Summer hours – should you have them?
It can be quite rewarding, however, it can also have some downsides for your business.
So, should you have summer hours and what do you do first? If you have employees – you should find out how they feel about summer hours? This is a good place to start as everyone might not be onboard.
Scheduling client meetings and onboarding new clients, for instance, should also be considered. Here, you’ll want to find out if there is more activity with clients on certain days, and times of day.
It’s important to still be there for your clients during regular business hours.
This can be done in a couple of ways.
- Rotate employee’s days off to ensure someone is available at all times to assist your clients.
- If you’re a solo business, post your hours for the summer. It’s helpful if you stick to those days and hours so your clients and potential clients are aware of your business hours.
- Have a meeting to set guidelines so everything is clear. Additionally, you may want to provide written guidelines
- Try to set a schedule so everyone can partake. Be fair.
- Lastly, it’s good to check in with your staff during the summer hours to see how it’s working for them. Is it? Are there any issues, etc.
An Employee Monitoring Software can help so things don’t fall through the cracks. Here’s a link to check out a few options if you currently don’t have one in place. https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/11143-best-employee-monitoring-software.html
Sometimes, you may have employees who abuse this perk while others will welcome it. It’s a distraction and discouraging. However, you can treat this type of conduct as you would with any misconduct in the office.
Summer Schedule Types
Hybrid – a lot of companies do this already. A few days at home and a few days in the office. It definitely helps the employees who need to pay for daycare.
Flextime – this allows your employees to choose a schedule that works best for them and you. For instance, work in the office every day but leave a couple of hours early each day. Take a certain day off during the week and make up for the time later in the week.
Four-day work week – Close on Fridays to provide a long, enjoyable weekend for your employees, unless this hinders your business
So, what are the benefits of summer hours?
- Improves employees happiness and morale
- Better work-life balance
- Be more productive
- More invested
Are there drawbacks to summer hours?
Yes, as this may not work for all business types.
- Meetings could be less productive and keep others out of the loop.
- Can cause lack of trust.
- Mutual respect and consideration don’t always exist in a workplace.
- It can take time to get used to the new schedule and it may need tweaking along the way if it’s not working in certain areas.
If you decide summer hours will work with your business, and once things fall into place, your employees will feel the rewards and so will you.
Something to think about at least for the rest of the 2023 summer season or to plan for next summer.
We all want to be happier, more productive but also feel like we “have a life”
