Bridging the Holiday Gap: Smart Staffing Strategies to Avoid End-of-Year Burnout
December often brings a staffing challenge: Many teams take vacation during the holiday gap between Thanksgiving and New Year's, leaving remaining employees to cover essential functions with increased workload.
According to Forbes, more than half of workers report higher stress levels during the holidays, which means the people holding down the fort are already stretched thin before you factor in the coverage shortage.¹ Smart staffing strategies ensure these gaps are filled before your core team reaches the breaking point. Here's how to bridge the holiday gap without burning out your best people.
The Real Cost of the Holiday Gap
The holiday gap creates measurable damage across your operations, your workforce, and your bottom line.
Read More: Seasonal Hiring Tips: How to Fill Holiday Staffing Gaps
Your Operations Take a Hit When Coverage Drops
When your team shrinks by a third or more, work doesn't slow down to match. According to HR Dive, 71 percent of businesses report being understaffed one to three days per week during peak periods, which directly affects their ability to meet customer expectations.²
Deadlines get missed because there aren't enough people to complete projects on schedule. Customer service suffers as response times stretch and inquiries pile up. Coverage gaps create bottlenecks across departments where critical approvals, deliverables, or support functions stall because key people are out.
Your Best People Burn Out and Leave
The employees who stay behind during the holiday rush carry double or triple their normal workload, which breeds resentment and exhaustion. SHRM research shows that burned-out workers are nearly three times more likely to actively search for another job. The numbers: 45 percent of burned-out workers actively job search, compared to just 16 percent of those who aren't experiencing burnout.³
That January turnover spike isn't coincidental. Your most reliable people, the ones who sacrificed their holidays to keep things running, are the same ones updating their resumes once the chaos ends.
Small Problems Compound into Major Failures
Stressed employees make more mistakes, call in sick more often, and disengage from their work just when you need them most. Quality suffers during the exact weeks when customer expectations peak around holiday orders and year-end deliverables. What starts as a coverage issue quickly becomes a performance problem that affects your reputation and your results.
Smart Staffing Strategies to Bridge the Gap
You can't eliminate the holiday gap, but you can plan around it in ways that protect both your operations and your team. These strategies help you maintain coverage without pushing your core employees past their limits.
Plan Your Holiday Coverage Early
Start mapping your holiday coverage in October, not December when gaps have already turned into crises. Pull out a staff holiday planner and visualize exactly which functions will be understaffed and when. Identify your critical operations; the work that absolutely must continue, versus projects that can pause for two weeks without real consequences.
Once you know where the gaps will hit hardest, get PTO requests submitted early by offering incentives like first choice of dates for employees who submit by a deadline. This advance planning gives you time to arrange coverage instead of rushing at the last minute.
Deploy Flexible Staffing for Peak Periods
Temporary staff function as reinforcements during your highest-volume weeks, not permanent replacements for your core team. Bring in seasonal workers to handle specific high-volume tasks like order processing, inventory management, or customer inquiries that spike during the holidays.
The math is straightforward: paying for temporary coverage costs less than the combined expense of overtime burnout, quality problems, and January turnover among your permanent staff. The key is bringing help in before your core team hits the wall, not after they're already exhausted and making mistakes.
Rotate Shifts and Share the Load Fairly
Fair distribution of holiday coverage prevents resentment and burnout. Here's how to spread the load:
- Stagger PTO requests so entire departments don't disappear simultaneously
- Cross-train team members on backup functions for coverage flexibility
- Create rotating "holiday relief teams" where different groups cover critical duties each week
- Avoid holiday martyrs by ensuring everyone takes turns covering the holiday period
When the burden rotates fairly across your workforce, you avoid creating resentful employees who feel stuck while others enjoy time off.
Reduce Workload Expectations During Holiday Staffing Weeks
Not everything is genuinely urgent between December 20 and January 2. Pause non-essential projects during holiday weeks so your reduced team can focus on critical functions without feeling overwhelmed. Set realistic expectations with clients and stakeholders early about holiday capacity and response times.
Cut back on meetings and administrative tasks that drain time without adding value. Give your team explicit permission to work at a sustainable pace instead of operating in constant crisis mode.
Allied OneSource Can Keep Your Team Running Without Breaking
The holiday gap happens every year, but the rush to cover it doesn't have to. Allied OneSource provides pre-screened, qualified temporary staff ready for immediate deployment when your coverage needs hit. We offer flexible arrangements tailored to your specific gaps, whether you need week-long coverage, help during specific date ranges, or ongoing support through the entire holiday season.
Contact us today to build your holiday staffing strategy before the rush hits, so you can finish the year strong without burning out your best people.
References
1. Robinson, Bryan, Ph.D. “53% of Workers with Holiday Stress: 4 Things Employers Can Do to Help.” Forbes, 21 Nov. 2024, https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2024/11/21/53-of-workers-with-holiday-stress-4-things-employers-can-do-to-help/.
2. Tornone, Kate. “Holiday Hiring Hurdles Have Retailers Banking on Cross-Training, Incentives.” HR Dive, 23 Oct. 2024, https://www.hrdive.com/news/holiday-hiring-2024/730595/.
3. Gonzales, Matt. “Here’s How Bad Burnout Has Become at Work.” SHRM, 30 Apr. 2024, https://www.shrm.org/topics-tools/news/inclusion-diversity/burnout-shrm-research-2024.
