The majority of schools will close on 20th December so from that Friday the pressure is on! With Christmas Day and New Year’s Day both being on a Wednesday, this holiday season may be proving a bit more complicated to plan than usual. What time off will you be giving your employees?
Are you planning for people to work on Monday & Tuesday (Christmas Eve)? Will you want them to work on Friday, after Boxing Day? Who will be working on which days during the following week? New Year’s Day is right in the middle!
Luckily there is technology to help you, so with a bit of planning, you can help your team have time off and enjoy the holidays. Arrange this well and your customers will think you’re working throughout the festive period, and you’ll be there if they need you. How can you make this happen and keep everyone happy? Here are some tips for giving employees a great Christmas/New Year’s break, as told by Warren Pryer from Equinox.
Do you need to be working?
If your customers never work over the festive period, you don’t need to either. Have a look at what you did over the last couple of years and see what level of business happened. If your staff had little, or no, engagement with customers, there’s a good chance the same thing will happen this year.
If you are going to close completely, remember to tell your customers! Whilst it is probably unlikely that they will be in touch, the last thing you want is an unhappy customer who expected you to be there. Make it very clear when you finish and when you will be back. Remember to update your Google Local listing and adjust any opening hours you have on your website or social media. Even if you don’t have trading hours on your website normally, adding them (belts, buckles and all that) will ensure people know.
Call answering services, such as Answeror Moneypenny, often provide PAYG services so you can have them cover your phones for a few days. Their operators will tell your customer what you want them to. With services like this costing around £1 a call, they can be a very cost-effective way to delivering a level of service to your customers and prospects, without disturbing your team’s Christmas break.
Make the most of remote working
Internet connectivity, VoIP phone solutions and laptops/mobile devices make it easy for some, or all, of your staff to work from home. If you do need them to work during the holidays, removing the daily commute means they can spend more time with friends and family. With at least one of the train companies facing strike action throughout December, plus the inevitable maintenance work that will take place, the commute may take even longer than normal – something that won’t be popular.
Productivity and collaboration tools, such as Slack, Basecamp and Microsoft Teams, meaning your teams can be just as productive (if not more) working from wherever they want to work. Many of these also allow customer access, so service delivery can continue too.
Remote working, including re-routing telephone calls, means your customers will know no different. They will get the service they expect, your staff will be happy they’re not in the office and you won’t lose any business – a winning combination.
Having some staff on call is another option greatly improved by remote working. The majority of your team can have time off, whilst your customers still have services available if they need them. Of course, you will have to pay the staff for the time they are on call and they need to ensure they are near a phone and a laptop – and haven’t been drinking (maybe one – it is Christmas!)
Keeping your email checking in check
There aren’t many senior managers who can resist the call of email over the whole of the festive period, so this probably goes without saying, but you may want to keep an eye on your emails. A simple email response to an inbound sales enquiry will show you’re interested and your response can manage expectations. Even if you have told all your customers you are closed, there is bound to be someone who still insists on emailing you. You don’t have to reply, but a quick read will help you decide whether it is necessary.
Flexible working
If your staff do need to work, but aren’t having to interact with customers throughout the day, a flexible working approach, at least for the holiday period, can give them the flexibility to enjoy more time with family and friends, and deliver the productivity you need from them. If what’s important is that the work is done, rather than when it is done, giving them the option to work when they want to will definitely mean they think festive thoughts about you during that time. Assuming it works, you may even want to roll it out through the rest of the year!
Reinforce IT security
We would be remiss if we didn’t remind you about ensuring your IT Security is right. Working over the holidays may mean some staff have a slightly more relaxed approach and you cannot afford for that to mean malware, viruses or phishing emails hit their targets. Multi-factor authentication, anti-virus/malware software and endpoint protection products are vital to ensure your network or data aren’t compromised.
Trust is essential
Making all this work over Christmas and New Year needs one more vital ingredient: you need to trust your staff to do the job you want from them. If you are used to everyone working in the office, this may be a big step, but all the research shows that flexible and remote working deliver will deliver for your business.
A plan for business continuity
The other benefit you get from setting up the business so your staff can have a great Christmas break is that you have developed a business continuity plan. If it works when you want it to, it will work when you need it to – if your office becomes unavailable to you for some reason (referring back to the train strikes), such as bad weather during the winter.
You may be in a business where people have to come to work. Retail and healthcare cannot be delivered remotely. However, for most other businesses if you use the technology available and plan well employees will be able to have a lovely Christmas, even where this includes some remote or flexible working. Make sure to use these tips for giving employees a great Christmas/New Year’s break so everyone can enjoy their festive holidays.
More on perks and benefits for your employees and how to beat the Christmas competition.
Follow Company Bug