Why not? Can you imagine it? Those moments in which your team doesn’t meet their goals and market demands because of a seasonal peak of work in your company or industry.
The Christmas season just passed and this is a key period for many companies with an important peak in sales, right?
Does it seem familiar? If so, you are reading the right post.
At different times of the year, it is common for small businesses, agencies, enterprises, and companies to have key dates in their calendar as periods of higher production.
Among the year indeed, there are other moments such as the beginning and end of the fiscal period, summer or other celebrations that can mean high and low production times in your company.
Many companies, depending on their sector or industry, experience periods with high peaks of work, and their productivity is extremely related to seasonality.
For example, January through April is peak season for tax and accounting professionals (check out Nottingham Based Accountants, Archimedia from here). Peak season for designers and marketing companies, for example, can be Christmas or Black Friday. In fact, over the latest years, Black Friday affects to a large number of tech industries, being mobiles, household appliances, smart home products or video games consoles the top selling products.
One well-known challenge that entrepreneurs and leaders might face is navigating seasonal fluctuations in the businesses at the same time they manage the staff needed. We all know that workforce forecasting isn’t an easy task and it has to be aligned across the organization.
In fact, the Human Resources department needs tools like a paystub generator to manage the headcount and staff wages.
Is it the case of your company? Do you have seasonal peaks of work but you don’t know how to solve it? Here you are creative ways to deal with it.
Three key solutions to manage your staff plan and deal successfully with your business seasonality.
- Understand the cycles in your industry and market
Analyzing the market and the company’s productivity flows (it will be perfect if we have data from other years) is key to understand the nature of the market, industry, and company. If you want to learn more about customer buying behavior, you might want to visit the Challenger homepage for more information.
Marking cycles and dates in the calendar is crucial to schedule in advance and develop an impeccable staff plan.
Keep in mind that headcount and staff planning is a process designed to ensure an organization has the right number of people with the right skills in the right roles so the company can meet their goals and demands. And this process requires that you know seasonal peaks to plan. As we will see later, however, going agile is also really important in this process 😉
- Be agile and strengthen if it’s needed your managing and planning skills
Managing a team and its seasonal work fluctuations require agility, evaluation, and planning.
By conducting a successful staff planning, you can help your organization to achieve the company’s goals and strategy.
Look ahead at least six months to plan appropriately. And if it’s possible to do the exercise annually.
Identify your business challenges in the coming year, know in detail the roles, jobs and workforce needs of your company, and establish the metrics to evaluate your company’s talent.
In fact, you should keep in mind that headcount and staff plan is a living document that ideally, leaders should revisit and adjust in real time.
So try to find a balance between being foresighted and agile to be able to adapt and adjust your staff planning according to the market and company needs at all times.
- Make your seasonal hiring agile and efficient
Aligning seasonal talent strategies with organizational strategies and goals doesn’t mean to hire the staff your company just need during the seasonal peak all over the year.
In fact, companies usually add workload at peak and keep a minimal workforce operating at “normal” months. If you need to hire additional employees, make sure to conduct a thorough background check on your job candidates.
Hiring senior external professionals in a flexible way will be crucial for your company to successfully overcome with these peaks of work.
Companies like Wisar can help your company to find in a short period of time flexible experts to join your organization during the time you need.
Senior professionals who can adapt quickly to your needs and help your company meet the results.
Building seasonality into the business plan will ensure success and can make a real difference to your business.
With companies like Wisar your company can meet its goals, without investing so many time and money, hiring the right senior professional to help during the seasonal peaks of work.
That sounds great, right? Do you want to know more? Let’s talk!
