Seasonal hiring can be a lifeline for businesses facing their busiest periods, but bringing large numbers of inexperienced workers into an operation quickly creates a significant and underestimated safety risk. Younger workers appear particularly exposed to workplace injuries. Treating seasonal hires with the same onboarding rigor applied to permanent staff reduces workers' compensation claims and builds a stronger workforce over time.
Unfamiliarity with the job is the core risk. Zender told Insurance Business that length of tenure is the most overlooked factor employers face. "Newer employees are more likely to have claims," he said. "That transcends across state lines, industries, and age segments. This lack of familiarity also tends to be compounded because they are often hired during extremely busy periods, with seasonal surges, meaning that supervisors often have less time to provide proper coaching." The combination of a crowded hiring window and stretched management creates conditions where a new hire's gaps in knowledge go unaddressed from day one.
Delays cost money and limit treatment options. Zender told Insurance Business that seasonal and student workers often do not understand the workers' compensation process. "These workers do not usually understand how the process works and the importance of reporting a claim in a timely manner, and they may over-index their body's ability to recover," he said. "And these delays can lead to suboptimal claim outcomes, as medical options available immediately after a claim may not be available once the injury has matured." Employers should make injury reporting procedures a stated priority during orientation, not an afterthought.
Onboarding that explains the "why behind the what" builds the foundation. Employers often focus first-day training on customer-facing tasks, but Zender told Insurance Business that this is not where exposures exist. New employees need to understand what makes the business valuable before safety protocols will register as relevant. "Balancing the first-day orientation between customer-facing priorities and the core values that separate the business allows for the conversation to move towards safety orientation more naturally," Zender said. He also stressed that seasonal employees may not feel comfortable raising concerns, so building a culture where reporting hazards and asking questions is visibly encouraged matters as much as the training content itself.
Retail carries a disproportionate share. OSHA's 2024 Work-Related Injury and Illness Summary recorded 22,033 incidents among workers aged 16 to 19. Thirty-six percent of those incidents occurred in retail, compared with 17 percent of incidents across workers overall. Ninety-four percent were injuries, and 64 percent resulted in days away from work or job transfer or restriction. Zender said higher-risk businesses should restrict ladder use, material handling, and stockroom access until a new hire demonstrates familiarity with safety protocols. He flagged agriculture for heat-related illness and equipment hazards, and warehousing for repetitive motion and forklift interactions. "Any new employee should start on the lightest end of the spectrum and earn their way up that ladder, often literally speaking," he said.
The cost gap between common and serious injuries is wide. AmTrust's analysis of nearly 130,000 restaurant workers' compensation claims found cuts, punctures, and scrapes are the most frequent injury type, averaging $1,798 per claim. Burns and scalds average $4,326. Muscle strains reach $10,672 on average. Serious disc, vertebrae, and spinal cord injuries carry typical paid claims of $60,000 to $85,000. The data shows that injuries workers might dismiss as minor, a burn, a slip, sit on a cost spectrum that climbs steeply when treatment is delayed or conditions worsen.
Generic safety videos are not enough on their own. Zender told Insurance Business that job-specific training helps workers understand the exact tasks they will perform and the injuries those tasks can produce. "This can be complex, because often a business is dealing with several newer employees all at once. Each employee has their own unique way of learning," he said. Assigning a buddy or mentor distributes the training load and gives each new hire a direct point of contact for questions. Adding task-specific modules alongside standard content helps each hire understand what their exact duties can produce. Pairing each hire with an experienced colleague fills the gaps that videos alone leave open.
More often than employers expect. McDonald's estimates that one in eight Americans have worked in its restaurants, with many initially considered temporary going on to leadership roles. Zender told Insurance Business that taking short-term hires seriously pays off beyond the season. "If you treat these temporary employees like new employees, and not just seasonal ones, you will create an environment where all employees thrive," he said. He closed with a direct warning on the bottom line: "The greatest risk is that the employees are unfamiliar with the job, the hazards, and the expectations. Meaning targeted safety orientation, task-specific training, close 30-day supervision, along with clear injury reporting, can significantly reduce workers' compensation claims and lead to more productive employees." Brokers and risk managers can find additional sponsored insurance analysis on Insurance Business America.
Matt Zender: senior vice president, workers' compensation strategy, AmTrust Financial; specialist in workers' compensation policy and seasonal workforce risk.