Staffing Surge - Why Covering Holiday Hours Is Getting Harder

No, it's not the music that ends up on loop, but that doesn't help either

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The idea of a "Holiday Season" is different depending on who you ask. For many, we associate it with that narrow window of time that we are very rapidly approaching. December and, to some extent, January, are the typical North American "Holiday Season" months. But really though, isn't it more accurate to say that the "Holiday Season" is half a year? We gear up in September and October for Halloween, November and December for Christmas and New Year's Eve, January and February for Valentine's Day, and March and April for Easter. Throw in a couple smaller events like Thanksgiving and St Patrick's Day and it makes for a loaded... 8 months... yeah not much of a season is it? It's almost more accurate to say summer is the "Anti-Holiday Season" to be quite honest.

And yet we all still gravitate to considering that period to be "Holiday Season" proper, and at the end of the day, it's the opinion of the masses that moves the needle. So what does this period of the year bring?

Extra Holidays? Check.

More family get-togethers? Check.

The world's most annoying array of music on loop? Check (call me bitter but you know I'm right).

Be it tradition or cold weather, people in the "Holiday Season" also tend to gravitate indoors, which means more time spent in places like malls and retail environments. Add to the fact that Christmas is, for many, the one holiday a year focused on buying things, and you have a perfect storm for businesses to capitalize on.

And capitalize they do! Change the branding to be more in line with the season, stock the shelves, and staff up, because it's getting busy fast! At least, that's been the method for a long time... but is it set to change? Are there forces at play that are setting up this "Holiday Season" and the ones after it to be harder than ever before in terms of finding people to weather the storm of shoppers? The Staffing Surge has long been a fantastic way to beef up the ranks for retail stores in these instances, but as with everything else in the last few years, the rules have changed.

So how did the Staffing Surge used to work? Why is it no longer an extremely viable option? And what struggles do retail stores face in future years beyond the Staffing Surge?

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Assemble the troops

The Staffing Surge is a seasonal response to demand that a business sees in its products or services. Remove the holiday factor for a moment and this is actually a fairly common occurrence. A greenhouse isn't going to be selling very well in places like Canada during winter. But in summer... they're all the rage! Understandably, a skeleton crew cannot handle the increase in demand that comes with warmer temperatures. Hence a mass round of hiring occurs to bolster the numbers with temporary workers. This is a Staffing Surge (you may also know it as "The Busy Season").

Factor back in the holidays and we have even more Staffing Surges. It's one of the few instances where companies are willing to bite the bullet and pay a little bit more for sheer numbers, but the payoff is there to offset the loss by a decent amount. It's a temporary solution to a temporary situation. If you've ever seen any of those Halloween stores that pop up and disappear just as fast, that's the same idea taken to a whole new level; temporarily take on a building lease then jump ship once the season ends. All the temporary employees simply move on.

So where do these temporary employees come from? They're treated as "disposable staff" and are certainly not around long term. Often, they are on contract or temp workers. Some locations push the "volunteer" angle to try to get labour for free. At the end of the day, these workers are often students looking to make a quick buck during the busy season, first time workers looking to gain some job experience, or retirees looking for something to occupy the day. The occasional person will have cracked the system and job hop from location to location, but this is uncommon as these jobs can be unreliable and come without benefits. Due to the transient nature of the position, staff in these positions receive basic training if any at all.

All these seemingly large obstacles and yet this has worked for a long time. Staffing Surges are built into company business plans for the most basic reason... they are cheap and effective ways to handle rush periods in the business cycle. Recently however, this cycle has begun to show signs of breaking...

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Strength in numbers

People have begun to make a concentrated push to achieve work life balance in their lives, and while this has always been the case to some extent, the movement can certainly be felt more in the past few years. Pushed along by social media exposure, it was one of the focal points that spawned the "Quiet Quitting" movement. This balance means stability, pay, and job security are a bigger conversation than ever before. And therein lies the issue.

Does a Staffing Surge offer stability? No.

Does a Staffing Surge offer decent pay? Often not.

Does a Staffing Surge offer job security? No, the point is that these are temporary workers.

So in a time where these are the key talking points for members of the workforce, you have a tactic that actively disregards all three. This is only half of the puzzle though.

The working world is split down the middle between those in management positions and those in "bottom rung" jobs or those actively job seeking. You can't go anywhere near the topic of "workforce" without getting inevitably flung into the middle of the argument regarding the employment landscape. It seems that people collectively can't agree whether we have a "Labour Shortage" or whether "No one wants to work" (funny how the two seem to contradict each other). What's really happening is that there are elements of both at play, they just address different groups of people.

