: Implement systems that allow for fast access to survey data. By using a listening platform that offers real-time analytics, you can immediately start conversations with team leaders and managers about necessary improvements. This is particularly important in industries like retail or hospitality, where quick adjustments can directly impact customer experiences during busy seasons.

Remove Barriers to Survey Participation

To ensure high participation rates, make surveys easily accessible and remove obstacles that might prevent employees from taking part. Seasonal employees often work in fast-paced, deskless environments, so traditional survey methods may not be effective.

Mobile-Friendly and QR Code Access: In industries such as retail or hospitality, where employees are often on their feet and not at a computer, use mobile-friendly survey platforms. Placing QR codes in common areas or distributing them through onboarding materials can simplify survey access. For instance, setting up iPads in break rooms or using SMS-based surveys can make it easier for employees to provide feedback.

Focus on What Matters: Targeted, High-Impact Surveys

Seasonal employees often have limited time, so respect their schedule by keeping surveys concise and focused on the most important issues.

Utilize Pulse Surveys: Instead of a lengthy, 40-question survey, opt for shorter pulse surveys that focus on immediate areas of concern. Prioritize questions related to teamwork, engagement, and immediate challenges of their work environment. Directed, open-ended comment questions can provide valuable context and color, especially for shorter pulse surveys since respondents can surface the specific ideas most important to them.
Mastery Matters: While questions about long-term career goals might not be relevant for every seasonal worker, asking about learning opportunities, training satisfaction, and skill development is still valuable. Employees who feel that they’re gaining new skills are often more engaged and perform better, even if their employment is temporary.

Understanding Seasonal Worker Demographics and Tenure

Not all seasonal workers are “temporary” in the traditional sense. Some workers, like ski patrols or Antarctic researchers, return year after year. Understanding the tenure of your seasonal workforce can offer insights into how to better engage them and encourage loyalty.

Track Returning Workers: Create mechanisms to track how many employees return each season. This can help you analyze what keeps them coming back, and what improvements can make the experience even better. Offering returning employees specific questions in surveys about their continued engagement can provide insights into how to foster long-term relationships with seasonal staff.

Right Times, Right Topics, Right Teams

Creating a holistic listening strategy requires thinking beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to surveys. Different teams, locations, and departments may require unique survey formats to capture the most relevant data.

Tailor Surveys for Different Teams: Workers in different functions may have vastly different experiences, especially in large-scale seasonal operations. For example, a ski resort might employ lift operators, ski instructors, hospitality staff, and maintenance workers. Each group will have its own pain points, and surveys should be customized accordingly. For instance, Antarctic contract workers, who endure extreme conditions, would likely prioritize safety, support, and work-life balance, whereas retail workers may focus on scheduling, customer interaction, and team dynamics.
Cross-Survey Analytics: Leverage platforms that enable cross-survey analytics, allowing you to track trends over time and across different employee groups. Comparing data from the kickoff and end-of-season surveys, for instance, can reveal how well the organization responded to feedback during the season and highlight opportunities for improvement in the next.

The seasonality of this hypothetical ski resort’s employee population offers opportunities for strategic listening events throughout the year that are aligned with your business priorities. By using Perceptyx’s People Insights Platform to gather data, we can engage in comprehensive cross-survey analytics. This means the surveys will not be isolated events but will contribute to a robust core database for continual insights.

Example: Annual Listening Strategy Overview for a Ski Resort

The diagram above illustrates the annual employee listening strategy for a company managing multiple ski properties. The mountain ridgeline metaphorically represents the fluctuations in employee numbers throughout the year.

Key events include:

Season Kick-off: An onboarding survey in September for all employees.
Winter Employee Engagement Survey: The main employee engagement survey conducted in December for all staff.
Summer Pulse: A mid-year review pulse survey in July for all employees.

Utilizing the Perceptyx platform, the company conducts thorough cross-survey analytics to integrate insights from all these listening events, ensuring a continuous stream of actionable data.

Engage and Support the Face of Your Business

Seasonal workers are often the face of your business. In industries like retail, hospitality, and tourism, these employees are your front-line ambassadors, directly interacting with customers and shaping the experience. Engaging them and acting on their feedback can significantly impact your business’s reputation and success.

Align Employee Experience with Customer Promise: Make sure that the experience you create for seasonal employees aligns with the promises you’ve made to your customers. An engaged, well-supported workforce is more likely to deliver a positive customer experience, ensuring that the organization's goals and market promises align with actual service delivery.

Perceptyx Can Help You Learn What Your Seasonal Workers Need

Surveying seasonal employees is a critical part of understanding their needs and ensuring a productive, positive work environment. By aligning employee engagement survey timing with the business cycle, ensuring quick access to data, removing participation barriers, and tailoring surveys to focus on key areas, you can effectively gather and act on valuable feedback. To learn more, schedule a meeting with a member of our team.