Imagine an employer who offers extra paid leave, a month of unpaid leave each year, eight weeks of paid sabbaticals, and yoga classes every week.
That’s not a fairytale. That’s how Monzo treats its employees to prioritize their well-being, which works wonders for their productivity. Tara Ryan, VP of People Experience at Monzo, explained how important employees are, “We’re always looking to introduce best-in-class policies for our employees. Our people are essential … and investing in them is a priority…”
It might seem counterintuitive, but the data says otherwise. For instance, a recent study found that enjoying annual leaves can improve productivity by up to 40%. Several studies have also confirmed other benefits of flexible scheduling: employee satisfaction, reduced burnout, increased retention, and improved health and well-being.
While employees need time off every week, it peaks during the holiday season. They have a lot on their minds, from family time and social obligations to planning festivities and making vacation arrangements. Work is at the bottom of their to-do lists.
If you lead or work in HR, you know how frequently employees tend to store up PTO for a long winter break — or a summer break! Managing holiday work schedules can be a nightmare. But there is a solution: Using data to understand employee needs and drive effective decision-making.
This article is your go-to guide to understanding why a flexible holiday working schedule matters, planning one by surveying employees and using technology, its benefits, and the best practices to ensure equity.
Why flexible holiday scheduling matters for employee satisfaction
Flexible scheduling is a must for today’s workplaces, with nearly 50% of employees experiencing burnout and businesses grappling with 38% quitting within the first year, citing poor work-life balance as one reason.
Since seasonal burnout peaks during holidays and turnover rates rise as the new year sets in, you must add flexible holiday scheduling to the top of your HR agendas. Let’s see why in more detail:
1: Rigid holiday schedules hurt employee morale
Work peaks during the holiday season, especially in customer-facing domains like retail, hospitality, and logistics, requiring employees to work extra hours. So much so that they often don’t go home for the night. Not surprisingly, almost 9 in 10 U.S. adults report increased stress during the holiday season.
Working long hours without sufficient breaks increases stress and resentment, leading to decreased productivity, increased burnout, demoralization, disengagement, and ultimately abandonment. Imposing inflexible, last-minute schedules without sufficient planning adds insult to injury, creating a vicious cycle that fuels more distress.
A Harvard study found that uncertain work scheduling can lead to misery, poor sleep, and significant dissatisfaction. Conversely, another study found taking time off to rest can ease job-related stress and burnout.
Burnout happens not just during the holidays when employees feel overworked but continues post vacation they take right after their holiday hustle. Dr. Thea Gallagher, a clinical psychologist at NYU Langone Health, explains to the New York Times, “One reason burnout can be so pronounced even after a vacation is that people tend to work harder in the days before they’re off.” It’s like hopping from one activity to another without getting rest.
Moreover, businesses feel the brunt of burnout as much as employees. A Gallup report says that burnout-induced disengagement caused organizations worldwide a loss of $8.8 trillion.
2: Holiday season flexibility drives satisfaction and retention
Avoiding burnout is essential not only for employees but also for businesses. More often than not, burnout equals higher turnovers. And turnovers cost US businesses a trillion dollars annually, with an employee’s exit costing 150% to 200% of their annual salary to replace, Gallup research found.
One way to reduce burnout is to pulse employee sentiment and introduce flexible holiday scheduling. Conducting an employee survey is the simplest way to identify their needs. Whereas, monitoring their satisfaction levels could give you an insight into the impact of flexibility on retention. Higher satisfaction translates to higher retention.
Employees seek companies offering flexible working schedules for holiday celebrations with family and friends. Accommodating their holiday needs makes them feel valued. Even a growing body of research indicates higher retention rates corresponding to flexible work schedules.
A recent Randstad survey found a whopping 94% of employees choose jobs with work-life balance and 83% value flexible hours. Plus, a McKinsey survey revealed a remarkable 58% of the American workforce (that’s 92 million) wish to work remotely at least a day every week. It wouldn’t be surprising if these numbers hit the ceiling during the holiday season.
Benefits of a flexible holiday work schedule for businesses
A flexible holiday work schedule is no longer a luxury. It’s how businesses stay afloat by giving greater autonomy to employees and retaining top talent. Let’s explore the positive effects of offering an accommodating schedule during the holidays.