Is there a labour shortage? Yes, there is a gap developing as companies continue to ask for years of experience from individuals without attempting to mentor and train people to have that experience in the first place. There is a shortage of skill because no one passed the skill along.

And does "No one want to work"? Yes, if by that you mean work an inconsistent schedule for low wages, low job security, and the risk of being laid off on a moment's notice. Now take that last statement and glance quickly at the tenants that make up the Staffing Surge. Seem familiar? People simply don't want to be part of the surge in increasing numbers. They benefit the company and a few select groups of people, but more and more workers are realizing this is not a viable way forward with costs continuing to creep up. You can't have a Staffing Surge without an applicant pool to pull from.

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Staffing Short

It's no secret that on the grand scale of the workforce, working a ground level retail job is likely not paying very well. Has it ever really done so? No, but with many retail jobs starting pay around minimum wage and minimum wage not rising with the cost of everything else (and just the overall low power of the dollar these days), the draw to that type of work is already diminishing. Forget the buzz around a holiday season, retail is facing a long road ahead as far as staffing is concerned if these sorts of issues aren't addressed. The holiday Staffing Surge only helps to draw out these main concerns and put extra emphasis on them.

Put the Staffing Surge off to the side for a moment and look at the general landscape given all that we've already discussed. Low pay, no benefits, lack of training, and no job stability are all here. Now take a holiday and factor in not just unstable hours but holiday hours. There's a reason that places pay extra on holidays; it's because no one wants those hours. Yes, some holidays get more play than others when it comes to coverage, but mandating that people can't request the day off because "Everyone would request it off" is something we call a clue. These practices will be harder to not only enforce but to also justify, especially in the wake of businesses turning to automation.

There are also the money metrics that need to be considered from a business side when looking at how stores perform. Again, Staffing Surge aside, there are plenty of holidays that land right around the turn of the year. I'm sure that anyone who has worked an extended stay in retail (or most jobs for that matter) have heard the phrase "Let's have a strong end (or start) to the year". For people who stick around, it's enough to roll the eyes. Now bring in the surge workers. They are there temporarily and have no loyalty to the company because the company has no loyalty to them. Why do they care how strong your start is? This is becoming the prevailing attitude in any surge situation. This temporary employment is not an exciting endeavor, it is an agreement to do as directed until the contract runs out.

For those that take the attitude of trying to go above and beyond to prove themselves, the prospect of burnout lingers. With many temporary workers realizing this is the case and not wanting to go down that rabbit hole, the attitude swings further to the direction I just described above. Do as asked and nothing more. It's not a matter of company culture and not something a single company can fix. This is a workforce shift and an understanding of a generation of workers that they will treat the employer with the same degree of care that the employer treats them. It's a reflection that shows if you treat employees well and invest in them, they will invest back. Fighting this attitude will not be easy going forward for businesses, and holiday season Staffing Surges will be times where this pain will be most felt.

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Get what you pay for

The Staffing Surge will continue to be a tool used by businesses to bolster ranks. The question remains as to whether this tool will remain effective in the coming years. Can we realistically expect people to continue to accept low paying unstable work as the rest of the working world advances on? We have seen many high profile mass layoff sessions at the non-ground level at companies not related to retail, so could Staffing Surges turn into something that becomes a normal expectation workforce wide? What would it look like to have a business landscape governed by seasonal mass hirings and layoffs as a norm across all industries (it would certainly cause unemployment data to be all but useless after a short time).

For now, status quo will likely be maintained but the trend is set. Businesses will need to be satisfied with what they get, and they are going to get what they pay for. If you want a loyal team that will bend over backwards for the good of the bottom line, you'll need to pay better and give more flexibility than the next company in line. If you pay at the bottom of the scale and restrict employment conditions (beyond what is already restricted), expect that your team will be composed of employees willing to jump ship before the Staffing Surge period ends. We have yet to see tons of instances of this happening... yet... but who knows how attitudes will continue to change and influence trends in the next few years. It will be up to those seasonal workers how far we push the envelope, and once the decision is made, it will be hard to change course or reverse direction. Whether you think it's the right decision is up to you.

~IR

Have you ever been part of a Staffing Surge? Do you feel holiday hours are getting harder to fill and have you ever filled them in your workplace? Or maybe you just have a comment to add? Check out the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn page and let everyone know. Don't forget to follow or like the page for updates! And share this article if you feel others should give it a read!

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