When the outside temperature changes from hot to mild after Labor Day, employees may already have Thanksgiving and Christmas plans in their forecasts. Holiday promotions from retailers seem to start days earlier each coming year, so it’s no wonder consumers and employees begin to feel the Thanksgiving Turkey itch by early October.
The reality is that as business owners and managers, you’ve got to give Christmas planning thoughtful consideration. You don’t want to be overwhelmed by the heavier load of overseeing employee shifts during the holiday season. While employees are thinking about whether to travel out of town or stay local for Christmas dinner, store managers must consider how to keep establishments adequately staffed while maintaining high workplace morale.
Managing employee shift-swapping, and time off, is critical for the well-known bottom line. Understaffed establishments create stressful situations for the loyal skeleton staff that remains during the holidays. This leads to poor job performance, and maybe good employees who start looking for work elsewhere.
Headaches from employee holiday scheduling can be significantly reduced, if not eliminated, with thoughtful advanced planning. Below are a few suggestions to keep an adequate amount of competent staff members during year-end, seasonal holiday work weeks.
- Establish time-off policies. Having policies in place goes a long way in eliminating confusion among workers. Refusing time off is easier for both the manager and employee to understand when written procedures are already established. Employees will naturally be disappointed if you deny them time off. However, if a boss/manager is viewed as being unfair about it, resentment may settle in, leading to a disgruntled employee.
- Try self-scheduling. A certain amount of contract hours must be met during pay periods. Allow the employees to shift the schedules among themselves. Experienced employees should be able to make sound judgments about skill level mixes available during business hours. Self-scheduling allows more work/time flexibility, reducing fairness concerns. This procedure requires management oversight in the beginning, but it becomes an effective tool when properly maintained.
- Extra holiday pay. Some business experts recommend this policy as a natural business practice. Holiday pay shouldn’t be a last-minute enticement to motivate staff for the perceived upcoming heavier workload. If employees know about extra pay in advance, they may plan accordingly and minimize conflicts with family obligations to account for the extra hours.
- Keep a staff of part-timers. Depending on the store, high school students, retirees and other workers are willing and readily available to work if given enough notice. Keeping a pool of part-timers can save time and money on seasonal worker ads. It’s a win-win as extra pay is minimal and your regular staff members get to enjoy the time off.
- Allow employees to work at home. The age of laptops and tablets makes remote access easier than ever. If having employees on-site to be for face-to-face with customers isn’t crucial to your business, working at home is a viable option for not having to bring in extra staff.
