It’s not a secret that Christmas in the Philippines starts in September. Due to the holiday preparations during these months comes the holiday rush as well. December is a crucial month for many businesses, whether it’s a startup, a small- or medium-sized business, or even a corporation—it’s when annual reviews are usually due and year-end workload pile up amid being short-staffed as employees max out their unused paid time offs.
That’s why it’s important to plan out scheduling and workload management strategies carefully before employees file their leaves. Planning for the holiday rush in the workplace is a great way to ensure that every team member gets their well-deserved time off and that the team’s productivity is maintained during the most wonderful time of the year.
How to Manage Team Workload during Holidays
When managing workload during the Yuletide season, it’s crucial to set realistic expectations for business, while still demanding high-quality output.
Foster an environment where the company can thrive without overworking your staff. You don’t want your employees to experience burnout just as the year ends.
Here are some ways you can manage your workload before the Christmas rush:
Map out Holiday Vacations in Advance
The easiest way to manage workload during the festive season is to chalk out holiday vacations in advance. If you are a manager, give your team a heads-up as early as October to prepare their holiday plans. That way, the team can work around a schedule where work still gets done.
You can then call for a meeting to discuss the scheduling by November for your team members to compromise and make necessary changes depending on business needs.
If you are a small business owner, a freelancer, or you own a startup, the best thing to do is to plan. A carefully thought out plan gives your business operations time to wrap up everything in time for Christmas and the New Year.
Prepare to make changes on the fly in case of work emergencies, such as delays in output delivery, so adopt a flexible attitude during these times.
Communicate Team Availability
Clearly communicating your work schedule with your team can save a lot of confusion down the road. Your group can create a calendar online and plot the scheduled vacation days per member for better coordination and workload management.
Identify what dates are blacked out and plan for deadlines to be pushed forward to prepare for the days when everyone is mostly out. This will also avoid too much backlog when the team returns to work.
Make yourself amenable to taking on some work should the need arise. For example, if you are taking the last two weeks of December off, allocate some days that are still amenable for you to take on a minimal workload, but set your boundaries, too, and define what days you can’t work. It’s not always a favorable situation, but these things happen, so contingencies and flexibility go hand in hand.
Coordinate Strategically
Calculate project coverage as strategically as possible so that employees will focus on doing the work and minimize downtime along the way. Designate a backup point person if a manager or a project leader is going to be away.
If you are a manager, you can set a meeting at least three weeks or even a month before people go on their holiday break to check in on pending projects and coordinate workload.
Focus on the most critical deliverables and weigh what can wait until the following year. Document your holiday game plan and make sure to get confirmation that every team member is on the same page to avoid unnecessary confusion.
Make a checklist of what to submit before each member leaves on their paid time off. This could include:
- Deliverables such as marketing materials, posters, social media banners, revisions
- Annual or year-end reviews
- Payroll annualization
- Taxes, primarily for freelancers
Automate Some Workload
If you work in tech, December is the best time to work on automating some of your business processes. The last month of the year could serve as a great trial month to eliminate some manual efforts to reduce the redundancy of repetitive tasks. Who knows? Automating o portion of your business operation can save you money, time, and effort.
M Spaces Meeting Room for Your Holiday Planning Needs
Meeting rooms are a suitable place to conduct all those holiday planning before people start to fly off to their provinces to enjoy their time off work. It’s a cost-effective option for small- to medium-sized businesses operating a remote work or hybrid work model. Lucky for you, meeting room rentals are available across the metro.
Located in Ortigas central business district—M Spaces offers meeting room rental services for all your business meeting needs.
M Spaces provides three types of meeting rooms tailored to your business size. Its small meeting room can accommodate up to 6 people, while up to 10 people can sit in the large room. The conference room can accommodate up to 22 people. The best part is you can even help yourself to unlimited coffee in the pantry.
M Spaces meeting rooms are fully equipped with soundproofing, whiteboards, and a TV monitor for that hassle-free holiday workload planning.
You also don’t need to worry about safety because cleanliness is top-notch at M Spaces, as each meeting room and office space is thoroughly cleaned and sanitized. M Spaces also imposes a strict mask mandate to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and other deadly viruses.
This holiday season, you can rent an M Spaces meeting room for as low as Php250. All M Spaces meeting rooms are 50% off on the hourly rate from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 so enjoy a conducive, safe, and convenient holiday workload planning ahead of the peak holiday period at half the price.
M Spaces is the gift that keeps on giving. So what are you waiting for? Check out M Spaces for more information. Visit our social media page or contact us to reserve your meeting room now.