1: Improved productivity, reduced burnout, boosted morale
Flexibility drives employees’ motivation as they can have the freedom to choose a schedule that works best for them.
Take chronoworking, for instance. It’s a new workplace trend wherein people ditch the 9-to-5 workday to create flexible schedules, also called flextime, based on their circadian rhythms (the body’s natural 24-hour cycle) that dictate their productivity peaks and dips.
Likewise, employees can benefit from choosing the days on which they work from the office, remotely, or not at all, allowing them to align their workdays with their monthly productivity patterns. Let’s call it “monthly chronoworking”.
This flexibility improves focus and reduces stress, leading to more productive work and greater employee satisfaction during holidays. It also helps reduce burnout and boost morale, resulting in cost savings on productivity losses, sick leaves, and turnovers.
2: Enhanced company reputation, improved recruitment
Another significant benefit of monthly chronoworking is it enables you to attract and retain top talent. According to research, top performers are 4x more productive than their average peers. Let this fact sink in.
Meanwhile, a WEF report mentions that only up to 20% of such people are in the workforce and are irreplaceable. Now, you wouldn’t want to lose these highly talented people to your competitors, would you?
Flexible scheduling during holidays also creates a positive workplace culture, improving employer branding. With positive word-of-mouth promotion and never-heard-of flexible holiday season policies, your company could become the next dream company, where employees have a holiday blast while working their best.
Leveraging employee experience (EX) platforms is your best shot at assessing workplace culture and identifying areas where you can improve flexibility to attract new talent.
Steps to build a flexible holiday work schedule
Creating an ideal holiday work schedule is difficult. It’s like walking a tightrope, balancing employee needs with an increased workload. Plus, conflicting priorities, varying availability, and fairness concerns could make you pull your hair. However, involving employees and employing technology can make it a lot easier.
Let’s see what you can do to get through the scheduling nightmare.
Step 1. Involve employees in schedule planning
Planning a holiday season schedule by considering employee preferences and availability is essential. Not involving employees in scheduling is like forgetting to invite guests to a party.
Start with the basics. Gather employee input through meetings or suggestion boxes. However, if your workforce is considerably large, try online EX platforms with convenient features like multiple question types, ready-to-use templates, and AI-driven analytics.
What should you look for when doing surveys? Here are some basic questions you can ask to gain insights into employee needs and sentiments
- Rate your satisfaction with the current time-off policy on a scale of 1-5.
- Would you be more productive if we implemented a flexible holiday work schedule?
- During which holidays do you need time off to celebrate with family?
- Are you ready to work on some holidays in exchange for leaves on other days?
- How soon can you tell us about your holiday season leave planning?
- What is your preferred method for requesting time off?
Step 2. Set clear expectations and communicate availability
Analyzing survey data will enable you to create an effective holiday work schedule considering factors like employee time off needs, family commitments, operational needs, productivity patterns, shift preferences, and employee well-being.
What then? Communicate the holiday time off policies and working requirements clearly to each employee, asking them for any concerns. Recommend that they set realistic expectations and avoid over-promising.
This way, you can gain employee trust, avoid conflicts, and give them a sense of control over their schedules. Moreover, accurate data allows managers to set practical deadlines and decide whether to hire contract employees during the holiday season.
Step 3. Leverage technology to manage flexible schedules
Using manual scheduling is outdated, time-consuming, and error-prone. During holidays when many people work remotely or are on leave, efficient communication and quick responses are crucial to ensuring coverage.
That’s why using technology is a smart move. It offers several benefits, such as automated scheduling and reminders, real-time updates, increased transparency, and data-driven insights.
You can use several tools to do this effectively, including
- When I Work for managing scheduling
- Slack/MS Teams for effective communication
- Asana for task management
- SogoEX for HR data analytics
With these tools, you can implement an efficient and employee-friendly holiday work schedule, ensuring a stress-free holiday season and business continuity.
Flexible working models for the holiday season
We live in the age of high-tech, real-time remote communication systems. These systems enable employees to work from anywhere, anytime, giving them flexibility and autonomy. Research suggests most people prefer work-life balance, with 61% not ready to accept a position that disrupts it and 31% quitting quietly.
