How to let your employees enjoy holiday vacations, without breaking stride

Staying focused and productive throughout the holiday season is tough enough as an entrepreneur. With employees, managing their leave requests and time off can be an extra difficult holiday challenge.

Here are a few tips that may help ease the burden:

Require all leave requests be turned in early
Set a date before the season starts, to have all employees’ leave requests turned in. This way, you can make your holiday work schedules all at once instead of one request at a time, saving you a big headache.

Communicate “no miss” dates For the days and shifts when you need all hands on deck, let your employees know that as soon as possible — before leave requests are due. If you are upfront about your scheduling expectations from the beginning, you can avoid difficult conversations later.

Crosstrain
If you have an employee who is the only one that knows how to handle a certain task, make sure they’ve trained coworkers on how to accomplish it before their vacation.

Explain schedule policy to holiday hires
Whenever hiring temporary workers to help for the holiday season, be up front with them about what you expect time-wise. If they’re going to be available the entire season, move on; don’t bring on people that are just going to increase your stress!