亲爱的安妮：今年七月中旬，我被晋升为店铺经理，负责一家区域零售连锁的两个卖场。所以，今年是我第一次在节日季招聘临时员工，以此帮助公司在11月至明年1月期间正常营业。我的目标有两个：首先，为了应对当地的竞争，兼职和临时员工必须能提供出色的客户服务。做到这一点并不容易，因为这不仅是一年当中最忙乱、最困难的时期，而且我们今年招聘的人数少于去年。

    其次，这里是一座大学城，所以，假期招聘的员工大多是学生，我希望能鼓励这些最有前途的年轻人在毕业之后，成为我们的全职员工。（我们有很出色的管理培训计划。）我如何才能实现这两个目标？您和您的读者有什么建议吗？——Sal

亲爱的Sal：今年，临时员工招聘少于去年的公司可远不止你们一家。除了个别例外情况——比如亚马逊（Amazon）节日季新增就业岗位70,000个，比2012年增加了20%——多家大型零售商的节日招聘与去年相比基本持平，甚至有所减少，比如沃尔玛（Wal-Mart）、塔吉特（Target）和玩具反斗城（Toys R Us）。

    所以，有幸获得聘用的人或许要加倍努力，而身为领导者，你的一部分职责就是尽可能让节日季的临时工作少些痛苦，甚至更理想的情况是让它多些趣味。《财富》杂志年度“百家最适宜工作的公司”（100 Best Companies to Work For）排行榜的合作伙伴、旧金山最佳雇主研究所（ Great Places to Work Institute）副总裁迈克尔•伯切尔说：“激励兼职与临时员工提供出色的客户服务绝对是可以做到的。关键在于培养这样一种意识：‘我们齐心协力，志在必得’。”

    具体应该怎么做呢？伯切尔曾与同事珍妮佛•罗宾合作出版过一本引人入胜的新书，书名是《不找借口：最佳工作场所是如何炼成的》（No Excuses: How You Can Turn Any Workplace Into a Great One）。最新一期“最适宜工作的公司”榜单中，有十多家是零售商、酒店运营商、连锁餐厅和其他高度依赖兼职员工和临时员工的公司（尤其是在节日期间），因此伯切尔和罗宾建议你考虑下面五种做法：

    1. 慧眼识人。伯切尔说：“从一开始就要保证，你对自己寻找的员工品质有明确的想法。多专注于文化，而不是具体的技能。”技能可以通过学习获得，但热情与活力却是与生俱来的东西。忙碌的节日季需要团队合作，所以他建议：“面试中可以要求应聘者给出具体的例子，描述他们全身心投入，帮助团队实现一个困难目标的经历。”

    2. 借助全职员工的力量培训兼职人员。伯切尔表示，《财富》最适宜工作的公司榜单中排在第31位的扎珀斯（Zappos）“在这方面做得很好。这家公司委派全职员工与每一位临时人员坐下来，向他们传授工作的细节，包括对每一通客户来电的正确应对方式和错误方式。你也可以要求正式员工指导兼职同事，同时成为你在销售区的耳目——尤其是‘发现表现优秀的兼职人员’，并对他们提出表扬。”

    3. 不要吝啬说“谢谢”。詹尼佛•罗宾说：“感激和感谢非常重要，尤其是在当前这个阶段。其实很简单——只需要花两秒钟时间说：‘干得好！’然而，尤其是在忙碌的时候，员工往往很难听到这样的表扬。”罗宾补充道，年轻人（比如你所说的大学生）“期望得到更多鼓励，如果缺少鼓励，他们真的会变得很渴望。” 

Dear Annie: I was promoted to store manager, in charge of two locations for a regional retail chain, in mid-July, so this is the first holiday season that I'll be in charge of hiring extra people to help out from November to January. I have two goals here: First, to beat the competition locally, I need to get outstanding customer service from the part-time and temporary employees we'll be bringing on board. This will be tough because, not only is this the most frantic and difficult time of the year, but we're hiring fewer people than last year.

    And second, this is a college town so, usually, many of our holiday hires are students, and I want to encourage the most promising ones to consider coming back to us full-time after they graduate. (We have a great management-training program.) Do you and your readers have any suggestions for me on accomplishing both of these goals? -- Sal in Santa Barbara

Dear Sal: Your company isn't the only one bringing on fewer temporary helpers than last year. With a few notable exceptions -- like Amazon (AMZN), which is adding 70,000 seasonal jobs, a 20% jump from 2012 -- holiday hiring at many major retailers, including Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT), and Toys R Us, is flat or declining.

    So the people who do get hired will likely need to put in extra effort, and a big part of your job as a leader is to make that as painless as possible or, ideally, even fun. "You absolutely can inspire terrific customer service from part-time and temporary employees," says Michael Burchell, a vice president at the San-Francisco-based Great Places to Work Institute, Fortune's partner in its annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list. "The key is creating a sense that 'We're in it to win it.'"

    How, exactly? Burchell is co-author, with colleague Jennifer Robin, of a fascinating new book, No Excuses: How You Can Turn Any Workplace Into a Great One. Noting that more than a dozen of the employers on Fortune's current list are retailers, hotel operators, restaurant chains, and others who rely heavily on part-timers and temps to produce great results -- especially around the holidays -- Burchell and Robin suggest you consider these five practices:

    1. Hire smart. "Make sure at the outset that you have a clear idea of what qualities you're looking for," says Burchell. "Focus more on culture than on specific skills." Skills can be taught, but enthusiasm and energy, for example, can't. Since the holiday rush will require teamwork, "ask in interviews for specific times when the candidate had to pitch in and help to achieve a difficult goal," he suggests.

    2. Enlist your regular staffers to help train part-timers. Zappos, No. 31 on Fortune's Best Companies list, "does a great job at this," notes Burchell. "A full-time employee is assigned to sit with each temp and teach them the job, including going over details about what went well with each customer call, and what didn't. You can also ask your regular staff to mentor their part-time peers and be your eyes and ears on the sales floor -- especially in 'catching people doing something right' and praising them for it." Which brings us to the third point ...

    3. Say "thank you." A lot. "Appreciation and thanks are always important, but especially at this time of year," says Jennifer Robin. "It's so simple -- it only takes two seconds to say, 'Great job!' -- yet, especially when things get busy, it tends not to happen." Robin adds that very young people in particular (your college-student hires, for instance) "expect a lot of reinforcement, and they really miss it if it isn't there."