While the holidays are joyous occasions, the season is typically pretty stressful. Year-end company activities can lead to heavier workloads. Plus, employees and managers are often trying to handle numerous personal obligations while remaining productive at work. Those obligations can often be distracting, making it hard for everyone to focus. Finally, employee absences may overburden other staff members trying to provide coverage.
Outline Organizational Priorities
Employees typically have many duties, but not every responsibility is a genuine priority. During the holiday season, meet with your team to outline what tasks are true organizational priorities. Additionally, identify which activities can wait until the holiday season ends.
By doing so, you’re ensuring employees aren’t accidentally overburdened due to misunderstandings about priorities. Additionally, it allows you to make sure that workers are putting the most energy into duties that make the biggest impact.
Support Work-Life Balance
Trying to support your team’s work-life balance during the holiday season is critical. Options like remote work arrangements or flexible schedules are particularly valuable this time of year. With those, employees can adapt to their personal obligations while remaining productive. In some cases, they may also help workers avoid needing paid leave, keeping more people working during what can be a busy period.
When it comes to leave use, don’t actively discourage it. Instead, work with your entire team to develop a reasonable and fair approach, ensuring employees have the ability to take breaks from the workplace without overtasking a select few. Doing so can help keep stress levels in check while allowing everyone to enjoy the season.
Have Regular Check-ins with Employees
Since you may be scrambling a bit during the holidays, there’s a chance you won’t notice if a team member is struggling. By having regular check-ins with your employees, you create opportunities for open, honest dialog. Focus on seeing how they’re doing and discover if they face challenges you haven’t noticed. That way, you can work with them if issues arise, allowing you to provide support and guidance while keeping the team on target.
Ensuring team members have access to resources and information about effective stress management can also help. If those are available, remind workers where to find those details and give them time to review them to ensure they have the information they need to thrive.
Secure Temporary Employees Through a Staffing Agency
While your current workforce can potentially cover the occasional absence on its own, if teams have a lot of members taking leave during the holidays, it creates a lot of stress. Employees can end up spread incredibly thin, and overtime might become necessary, making work-life balance even harder to maintain.
Fortunately, you can provide relief by partnering with a staffing agency. The recruitment firm can provide your company with skilled, experienced temporary employees quickly and affordably. Then, you’ll have extra hands available to help cover the absences, eliminating the need for overtime and ensuring your workforce isn’t overburdened.
If you’d like to work with a leading staffing agency this holiday season, Premier Staffing Inc. wants to hear from you. Contact us today.