Coping with workload lulls and what to do with staff
Discussion
Frimley111R said:
A lot of businesines are seasonal and even if they are not, there are inevitable lulls in workload. How do you cope when its very quiet and little for staff to do? What do you do with them?
Tricky one... I run the family business in the Swimming Pool industry, so our core season is around 4 months long. We do all aspects though, so there's generally quite a lot to do for most of the year. Typically it goes a bit like this... June-August - busy period for retail and e-commerce, extra staff in to cope with packing and dispatching online/trade orders
Sept-Nov - Additional packers are laid off, other staff go out on site to assist with shut downs etc
Dec - deadly quiet, tend to get staff busy with paint brushes to spruce the place up, move around the shop etc
Jan - Attention goes to the websites, new design features I work on, while staff add and revise products etc.
Feb-March - suppliers come out with new products and prices, update internal systems and websites
April-May - Start opening up pools, and getting stock in ready for the summer.
We do have weeks where there is literally nothing happening, and I'm not afraid of getting staff to slap paint on walls, and do those once a year jobs like pull all the shelves out in the shop and deep clean. Obviously, the staff are extremely useful to us in the summer, so we keep them on all year round, aside from parcel packers who we employ just for the summer. I do have one lad though who comes back every year to pack parcels.
Having previously run a very seasonal business, one thing that we implemented was a scheme where staff worked reduced hours during the off season (effectively by having an extra weeks worth of holiday), then made it back by working more hours during the peak period. This kept our wage costs down and and allowed us to manage the peaks and troughs much better. After some initial trepidation, the staff seemed to be quite happy about it.
This used to be a massive problem for us, we've had fully qualified electricians on £16ph painting walls in the office, tidying up and doing anything and everything just to keep them employed.
Now, we have an apprentice who often works in the stores, hours are filled up here and there with bits around the office, bit of extra training etc.
I'm bricking it if we get that quiet again though as we can't fund it.
Now, we have an apprentice who often works in the stores, hours are filled up here and there with bits around the office, bit of extra training etc.
I'm bricking it if we get that quiet again though as we can't fund it.
We are very, very quiet in Nov/Dec/Jan. We generally keep the perm staff only, all the temps and agency go around early October. Could easily close down in December tbh. But we have a few very good customers who spend a lot in March-Sep who still need us the odd time in N/D/J so we stay open for them really.
Other than that we MOT all our vehicles in Dec and Jan. That takes quite a bit of time. We also paint everything do all the major service items on the heavy plant. Any welding etc or fabrication. Those 3 months actually pass pretty quickly.
Drivers do their CPC etc. We might do the odd other training day as required.
Other than that we close an hour early and that's about it - ride it out till March.
On the flip side the employees never say thanks for getting to go home around 4pm (paid till 5!) for 3 months but ooooh lordy don't dare ask them to do something in their lunch break in the middle of May when it counts... they soon forget.
We are very weather dependant also! PITA!!
Other than that we MOT all our vehicles in Dec and Jan. That takes quite a bit of time. We also paint everything do all the major service items on the heavy plant. Any welding etc or fabrication. Those 3 months actually pass pretty quickly.
Drivers do their CPC etc. We might do the odd other training day as required.
Other than that we close an hour early and that's about it - ride it out till March.
On the flip side the employees never say thanks for getting to go home around 4pm (paid till 5!) for 3 months but ooooh lordy don't dare ask them to do something in their lunch break in the middle of May when it counts... they soon forget.
We are very weather dependant also! PITA!!
Our business isn't seasonal but we do have regular peaks when we're particularly busy, I choose to keep the number of full time employees to a minimum and supplement as necessary with a combination of overtime and temps. It's easier to cut overtime and not take on temps than it is to lay off permanent staff.
We just use a lot of temporary staff in our busy periods. It can be a pain as staff aren't as good as they could be (minimal training and no consistent experience), but then we don't have to pay them for 9months of the year 
But this obviously isn't possible if you work in an industry where you need trained professionals. Our tasks are simple and with a few clear instructions, a head on their shoulders most people can pick it up in a few days.
Staff are a PITA, might just go back to trading from a garage
But this obviously isn't possible if you work in an industry where you need trained professionals. Our tasks are simple and with a few clear instructions, a head on their shoulders most people can pick it up in a few days.
Staff are a PITA, might just go back to trading from a garage
Things we do (accounting firm):
Training (but if too distant from the busy period people forget)
Second staff to other departments (only works with lower skilled staff or ideally if we ever had dual skilled staff)
Second staff to clients (if they have requirements)
Do technical or market research for business development
Plan for jobs as far as possible in busy period
Interestingly we recently had someone ask to go onto a 4 day week for 3 months in our quiet period which works out well for both her and the firm, although it is rare that people can afford to do that.
Training (but if too distant from the busy period people forget)
Second staff to other departments (only works with lower skilled staff or ideally if we ever had dual skilled staff)
Second staff to clients (if they have requirements)
Do technical or market research for business development
Plan for jobs as far as possible in busy period
Interestingly we recently had someone ask to go onto a 4 day week for 3 months in our quiet period which works out well for both her and the firm, although it is rare that people can afford to do that.
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