Thinking Ahead to Holiday Staffing

The start of the school year may mean human resources departments can take a break from staffing worries since everyone's back from vacation and work paces return to normal. It's a short break, though, because holiday staffing concerns are just around the corner. It pays to think ahead and create a plan before the holiday season.

Early September may bring a mini reminder about the importance of holiday staffing. According to a Bloomberg News survey, around 40 percent of employers require some workers to be present on Labor Day. A popular time for end-of-summer vacations and family gatherings, the Labor Day weekend is likely to prompt many time-off requests. Without a holiday staffing plan, your office may have suffered slow sales, unplanned productivity drops, or low morale among workers who did clock in for the day. Those hiccups are nothing compared to the problems associated with poor planning prior to the November and December holiday season.

Human resources professionals can help ensure adequate holiday staffing through temporary recruiting and by assisting managers in implementing fair time-off approval procedures. Retail organizations and other businesses that will see increased labor demands during holidays should plan for holiday staffing months ahead of time. Onboarding processes can take up to two months, so putting out the call for holiday staff in late October isn't going to cut it. You know how long it typically takes to bring a new hire or temp employee in; add two weeks to that estimate to account for unforeseen problems and another few weeks for training. Make sure leadership gets requisitions in by your deadline for a better chance at appropriate holiday staffing.

HR personnel should work with department managers throughout the year to avoid holiday staffing troubles, regardless of the business type. Everyone might want to take the week of Christmas off, but with work to be done, someone's usually stuck at the office. Implementing fair time-off request procedures is the best way to ensure appropriate staffing without playing favorites. Popular methods include approving on a first-come-first-serve basis, by tenure, or through a lottery. As any option is going to leave someone unhappy, it's important for the HR department to ensure consistency throughout the company. Most employees will understand if they draw the short straw, provided there's no impression that the straws were handed out unfairly.

If you're in human resources, it's never too early to plan for needs and issues related to holiday staffing. Work with business leaders to understand how holiday workloads may impact labor demands, start recruiting early enough to account for onboarding and training, and help managers implement time-off policies in an impartial manner. Holiday staffing is especially important in November and December, but don't forget about spring break, Memorial Day, and Labor Day, which may also lead to staffing woes if you don't plan properly.

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