hey boss, it's almost back to school. it's time to start planning.(yes, you do need a plan.)7/16/2017
Summer is almost over which means the kids will be back to school soon. In my county the kids go back on August 14th which is less than one month away. Why does this affect you as a small business owner? Because if you employ parents, guardians or people who take care of children back to school affects your business. Your employees may need time off or schedule adjustments to meet their parenting demands.
The best way to support your employees while meeting the needs of your business is planning. And now is the ideal time to start that process. This post will be your plan and guide you through the things to start talking with your employees about now, so that everyone has adequate time prepare for back-to-school. Plus, you can print a ready to use employee communication which makes it super easy (+ fast) to get the conversation started. In this post we will focus on three specific time periods. Those are:
Grab your planner, some coffee and lets get started. BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS
The weeks leading up to the start of school can be super hectic and busy for parents of school aged children. Often activities for preparing for school may require that employee have time off or an adjustment to their schedules. Even more often is that employees let these sneak up on them. Then it becomes a scheduling emergency where you are scrambling to fill a shift because the employee called out from work to be present with their child for a school preparation activity. However, these emergency situations don’t have to cause havoc in your business. Start talking to your employees now about whether they will need time off work or schedule adjustments for any of these events/activities:
Employees should be able to plan in advance for these events. Schools typically release dates for orientations and the school calendar in advance. Also this information is typically easily available on the school district or school website. Encourage employees to find this information now and develop a plan. FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
What are your employees plan for the first day of school? It’s a big day. Perhaps you have nervous parents dropping off kindergarteners. They may want to be there. Or you could have a parent of child riding the bus for the first time and they need to hang out at the bus stop to make sure they get on the bus just fine. We won’t know what their situations are until we start a conversation. It’s a good idea to know how your employees are planning to handle:
All of these activities could possibly affect the employee’s work schedule or require time off. We can help employees think about these situations in advance so there are now surprises on the first day of school. FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL
So surviving the first day of school isn’t all we have to think about. The first few weeks of school have many events and changes that can affect scheduling for your small business. Some of those events and changes are:
While open house and parent/teacher meetings are usually one time events, changes in work availability can last the entire school year. Parents or caregivers may have different scheduling needs during the school year due to before or after school care needs. Employees often either don’t think about it until it’s too late or are afraid to bring up the topic. So it’s important that we openly talk about changing work availability so that we can avoid the stress that comes along with attendance issues.
OK SO HERE'S HOW....
If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you’re probably experienced call outs or attendance issues for any of these reasons. But back to school doesn’t have to mean scheduling drama. The above are some common things that we need to specifically ask employees about so that we can plan properly. Here’s how to practically apply this advice to our business.
Get started now. Depending on how many employees you have, you'll ideally want to start talking to your employees about six weeks in advance. But you can still totally develop a good scheduling plan with about four weeks time frame if you hustle. Start the conversation: Create a simple cover letter to give to all employees that explains that you’re aware school is close to starting and you and you want to help them balance their work and responsibilities outside of work. In this letter you’ll request that they complete a time-off request form for the days they will need off for school related activities. You can complete this step in less than five minutes by using the ready to use employee communication letter that I made just for you. Just enter your email address in the image box above to get your copy. Set the expectation: Don’t make any guarantees that everyone will get the time off that they request. Ultimately the needs of the business come first. But be clear about it so employees know going in that they may not get off all the time they requested. {Grab a ready to use time off request form here.} Give them a deadline: Choose a date they employees must turn in all school related time off requests. The date you choose should give you enough time to adjust your work schedule to ensure you clients are well served. Then stick to your deadline. If requests are received after this deadline they should be automatically declined. (Regardless of how good their reason.) Remind and reinforce. Now is the perfect time to remind employees about the attendance and disciplinary policy. Communicate the expectation that even if their request can’t be accommodated, they are expected to report to work. Clearly explain that anyone who calls out will be subject to your company’s disciplinary policy. Encourage teamwork: Urge your employees to work together to help each other meet their needs outside of work. Being willing to work an extra shift, trade shifts or trade days off can go a long way to allowing all employees to attend all the important back to school related events while taking care of clients. This also sends the message that you are solely responsible for assisting them in achieving work life balance. They also have an obligation to help their co-workers if this is important to them. Related Reading + Resources
You may also want to read HOW TO HANDLE AND PLAN FOR EMPLOYEE REQUESTS FOR TIME OFF AT THE HOLIDAYS. While back to school isn't a holiday, this post has some great tips and worksheets about planning for time off around popular employee request times. There are some worksheets that are really helpful planning and organizational resources.
Being aware of the things that happen in your employees lives that may cause attendance issues then proactively address those events will greatly reduce your call out rate. Employees will also value that you care about the things that matter to them and made an attempt to accommodate them. For those employees who still choose to call-out, recognize it as just that; a choice. From there you simply follow your attendance and disciplinary policies and move on. As employers we ultimately have to keep our eyes on what makes it possible for everyone to continue to receive a paycheck.
Feel some one-on-one guidance and help with getting ahead of back to school scheduling challenges? Schedule an Ask Amanda Call or Strategy Session and we’ll work it out together.
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