Summertime is a good time for wireless retailers to hire student employees and allow senior staff to take some well deserved holidays.

The business resource writers at the National Federation for Independent Business (NFIB) suggest that the key to getting through the vacation season is to prepare early by scheduling employee leave and have backup plans so that your business can still get the job done.

They offer the following five tips for dealing with summer staffing woes:

1. Take advantage of the recession. “With many talented workers being laid off, it’s easier to find impressive talent who would be willing to work part-time or in a consultant role this summer. Place ads now so you can start to gather resumes for potential candidates. Also, find a temp agency you trust, letting it know what types of workers you’ll need this summer and finding out if they will be able to meet your needs.”

2. Build relationships with local colleges. “Interns looking for short-term opportunities in the summertime to get experience. Some are even willing to work for school credit rather than pay. Contact the career counseling offices of local colleges to tell them about your needs so they can send qualified students your way. Not only will you be ensuring that your business can run efficiently through vacation season, but you may find a future star employee through your internship program."

3. Implement cross-training. “As people take their vacations, others on your staff may be able to take over their roles – but only if they know how to do the tasks that their vacationing co-workers do every day. Make sure that’s the case by having each employee designate a backup person who is trained to perform all duties in his or her absence. By making it the responsibility of all employees to train their backups, they will likely be more thorough in explaining their duties since the backup’s performances will be indicative of their training skills.”

4. Allow telecommuting. “During vacation season, employees who remain at work will likely have more responsibilities and possibly longer hours. To make the inconvenience more bearable, give them the equipment to do some of their work at home.” For a wireless retail employee, this could involve doing some bookkeeping or post-sale follow up calls from home instead of at the store. “Ensuring that employees have the technology to stay connected, whether it be via a BlackBerry or a laptop, could also lead vacationing employees to be willing to answer an e-mail or respond to emergency situations while they’re away.

5. Schedule early. “The only way you can make sure you implement any strategies in time is to know when your employees are going to be outside of the office. Not only can you better prepare by scheduling early, but you can make sure multiple employees don’t take off at the same time. If there are crucial times when you can’t do without key employees, let them know that their vacations are off limits. Likewise, if there are months or weeks that are particularly slow, encourage employees to take off then, or use that time to get some rest and relaxation yourself.

“Finally, if key clients or partners are used to working with a particular person, keep them in the loop. Let them know ahead of time when the person they work with is going to be on vacation so they have the option of taking care of business before or after that time if they so choose.”

- newsletter@iQmetrix.com

* To read more about Hiring and Employee Retention, check out the following articles from iQmetrix News & Views:

Hiring Summer Employees for Your Business

Hire and Keep Great Retail Employees this Fall

Retaining Your Gen-X Employees
How to Hang Onto Your Best Employees
Your Employees WANT to be Challenged: Survey
Staff Training: A Pat on the Back Goes a Long Way