How To Effectively Manage and Schedule Employee Vacation Days
When holidays approach, business owners are tasked with managing requests for time off. Failing to have an effective means of managing and scheduling employee vacation days can impact business operations, hurt the company culture, and mar your employer brand. Managing employee vacation days correctly helps deliver client expectations, meet customer demands, and prevent internal strife. Take a look at some tips for the effective management and scheduling of employee vacation days.
Plan in advance.
Holiday seasons remain the same year after year, which makes it easy to plan for time off requests in advance. Many employers require their employees to plan out their vacations for the coming year in January. This provides an overview of who is available for which holiday and who isn’t. For industries in which annual planning isn’t feasible, such as health care, it’s a good idea to plan vacation schedules three to five months in advance.
First come, first served.
When running a business that sees an uptick during the busy holidays or one that needs constant staffing, it’s a good idea to practice the first-come-first-served system. This system lets employees who know they want time off for specific holidays ask far enough in advance. The sooner you start accepting time-off requests, the sooner you can update employees with schedules and make any necessary operational adjustments. Following a first-come-first-served policy is a smart way to limit the number of people who can be absent during the holidays.
Vacation rentals operate on a first-come-first-served basis when accepting reservations. The sooner you make your vacation plans, the better your chances of finding the ideal accommodation for your needs. Eildon Pondage Holiday Park is the perfect place to enjoy a romantic getaway or family vacation in the beautiful bushland and mountains of the Victorian high country. The Eildon lake accommodation has options for camping, cabins, cottages, and caravans and offers a range of amenities for everyone to enjoy. The pet-friendly holiday park features multi-bedroom villas and cabins with air conditioning, refrigerators, WiFi, balcony access, bathrooms, and plenty of space to comfortably sleep multiple people. With easy access to nearby attractions, the holiday park is perfect for long weekends away from the bustle of daily life.
Offer work-from-home options.
Work-from-home culture is here to stay, and anyone with a computer and WiFi connection can take advantage. Letting your employees work from home during the holidays is a great way to maintain productivity without worrying about bringing on extra staff or missing client expectations. The key to offering work-from-home options is to ensure employees have the right tools available to get their work done.
Customer support and customer satisfaction go hand in hand. Using the right tools to approach customer service helps businesses deliver a better customer experience and gain customer loyalty. Bright Pattern is a leader in omnichannel solutions for contact centers that provides customer service on a variety of digital channels. Omnichannel means connecting with customers via phone calls, voice calls, video calls, live chat, SMS, text messaging, mobile apps, social media, and more.
Taking an omnichannel approach to customer service results in a consistent experience that exceeds customer expectations. An omnichannel solution takes your contact center to the next level with CRM integration, chatbots, AI-powered agent assistance, WFO and WFM integration, interactive voice response (IVR), intelligent call routing, call recording, a unified agent desktop, and more. A multichannel approach to customer service is the best way to track the customer journey and provide a next-level customer experience that exceeds expectations and earns customer loyalty.
Stagger the schedule.
Rather than worrying about having enough people available to work during the holidays, stagger the schedule to ensure there’s always coverage while accommodating vacation time. Consider splitting the workday into morning and afternoon shifts, or have employees work specific days in turns. You could even incentivize employees to work holidays by offering a holiday pay differential.
Planning, using a first-come-first-served system, offering work-from-home options, and staggering the schedule are all effective ways to manage and schedule employee vacation days.