How to Manage Holiday Time-Off Requests

The holidays drive a lot of business, especially for the hospitality, transportation, and retail sectors. Why? Because a lot of us travel to be with family or just relax. And just about everybody drops some heavy coin on gifts for friends and family.

It takes people time to select, buy, and wrap gifts. If they’re having company over for the holidays, they can add cleaning, menu planning, grocery shopping, and food preparation to their to-do lists. It’s also important for people to take the time to be in the moment and visit with loved ones.

So many people – including those in the customer service, hospitality, transportation, and retail sectors – like to take a little extra time off this time of year. Businesses are not necessarily surprised but that. But they’re not always prepared for it either.

A strategy and a bit of planning can help organizations better manage holiday scheduling and staffing.

For example, organizations can ask employees to input their holiday time-off requests by a certain date. That way they can get a better handle on who will be available and to what extent those individuals will be able to address work requirements during that time period. This can help managers decide which time-off requests to grant. And it can give businesses the time to hire and train holiday workers if needed.

Offering workers added pay to cover holiday shifts can build good cheer for all. Working a shift during holiday time might not seem as bad if it helps fund an extra gift or a fun outing.

Allowing people to work from home and creating flexible schedules may also encourage employees to help out during the holidays. That doesn’t work for all types of jobs. But it is possible for some customer service people, especially those who can log into business systems remotely.

Edited by Maurice Nagle