Scheduling retail employees during the holiday season can be a nightmare. In addition to secular holidays like Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, almost every major religion celebrates at least one holiday between November and January. In between all of those holidays, shoppers flock to the stores to buy presents or take advantage of sales, so there’s an increased demand for staff. Here are seven ways to make holiday scheduling easier for you and your employees:
- Find out employee availability early in the season.
Most workers know their holiday plans ahead of time, so ask your staff to update their availability or submit time-off requests about a month in advance. Since there are several different religious holidays throughout November and December, don’t ask employees about their Christmas plans; instead, ask them if they’ll need to take any time off during those two months. If you’re planning on expanding your hours, you’ll need to inform your employees as soon as possible so they can update their availability accordingly. - Communicate your holiday pay policies clearly.
As an incentive for workers, some stores pay their employees time-and-a-half for working on holidays. Make sure your staff is informed of your store’s policies and which days, if any, are eligible for bonus pay. This will either motivate workers to come in or head off any disappointment over paychecks. - Find out who wants to work.
Some employees may prefer to work on holidays to help out coworkers or pick up extra money. Ask your employees to let you know if they would like to be scheduled for holidays. - Schedule employees to work only one holiday (unless you’re short-staffed). If you have more people who want to work than not, put employees on for Thanksgiving or Christmas, for example. This is especially important if you pay time-and-a-half.
- Don’t overbook anyone.
Even if you only have one or two employees who want to work during the holidays, don’t schedule them for too many hours. You don’t want employees burning out. Also, be aware of back-to-back scheduling during the holidays. Nobody should be expected, for example, to close on Thanksgiving and open on Black Friday. - Closely monitor overtime during your busy weeks.
If you offer time-and-a-half on holidays, keep your costs down by limiting or not allowing overtime during your busiest weeks. Ask all employees to clear shift-swapping requests through management to keep a close eye on overtime hours. - Release schedules for peak weeks earlier than normal.
While many workers will know their holiday plans far in advance, those who don’t have big plans may still want to celebrate in some way. Create and give your employees their schedules earlier so they have more time to make plans.
