Once again, I travel back to one of my favorite roles, and that being scheduling manager for both retail at Gap and Apple and in hospitality at Disney. The holiday schedule always made for an interesting battle of wits, but inevitably we always had enough adequate coverage to ensure that staffing was effective and people were able to spend time with their families as well.
One of the caveats no matter where I did labor scheduling was to ensure that we covered our shifts first, and then worried about time off next. I never have believed in allowing a scheduled day off on Memorial Day unless that happened to be a day that someone regularly was off.
To minimize the appearance of favoritism, the least senior employees were scheduled on Memorial Day, and where possible, those who did regularly work on that day were given a shorter shift to accommodate holiday get togethers.
One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that many companies neglect to consider the days around the holiday and put an overabundance of staff on the holiday itself; this is a mistake that can cost you sales, productivity, and cause gaps in customer service.
Contact me for a consultation on labor scheduling. Later this summer, I will begin offering webinars covering labor scheduling tips.
