Does your business have holiday hours? How do you determine who will work and when? In many businesses, seniority is the only tool used to determine who works on the holidays and who doesn’t. If seniority is your only basis for scheduling, you may be faced with having your second best team on board during the busiest days and times of your business.
Most successful businesses that I have seen have employed a mix of seniority based and talent based scheduling for holidays. The best salespeople work during the peak periods, while the newer sales people are paired with the best people during these shifts to learn the tools of the trade. On off-peak periods, management often takes on a more critical role to ensure the staff is motivated and prepared in the event the off-peak quickly turns to peak.
Another point about holiday scheduling is the determination by the business as a whole whether to stay open or closed for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Many times, it is the mall that a store is within or a corporate decision to open, but often the decision is determined by the local management. Think about your customers, your people, and your long-term business goals before making a rash decision to open or close on these days; it may make more sense to stay closed on the actual holiday itself to give your staff time to spend with their families, while it may make more sense to close the day before or after certain holidays to serve both your customers and your staff best.
