Are you ready for the summer holidays? Here’s how to save money with better workforce scheduling
The summer holidays are fast approaching. This also raises the question of how well prepared you are for the challenges that may arise. As a retail business, how do you make everything add up and ensure your workforce schedule holds together during a peak season when many employees are on holiday? This article provides the answers. We show you how to maintain continuity and productivity in retail during holiday periods, so you can avoid both understaffing and unnecessary labour costs. At the same time, you’ll gain insight into how Timegrip can help optimise your summer holiday planning while ensuring employees’ rights are upheld.

Avoid compliance issues: Holiday rules and regulations across the EU

Before planning for the summer period, it is essential to have a clear overview of the applicable regulations. Across the EU, employees are entitled to a minimum of four weeks of paid annual leave under the Working Time Directive, although national legislation and collective agreements may grant additional days or define specific rules for how leave is taken.

In many countries, a main holiday period is commonly observed during the summer months, typically between June and September, where employees are entitled to take a longer consecutive break. However, the exact timing and structure of this period may vary depending on local laws and agreements.

As an employer, you are generally required to plan holidays in dialogue with your employees and provide reasonable notice ahead of time. You must also ensure compliance with working time regulations, including limits on daily and weekly working hours as well as mandatory rest periods between shifts. These requirements can differ between countries and industries, particularly where collective agreements apply.

In practice, this means that your workforce planning must balance operational needs with legal compliance. For businesses operating across multiple locations or markets, this can quickly become complex if handled manually.

Gain confidence with the right data

One of the most effective ways to improve your summer workforce schedule is to base it on historical data.
By analysing previous years’ sales figures, customer traffic and staffing patterns, you can identify exactly when demand is highest. Perhaps pressure peaks on specific weekdays, during promotional campaigns or in periods with increased tourism. With these insights, you can create a more accurate workforce schedule, avoiding both overtime and unnecessary labour costs. When your scheduling is based on data rather than gut feeling, it becomes both more predictable and more financially sustainable.

Your workforce schedule must be dynamic

It is important not to leave summer workforce scheduling until the last minute. Holiday planning needs to fall into place, after which employees often swap shifts among themselves. The most successful businesses work with a longer planning horizon, where overall staffing is planned several weeks—and often up to two months—in advance.
However, this does not mean the plan is static. On the contrary, it is essential to work dynamically and make continuous adjustments. Demand can change quickly, so it is beneficial to have a process where the workforce schedule is reviewed and adapted on a weekly basis. In many retail businesses, it is already standard practice for managers to update schedules continuously for the coming week to reflect the actual situation in-store. This approach can be more challenging during holiday periods, which is why hiring temporary summer staff can help ensure adequate staffing levels.

Create flexibility in an unpredictable period

Summer is rarely predictable. Weather, tourism and local events can quickly change staffing needs. That’s why flexibility is a crucial part of an effective workforce schedule.
This can be achieved, for example, by working with internal employee pools, where staff can take on extra shifts across departments or stores. At the same time, enabling internal shift swapping can ease the planning process and give employees greater influence over their working hours.
Timegrip makes it possible to quickly highlight open shifts to relevant employees with the right skills, ensuring they can be filled without extensive manual coordination.

Communication is key during the summer period

As the pace increases, clear communication becomes even more important. Employees need easy access to the workforce schedule, the ability to understand changes and to register requests for holiday or absence.
If it is not clear where communication about shift swaps, scheduling and changes to summer planning takes place, the risk of errors increases. This can lead to no-shows, misunderstandings and unnecessary administration.
A unified platform, where workforce scheduling, time tracking and communication are integrated, provides better visibility for both managers and employees in retail. This supports more stable operations during a period with less room for error.

Automation saves time and reduces errors

Manual workforce scheduling can quickly become time-consuming, especially during the summer period when it is even harder to make everything fit together. This is where automation can make a noticeable difference.
By using systems like Timegrip TP, which take into account employee availability, skills and applicable regulations, you can generate shift suggestions that are well aligned with your needs from the outset. This reduces the need for manual adjustments and ensures that scheduling complies with legislation and contractual conditions for all employees.
At the same time, you gain a stronger foundation for managing labour costs and ensuring staffing aligns with actual demand—particularly important in an industry with tight margins.

A better summer starts with a better workforce schedule

For retail businesses, summer is both an opportunity for higher revenue and a staffing challenge. The businesses that succeed are those that take a structured approach to workforce scheduling.
By combining data-driven insights, early planning, flexible solutions and digital support, you can create more stable operations. This leads to fewer day-to-day issues, better service, higher productivity and more satisfied employees.

The summer period doesn’t have to be chaotic. Get help planning your resources effectively. Contact us today to find out how we can support you.