Managing a business is enough to make even the most grounded person feel pressured. Factor in the craziness that comes with the holiday season, and the responsibility can be downright overwhelming. Fluctuating manpower demands, irregular working hours and increased time-off and other requests make holiday staff scheduling one of the most dreaded tasks a manager faces. Luckily, we have a few tips to make staff scheduling during this season less stressful - so you can maintain (or reclaim) your sanity.
Plan Ahead
To avoid dealing with last-minute schedule requests - time off,
for example - finalize your schedule in advance. Set deadlines for
employee requests and make sure everyone understands that the
cut-off date is firm. If your organization uses
staff scheduling software, it's about to become your best
friend. Scheduling software not only makes it easy for employees to
make schedule requests, but ensures accountability by creating a
record that includes the date and time each request was submitted.
Additionally, you can quickly see whether a schedule request
conflicts with other shifts or requests. As a result, you can
easily to accept or deny requests without having to worry about
under- or over-staffed shifts.
Be Flexible
Creating your employee schedule before the holiday season is a
great first step toward avoiding scheduling frustrations. There
are, however, times when unplanned circumstances arise that will
create an unexpected need to bring in additional manpower or fill
open shifts fast. Remember that staff scheduling software we just
mentioned? It's going to come in handy in these situations as well.
The software allows you to quickly identify qualified and available
employees, and then send email or text messages to notify them of
emergencies or
fill open shifts. You can subsequently see whether there are
too many or too few employees scheduled and easily adjust
accordingly.
Buffer in Before and After Time
Prior to every meeting, appointment and shift change, you and your
employees need time to prepare before you can fully engage. If you
need a staff member to be on the floor at 8 a.m., for example,
schedule them to arrive at 7:45. If a meeting is slated to last an
hour, don't schedule another one immediately after that. Give
everyone at least 15 minutes to process information from the first
meeting, and an additional 15 minutes to mentally refocus and
prepare for the next one. That will help your team get the most out
of each meeting and retain the information discussed. Allowing
extra time for your employees to decompress throughout the day will
help them stay focused on the task at hand, even during the hectic
holiday season.
Staff scheduling doesn't have to be a constant source of stress at holiday time. Learn how ScheduleAnywhere helps you manage schedules during the hectic season - and throughout the year.
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