As Christmas approaches, the number of advertised, temporary and part-time, jobs shoots up the Christmas chimney.
In a recent article in the Mirror, they explain how some well known brands are hiring thousands of Christmas staff:
- Amazon to recruit over 20,000 extra staff
- Royal Mail, as they do each Christmas, are taking on another 17000 roles in England, 1,800 in Scotland, 650 in Wales and 500 in Northern Ireland
- And Tescos, Morrisons and Aldi to hire a collective 55000 staff members
This article will teach you how best to answer Christmas job interview questions.
When to apply for a Christmas job?
Applying for a temporary Christmas position is relatively easy.
With employers often recruiting high numbers of staff within a short period of time, the hiring manager will make the application process as simple as possible.
Most organizations will request a CV before inviting candidates to an informal job interview or even a group recruitment day.
Recruitment periods, for Xmas jobs, are between September and November, with some employers hiring all the way into December – especially retailers who also recruit for the increase in shoppers during the January sales.
The golden rule for applying for festive position, is to apply early.
How long does a Christmas job last for?
On average, temporary Christmas roles last around 3-4 months, with a variety of full or part-time hours.
For some employees the part-time position can be the gateway to be offered a full time role. But this is only for a small percentage of workers.
Temporary job roles, recruiting for the lead up to Christmas include:
- Delivery drives – this is at the highest this year
- Retailers
- Marketing
- Hospitality and catering
- The voluntary sector
- Warehouse and packaging
- Postal delivery workers
- Ski instructors (working aboard)
- And of course, Santa Claus in a shopping center
Christmas Job Interviews
Throughout the year, most companies adopt a structured job interview process when recruiting new staff.
As mentioned, employers for their Christmas time hiring may need to boost staffing levels by their thousands. An increase in recruitment over a short period of time, requires a quicker or simpler hiring process.
With time being of the essence, recruiters often adopt the informal, or unstructured, job interview process.
An unstructured job interview, is an informal conversation between the employer and applicant, to check that the interviewee has the required skills and qualities for the advertised role.
Unlike a full-time professional job, where the future employee needs to prove they can add value to the team and business, the temporary Christmas position requires (in most cases) additional staff to keep up with demand – more hands on deck!
During the interview, the employer is looking for the following skills and qualities:
- Time management
- Work ethic
- Team work
- Multi-tasking
- Communication skills
- For many Festive jobs; customer service skills
- Basic numeracy and literacy
Employers don’t require the following for a temporary Christmas job:
- Long term project planning skills
- Creative problem-solving skills
- Strategic focus
In short, employers are looking for a good fit – someone who can complete business as usual tasks, during a busy period, without requiring to much training and development.
Christmas Jobs: Interview Questions and Answers
Below are 5 of the most commonly asked festive job interview questions and a breakdown of how an applicant can answer each question.
The templated answers, along with a confident interview manner, will result in an increase in job offers.
The interview process
The interview will start with the employer explaining the reason why they are hiring new staff members. Often the interviewer will stat the number of vacancies, which can be in their thousands, the locations of the job roles, the duration of the part-time contract and the potential hours of the role.
Next, the interviewer will state the interview procedure. The duration of the interview, which in most cases for a temporary xmas role, will be 30 minutes. That the interview is informal – they want to get to know the applicant, and when each applicant will be informed of the outcome to their interview – which could be within a few days or, in some cases, a few hours.
Questions and Answers
When using the interview answer template, add your own skills, qualities and experiences to your answer.
What do you know about the role?
The employer asking the ‘what do you know about the role’ question want to check if the applicant has a grasp on the duties they will be required to perform.
Even better, if the candidate can reference their skills, qualities and experiences relating to the business-as-usual tasks in their interview answer, they are more likely to be seen as a suitable fit.
Remember, due to the high number of required staff, job applicants aren’t in competition with other interviewees over one position. Instead, the interviewee only needs to communicate their competencies confidently to gain a job offer.
Interview Template:
“Before applying for (position) at (company name) I looked into the job role and what skills and experiences you would require. I know as an example that the main duties are (A, B and C). As you can see from my application form that I have X number of years experience as a (relevant job role) where I was responsible for (detail relevant job duties) To summaries, I have a good understanding of the role, and various skills that will help me collaborate successfully with you to complete all the required tasks.”
The positions is only for X months, does this suit your situation?
One concern hiring managers have when mass recruiting, is the fact that a percentage of the new staff may potentially leave before their 3-4 month contract is up.
Reassurance, then is key. If an employer believes an applicant has the correct skills and qualities for the role, and is highly likely to stick the job out, they are likely to be hired.
Interview Template:
“Yes certainly. I have been looking for a (X) month contract as this suits my current situation. I am currently (give situation IE on leave from University etc) for 3 months and looking to gain some experience in (add skill relating to the job role IE customer service). I am also very flexible with my contract and hours, so if I am needed for a little longer I would be happy to discuss this.”
How flexible are you in terms of your working hours?
Christmas time for employers is busy.
On top of this staff will ring in sick as the flu cases rise over the winter period. And the nature of part-time and temporary contracts result in staff leaving before the contract end dates runs out.
In short, employer on certain days will need to call on other member of staff to help out.
Ideally, the successful candidates, as well as having the required experience, will also have a flexible attitude towards working hours.
Interview Template:
“I know that this time of year is really busy in (job sector) and that you will occasionally need people to work additional hours. I have a flexible approach and if I can I am always happy to help out. In my last job I would often be called upon to work extra hours during busy times, and i was always happy to be of help.”
Give me an example of doing X
Part of all job interviews for all temporary Christmas jobs will be a number of ‘example’ questions.
To help predict the candidates skills and abilities, interviewers will asked questions based on past behaviors:
“Tell me about a time you did X?”
“Have you dealt with Y?”
“Give me an example of working within a team?”
To answer the various worded versions of the ‘example’ question applicants can use the SAP model:
- Situation
- Action
- Positive Outcome
All you do is describe, in detail, the situation relating to the interview question: “when working at X, we had (situation)…”
Importantly, ensure you state the actions YOU took to solve the situation: “…to solve the situation I did A, B and C…”
End with the positive outcome: “…my actions resulted in (positive outcome)”
Do you have any questions for me?
For a professional interview, the questions an applicant would ask at the end of a job interview would be around company growth, company culture and long term objectives.
For a temporary Christmas role, the questions can be short term focused:
- When are you looking for new staff to start?
- Is there any training for temporary staff?
- Where will I be based?
- Is there any opportunity for working extra hours?
- What will be my main responsibilities?
