Almost 80% of small business owners offer time off during the holidays.Here’s why you should

This is indeed the right thing to do.

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key point

• Many small businesses are struggling while employees are furloughed.
• While it can be difficult to get employees to take time off during the holidays, it’s something you should force yourself to do.
• You can manage your employees’ vacation time by establishing a leave request policy and hiring employees who can work flexible shifts with less notice.

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When you own a small business, you tend to become more and more dependent on the employees you have worked so hard to hire and train. Chances are, your margins are low, and you can’t afford to hire workers who can’t handle a full load. As a result, you may be relying on a limited workforce to handle the many things that need to be done to keep your business running.

This can be especially true during the holidays. Depending on the type of business you have, you may see an increase in customers during the holidays. If you run a retail store, it’s a very good thing that during Black Friday deals, Small Business Saturday deals and December sales, your premises are likely to be packed with shoppers looking to haggle.

However, you might run into some issues when managing your employees during the holidays. Holidays are a common time when workers want to take time off. This is also when you might really struggle while they’re away.

But while it might be difficult to get your employees time off during the holidays, it’s an important thing to do. That’s why.

It’s all about showing your gratitude

When you give employees time off during the holidays to celebrate and visit loved ones, you send the message that you care about their well-being and support them in achieving a sensible work-life balance. But when you skimp on time off during the holidays, you’re sending the message that you really only care about your bottom line. This is a great way to get employees to jump ship.

In a recent Incfile survey, nearly 80% of small business owners said they offer employees time off during the holidays. So if you want to get the right message across to your employees—and help ensure your team members stick with you—then you should be as flexible as you can be with late November and December vacation time.

Now, that doesn’t mean you should quit just because you’re understaffed. Instead, have a backup plan.

On the one hand, you have the flexibility to hire seasonal workers so that you can hire people when your primary workers are away. It’s a smart thing to do even outside of employee furlough vacations, because you never know when a core employee might get sick.

Additionally, you can establish a vacation leave policy in advance to help ensure that employees take turns going out. Let’s say you have a team of four employees and yourself. Ideally, you don’t want more than one or two people out at the same time during the holidays. If two people request time off for Thanksgiving weekend, you should understand that they may end up having to work Christmas Eve so that the rest of your staff can leave at that time.

do the right thing

It can be difficult to separate yourself from workers during the holidays. But allowing them to choose is indeed the right thing to do. And it saves you from having to rehire and retrain people, so if you’re offering time off with no good intentions, you should take it as a smart business move.