Looking at these numbers, you must be aware of different flexible working models and implement them, particularly during the festive season:
1. Hybrid work options
Myth: Companies have retreated from pandemic-induced remote working models.
Fact: Remote or at least hybrid work arrangements are here to stay.
As 70% of US employers have adopted a hybrid working model, employees can choose their in-office and remote work days.
It relieves them from the daily grind of getting ready and commuting long distances, saving time and energy to enjoy being with loved ones, plan holidays, or do whatever they choose. This arrangement leads to enhanced productivity, increased employee satisfaction, and reduced burnout.
Even businesses like yours can benefit by getting a more focused and satisfied workforce with higher retention rates. As they say, “Happy employees do a better job.” In addition, you can save costs on real estate and overheads, gain access to a global talent pool, and become a top recruiter.
2. Rotating schedules and compressed work weeks
Certain organizations, like BPOs, need to work 24/7. These companies assign 8-hour shifts to the employees. With shift rotations, you can allow employees to change their shifts every few days depending on their family and social commitments during the holiday season.
You can also experiment with different rotating schedules, such as fast, slow, weekend, and partial rotations. While managing rotations is difficult, there are benefits, too: fairness, increased flexibility, improved coverage, and better work-life balance.
Then, there is the compressed work week, an increasingly popular trend in which your workforce can complete 5 days’ worth of work in four. Who wouldn’t want that? Stanford research says people working 60 hours every week exhibit 33% less productivity than those working 40 hours. Even if you can’t implement it all year round, a 3-day weekend during the holiday season would make headlines.
3. Remote work and flexible time off
As of 2023, 35 million digital nomads are globetrotting alongside earning a living. And 60% more wish to do it, if only their company allowed. Add it to your EX survey, and you’ll find similar outcomes.
If it’s not possible, consider providing your workforce with remote work opportunities (possibly on a rotation basis), at least during the holidays, so they can spend more time with their families and go on relaxing workations.
Or, you can offer flexible time off where your employees can choose their days off as they deem fit. This can make your employee satisfaction levels go through the ceiling.
Best practices for ensuring fairness and coverage during holiday periods
Although flexible holiday work schedules sound appealing and offer several benefits to both employees and employers, implementing them is not a piece of cake.
It requires weeks of reviewing individual and organizational needs and planning an ideal holiday schedule. Moreover, you must factor in fairness to everyone and the need for operational coverage.
Here are the best practices to follow when creating a holiday work schedule:
1. Establish a transparent policy for holiday requests
Ensuring all employees actively participate in the ongoing efforts to create a holiday work schedule will make them feel included and make the process easier. From the onset, share the holiday scheduling policy and guide them regarding when and how to request time off.
Clear communication regarding holiday policies, setting expectations, valuing hierarchy, and using a rotational schedule is a win-win for you and your employees. They control when to take paid time off (PTO), and you can avoid operational disruptions and staffing problems during the holidays.
To maintain fairness in scheduling, you can use a first-come-first-served (FCFS) or a seniority-based approach.
2. Balance team needs with individual flexibility
Balancing individual and team needs may feel like juggling. In case of a severe staff shortage, you may have to cut short certain employees’ holidays, and they won’t like it.
However, there are ways to ease this situation. Identify volunteers willing to take graveyard shifts or fill in for others when required. Incentivize them for going the extra mile with cash rewards or additional PTOs when they need them.
Close down your offices on important holidays and allow those working to contribute remotely. Motivate employees to learn to perform multiple roles so they can swap or cover shifts for others, and don’t forget to reward them.
Scratch your employees’ backs and they’ll scratch yours
Providing employees with job satisfaction isn’t an alien concept. It’s the need of the hour. Happy employees not only signify that they are physically and mentally well but also indicate a stable and growing business.
Successfully implementing a flexible holiday work schedule shows your commitment to employee well-being and nurturing a productive work environment, benefiting both individuals and the company.
At Sogolytics, explore the efficient SogoEX platform that helps you prioritize employee needs through data-driven decision-making and create a fulfilling and productive holiday season experience for everyone.
