Avoid Festive Fallouts With Great Christmas Rota Planning

For many, the festive season means spending quality time with loved ones, making it a stressful period for businesses when scheduling shifts. A poorly planned Christmas rota can lead to shits not being filled, conflicts, absenteeism and overwhelming stress.

This article will explore ways to ensure your Christmas rota planning runs smoothly while still giving employees a festive season they can enjoy.

Post Schedules Early

Start the festive season early by planning in advance. This can help employees plan their festive commitments around the Christmas rota instead of drafting the rota to accommodate individual schedules. It shows consideration for your team’s time, providing a sense of respect while minimising stress, disputes and the likelihood of short-notice absenteeism.

Hold a Team Meeting

Once the Christmas rota is displayed, schedule a team meeting to explain your approach during the busy period, address concerns, learn about individual personal circumstances and preferences and gather input to ensure all employees’ voices are heard.

This will help create a sense of fairness and inclusivity, allowing employees to voice their preferences and constraints directly. Engaging your team in the process helps build trust, enhance morale and establish a collaborative and positive atmosphere for the festive season.

Provide a Point of Contact

Many people find the Christmas season stressful. That’s why it’s essential to streamline the Christmas rota process to ensure employees feel supported and there are no misunderstandings. Therefore, it’s vital to designate a single point of contact for Christmas rota-related queries.

This staff member should be approachable, well-organised and capable of resolving conflicts fairly. As this role is crucial in maintaining order, this team member must address scheduling gaps and ensure that shifts are distributed fairly.

Give Employees Options

Posting the Christmas Rota early can help provide employees with options for their Christmas shifts, promoting flexibility and fairness. It also allows employees to express their preferences for specific days off and shift hours they’d like to work, such as morning or evening. This process gives people a sense of satisfaction and control over their work-life balance.

While it may not be possible to meet every request, offering choices early can help to mitigate resentment and provide a cooperative atmosphere, increasing the chances of successful rota planning with less stress.

First-Come, First-Serve

First-come, first-serve is the most effective way to encourage employees to schedule their Christmas plans and select their Christmas rota preferences. The fair, clear rule of the ‘first-come’ basis also reduces conflict and disputes over favouritism. However, monitoring individual selection is essential to prevent the monopolisation of prime shifts. Some circumstantial leeway may need to be given.

Annual Rotational System

Christmas happens every year like clockwork, which means so does the Christmas rota. Keeping track of what employees worked in previous years can help to sort out who gets the prime shifts off. For example, an employee who worked Christmas morning last year might work Christmas evening this year. If they worked both shifts for two consecutive years, they could have Christmas Day off this year.

This approach prevents the same individuals from consistently working undesirable shifts during the holidays, building a sense of fairness within the team. Using attendance software to schedule rotas annually provides a clear record of which shifts employees worked in previous years, helping to eliminate confusion or disputes over shift assignments.

Alternating Shifts

Alongside the Christmas rota, consider displaying a schedule in the staff room with alternative shift options, such as morning or evening shifts on critical festive days like Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

This method forces employees to write down their preferences, helping them plan their festive schedules more efficiently. It also encourages open discussion and ensures all shifts are covered. If it is still difficult to fill in the undesirable hours, an employer could draw employees’ names out of a hat.

Option to Split Shifts

Allowing employees to split undesirable shifts can offer relief for those balancing professional responsibilities with personal commitments. Split shifting also reduces the likelihood of last-minute absenteeism, demonstrating a willingness to adapt to individual needs and providing goodwill and cooperation among the team.

Consider Personal Circumstances

Balancing personal circumstances with operational needs requires tact and communication. However, rota planning can demonstrate empathy and compassion for employees’ circumstances, such as childcare responsibilities, religious practices, Christmas traditions and travel plans. Acting promptly can encourage employees to share their details in advance and give you time to accommodate them where possible.

Specify a Cut-Off Date

Setting a clear cut-off encourages employees to submit their preferences or requests early, ensuring plentiful time for resolution. While flexibility is essential, a firm deadline creates structure and reduces stress for employers and employees. Communicate the cut-off date clearly by having it written down and being consistently vocal, emphasising its importance in reducing disappointment.

Track Availability

Using tools like rostering software solutions means you do not need to check absences, holidays or planned remote work manually. The software will handle this for you, helping you identify and fill gaps quickly and efficiently.

Regularly updating availability records allows you to account for changes and encourages employees to come forward with timely updates. Furthermore, rostering software can ensure that all critical responsibilities, such as first aid and health and safety, are covered. You can be alerted if they are not.

Schedule Extra Shifts

It’s essential to anticipate peak work days during Christmas to schedule extra shifts for those hours to ensure service levels are maintained, and staff working those peak shifts are not overwhelmed.

Consider offering overtime or flexible arrangements to allow employees to earn more, providing a win-win situation during the festive rush. For effectiveness, communicate the need for extra shifts early to give employees plentiful time to adjust their plans.

Hire Temporary Staff

While hiring temporary staff can ease the burden on your permanent team during the busy festive period, it’s vital that you recruit early to provide adequate training. This will ensure seamless operations during this already stressful period.

Communicating clearly with your regular team about how temporary staff will support them will alleviate concerns about workload, reduce stress and ensure a smoother workflow.

Have a Contingency Plan for Sickness

Unexpected illnesses often disrupt the Christmas rota regardless of how well it was planned ahead of time. Therefore, having a strong contingency plan to mitigate these challenges is worth it. For instance, you could cross-train staff to cover multiple roles or have a list of reliable, available casual workers who can step in at short notice.

Offer Incentives

Beyond the standard flexible scheduling and allowing employees to choose their preferred shifts, consider offering a variety of incentives to motivate your staff to work during the festive period.

These incentives could include extra time off in January, paid break meals, reimbursement for travel costs, hotel accommodation for those spending Christmas away from home, additional pay or bonuses, gift vouchers or an experience package. Ultimately, providing a range of incentives can attract employees to work the undesired shifts, enhancing job satisfaction during the busiest time of the year.