Make your New Year’s Resolution early this year, do yourself a favour and get yourself holiday season ready in advance! Every year, whether I was working in my own business or working as an employee, I encourage my clients to plan ahead for this very busy season.
This is the time of year we should be celebrating our achievements as a small business, not worrying about our staffing. Getting your recruitment and employee management plan set is going to be crucial to achieving that success.
Before you start panicking, creating your plan step by step will have you laughing all the way (because Jingle Bells of course).
First things first, what to consider or include in that plan:
Seasonal Recruitment
Depending on the type of business you run or are involved in, your business may be either going through a time of heightened activity or a slow down. If you’re a business that experiences greater sales activity throughout the holiday season consider the following:
⭐ Casual Pooling - increase your casual pool well before the silly season starts. This will give you time to hire, onboard and train your new staff. You’ll be more prepared to meet the fluctuating demands of your business.
Pro Tip: Calculate your busy season backwards! Determine the commencement of your silly-season and figure out how long it’ll take you to train, onboard, hire and advertise the role and start your process then!
If your business is more affected by a slowing down of sales and activity because your suppliers and clients are going into shutdown modes, consider how you might make the most of that time.
⭐ Leave Planning - Do you or your staff need a break? This is a great time to review your annual leave strategy, see who might be becoming a leave liability (including you!) and get the calendars out and start planning who’s going to take a break and when.
Pro Tip: If you do have quite a few people with leave liability, this is also a great time to staff up, give your star staff a break during the quieter times and still keep the business going with temporary or casual staff.
Shut it Down!
Following on from your leave planning strategy, maybe it’s a good time of year just to give the entire organisation a break. As a small business owner, if you can give yourself that moment to completely unwind for a week or two, it’s going to do wonders for your mental and physical health. Closing between the Christmas and Boxing Day Holiday through to the New Years public holiday are standard close periods for many businesses.
⭐ Make it Legal - If you choose to have a shut down, make sure to review the Agreement or Award your employees work under to ensure you’ve followed the rules about when you can direct employees to take their annual leave. You may be required to give a notice period to your staff, so do the homework and don’t be caught short having to pay someone to work because you didn’t check the clauses in your Award or Agreement. 28 days is standard, but maybe just check!
Pro Tip: Fair Work has fantastic information about how to notify your staff of a shut down, if you don’t know where to start, call me or call them and we’ll get you on the right track!
⭐ Oops No Leave Balance! - What if your star employee has just come back from their European dream holiday (wouldn’t that be nice!)? You want to shut down, but they have no leave available? You can work out a plan with them to be paid annual leave before they have accrued it or they can always take unpaid leave.
Public Holiday Conundrum!
So, what if you can’t take leave or can’t shut down because it’s just too darn busy? If you’ve planned it well, and got your staffing levels right you’ll be able to stay open and staffed throughout the season. Then what?
⭐ Pay Perfectly - Be an employer who pays public holiday and overtime rates correctly from the get go. You don’t want to be someone who accidentally underpays during the holiday season, it’ll affect your reputation, your employer brand and possibly your legal bills if not resolved quickly.
Pro-Tip: There are all sorts of special rates and situations that need to be considered when paying on public holidays, depending on your award or agreement you may need to check whether some public holidays are actually normal time, and when some normal time days are actually to be paid at public holiday rates. Check your Award or Agreement again to specifically confirm which days and times are paid at what rates so you’re not stuck behind. If in doubt, Fair Work once again is your friend.
⭐ Be Inclusive! There are many other holidays celebrated by groups of diverse cultural backgrounds that aren’t necessarily recognised as public holidays in Australia. Take the time to determine whether those events are important to your staff and think about how you might be able to consider this in your leave and public holiday planning. Events such as Chinese New Year, NAIDOC week, Ramadan are just some of many that may need to be considered.
In conclusion, this can be the Happiest Time of Year, or it can be the Nightmare before Christmas. Keeping your business front of mind, ensuring you’re following your legal obligations and planning out how you plan to staff during this time of year will set you up for success. But go one step further, think about what your employees need and want too. Maybe they are begging for more hours and this is a great time to give it, or maybe the look on their face says they need a break. Through casual and temporary staffing, you can really do both, and I’m here to help you through it.
Ash ✨
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