For countless businesses across various industries, fluctuating seasons mean changes in employee workload and the number of people needed to run a company effectively. These seasonal fluctuations might include retail businesses that need to bring in a few additional employees to help with holiday sales. They might also include seasonal businesses, like ski resorts, that maintain only a small workforce outside the season but need a robust workforce once the colder weather hits.
Regardless of the business type, seasonal fluctuations can present challenges for payroll and HR systems. Companies have to shift their business operations according to these rises and falls, and they want to ensure that the transition between busy and slow seasons happens smoothly while also ensuring that they remain compliant with any applicable labor regulations.
Fortunately, those interested in improved seasonal workforce management will find that solutions exist to help them stay on top of these changes and challenges. Let’s look more closely at businesses' challenges and how efficient workforce planning can benefit companies like yours.
Onboarding Challenges
Challenges facing businesses with their payroll and HR systems often start as soon as the busy season approaches. Businesses regularly look for employees with the skills and experience to do the job well, which can be a struggle in certain industries. This employee search can increase administrative overhead as the team takes on the additional tasks of searching for qualified employees, interviewing them, and onboarding them to the organization.
As the HR team begins to look for qualified employees to bring into their organization, they also need to keep an eye on all the applicable regulations regarding labor. If they need to ask people to work overtime or otherwise shift their hours, these shifts must remain compliant with the applicable regulations. The HR team needs to carefully track all employee data as the season begins to pick up pace.
Workforce Maintenance Challenges
Once the employees have been brought on board, the HR team must prepare for the next stage in proper employee management. To begin, businesses need to know how to track varying schedules. Employees in the post-pandemic era have become accustomed to greater flexibility in the workplace. When possible, employers want to honor these employee preferences to create an enjoyable and valued place to work.
Other businesses may also need employees to work unconventional schedules to account for needed overtime or extended business operation hours for seasonal businesses. Companies need to know exactly how many hours people have worked to ensure employees receive the appropriate compensation and workplace protection.
Fortunately, employee data management systems help in both of these situations. HR software solutions that track employee work, as well as any employee scheduling restrictions, can make this component of business management easier. With quality data, businesses can improve their insight into preferred employee schedules, their relevant skills, what training people have taken, and which employees can substitute for various positions. Having all this information in one place ensures employers can provide a quality working experience for all their employees and keep their businesses running efficiently.
Managing These Seasonal HR Struggles
Fortunately, businesses have a number of efficient workplace planning strategies they can use to improve their internal abilities to manage the rising and falling workforce needs. These HR and payroll management tips can help companies like yours move effectively from one season to the next with as little disruption to your business operations as possible.
Invest in HR technology and strategies
HR software solutions and HR and payroll integration options make tracking all the challenging scheduling issues that can arise with a seasonal workforce more straightforward than ever. With the right technology, you can quickly collect data about when and in what positions your employees can work so that you can properly schedule people and keep your business well-staffed.
When this technology easily integrates with your payroll solutions, your data about employee hours quickly transitions to ensure that employees receive the proper paychecks for their work.
Use data to forecast business needs
No one wants to spend all their time continually looking for new employees to fill gaps. Instead, you should have a firm idea of how many employees you will need for your busy seasons and how many you will need for your slow seasons.
When you use your HR and business operational data properly, you can improve your ability to forecast business needs and create a plan to bring the right number of employees on board for the season. Improved planning will help all the seasons of highs and lows move more smoothly.
Outsource your HR and payroll processing
With the proper systems in place to manage your HR and payroll fluctuations throughout the year, you will experience less stress and upheaval throughout your business. For many organizations, outsourcing responsibilities makes this more manageable. An outsourced team who dedicates all their time to managing HR and payroll responsibilities will have the optimal systems in place to shift with seasonal needs and ensure that a business remains compliant with all the applicable regulations.
Get started with Payday Payroll’s Solutions
If you want to reduce the stress on your business teams and improve your ability to manage seasonal fluctuations, see what Payday Payroll can do for you. With a team of payroll experts ready to work for you, come and experience the lower-stress way to manage seasonal employees.