For many businesses, the holidays (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Christmas) are a busy time. More than likely, you’re gearing your team up to meet the high demands of the holiday season. In crazy busy times like this, it’s good to have a solid gameplan in place, as well as auditing already in-place procedures, to make the most of the season and to ensure your operations don’t fall behind. Prepare for the holidays by going through our checklist and checking it against your existing procedures.

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Utilize Internal Data

In the world we live in today, data is king. You’re shorting yourself out of valuable information if you’re not paying attention to it or tracking it for bookkeeping reasons only.

Often, data from previous years can help you anticipate higher demand or shortfalls. However, sometimes this is not the case due to factors outside of your control. In cases like this, find a trusted and reliable forecasting tool to help you identify trends in demand to inform your preparations for the holidays.

Additionally, forecast and plan for best and worst-case scenarios, as you need to be prepared to face the unique challenges of both.

Build a Flexible Staffing Plan

Once you have detailed forecasts of demand at your disposal, what do you do with it? Your first move is to develop a staffing plan.

During peak busy seasons, you likely won’t have the number of staff you need to deal with the workload increase. Your off-season employee roster won’t be enough to cover everything. It’s also expensive to keep the number of employees you need for a single season year-round. Fortunately, you can overcome this by employing temporary workers.

Give us a moment to toot our own horn! Staffing agencies like Tempstar Staffing can help you meet those increased demands by having a ready-to-work roster of temporary employees available whenever you need them. You can also adjust how many you need, up or down, depending on those demand forecasts, and even hire on some of these temporary workers to your existing workforce.

Procedure and Workflow Audits

To prepare for the holidays, you should examine your procedures and workflows. What worked last year might not work this year, and it’s important to recognize that.

Identify bottlenecks in production or operations. This could come in many forms, such as old or broken equipment, lack of space in your facility, or issues with staff productivity. Whatever the case may be, you should make sure you’re on top of these issues. Consult with people you trust to identify and solve problems before you get too busy.

When it comes to staff scheduling, you need to make sure you’re not overworking your staff with overtime. Create a flexible schedule that utilizes staggered breaks and shifts, and takes fatigue and overwork into consideration.

Post-Holiday Analysis and Clean Up

The weeks following the holidays can also be valuable to you. Take the time to evaluate how your company performed, examine immediate data at your disposal, and use this information to better inform next year’s plans and strategies.

If you used a staffing agency’s services to fill your ranks with temporary employees, use this opportunity to consider any for temp-to-hire potential. Chances are, you worked with a great temporary employee who performed above expectations. You’ll want to make sure they’re a part of your year-round team.

Get a head start to prepare for the holidays now! Contact Tempstar Staffing today to learn how we can help you with flexible staffing solutions.