With the holiday season approaching, you will have a lot on your plate. For employers, this time of year comes with some challenging issues, including juggling employee time off requests, managing workloads amid all the holiday distractions, and remaining sensitive to different religious beliefs—all while ensuring that neither holiday cheer—nor your bottom line—fall by the wayside.

While these may seem like opposing goals, you can successfully achieve them with some basic planning. Taking the time now to prepare will help ensure that the holidays are both cheerful and productive, putting you in a better position for 2018.

To help you along, our team got together and made an employer’s “to-do” list that includes 8 simple, yet critical, steps employers should take now in order to get ready:

1. Prepare for scheduling conflicts.   Most employees may feel as though they are entitled to time off during the holiday season. Although there’s no federal law requiring employers to grant their employees time off around the holidays, refusing to may seriously affect morale. Besides, a few days off around year’s end can actually help employees come back to work feeling recharged and energized for the New Year.

   But for employers in the retail business and those operating 24/7 establishments, scheduling time off around the holidays can be a challenge, as your employees are critical to keeping your business running and profitable. If you absolutely need to be staffed, you may first want to ask for volunteers. Some employees may want to work a holiday for the sake of overtime or holiday pay. If staffing is still an issue, the best way to determine who works and who doesn’t is to follow some agreed-upon ground rules, which should cover 1) how far in advance time-off requests must be submitted; 2) on what basis requests are considered (i.e., seniority, first-come-first-served, etc.); and 3) any restrictions on how many people can be off at one time.

2. Hire seasonal or temp workers.   If business picks up dramatically around the holidays, you might want to consider hiring temporary employees to meet the added demand. Many retail stores utilize this practice around Christmas, but other businesses can also benefit from the extra help, especially when a majority of their full-time staff members are taking time off.
3. Manage employee workloads.   As the year-end approaches, your employees will likely be busy planning for the holidays, leaving work early, and taking some extra time off. Because some employees will be left to meet their deadlines with fewer co-workers around to help, it’s recommended that you only assign the “essentials”. Adding a new project to an already full plate can easily send your employees over the edge. Hold off on starting new initiatives until after the first of the year when your employees return refreshed and ready to go.
4. Limit online shopping.  A recent survey conducted by the ISACA, a non-profit association of information technology professionals, found that employees plan to spend, on average, 14.4 hours this holiday season shopping online from a work computer. With more employees expecting to use work time to complete some last-minute online shopping, it’s important to have an internet use policy in place before the season is in full swing. Having a policy that discourages employees from using the internet for personal reasons will likely cut down on hours of wasted productivity.
5. Offer flexible work arrangements.   Holiday shopping, wrapping gifts, and preparing for parties and house guests. With so much to think about, it’s no wonder that stress is the number one employee complaint this time of year. Unfortunately, stress can have a negative impact on performance, leading to a significant decrease in mental energy as well as an increase in frustration, absenteeism and even turnover. Ease the stress within your workplace by offering some flexibility in employee work schedules. Consider providing condensed workweeks (i.e. four ten hour days) or allow your employees to choose their hours, as opposed to working the typical nine to five. Also, a big stress reliever that is bound to be well received is to give employees extended break time to get some “last minute” shopping done.
6. Practice religious sensitivity.   Because a variety of different holidays are observed this time of year, it’s important to be sensitive to all religious beliefs when decorating your office. You can still inject some holiday cheer in the workplace without being partial to one religious belief over another. For example, decorations with snowflakes and silver bells may be a better choice than a Christmas tree or a Menorah. And because several different holidays are celebrated this time of year, make it a point to avoid scheduling important meetings or having project deadlines fall on these days.
7. Holidayparties: proceed with caution.    Many businesses host annual holiday parties. And while you want to ensure your employees have a good time, their safety should be top priority. Keep the following tips in mind when organizing your company’s holiday gathering: 1) If you serve alcohol, keep it to a minimum (i.e., 2 or 3 drinks per person) and serve heavy foods throughout the night; 2) Ensure that participation is voluntary; and 3) Remind employees that company policies on conduct, substance abuse, and sexual harassment still apply.
8. Holiday gifts.   If you’re planning on giving holiday gifts to employees or clients, now is a good time to decide what the gift will be and place your order. You’ll need to allow time for processing, especially if you’re ordering a large number of gifts or want them personalized.

With all the hustle and bustle it’s often difficult for employees to juggle the demands of work and personal life. With so much to think about this time of year, give your employees a break by taking a few proactive steps of your own. By taking time to consider how you plan to handle time off requests, offering your employees some flexibility in their work schedule, and hiring temporary workers to meet added business demands, you’ll be taking a load of your employees’ backs – not to mention yours, too!