Holiday Recap: How to Avoid Common Seasonality & Scaling Mistakes

Shopping Mall The holiday season is a time to surround yourself with family and friends and relax before the start of the New Year. However, the end-of-year calendar months also tend to fill up with expensive shopping outings and travel plans. Early spending reports from Mastercard SpendingPulse totaled sales from December 1-24 at a staggering $850 billion – that’s an increase of 5.1% and the strongest performance retailers have seen in six years (source).

All of this seasonal excitement can be a nightmare for HR and technology professionals in the retail and hospitality industries. To compensate for a surge of shoppers and guests, organizations in these sectors and others must implement strategic forecasting, hiring, training and onboarding practices to keep the business running smoothly and avoid any potentially displeased customers.

Some of the most common holiday season demand challenges include:

Providing ample time for the recruiting and hiring process
Hiring the appropriate number of employees to meet demand while also accounting for attrition
Supplying remote agents with the proper hardware, applications and training
Maintaining rigorous security and compliance standards

Several months ago, Dizzion, along with the help of guest speakers from LeaderOne, World Travel Holdings, Mindseeker and a globally recognized retailer, discussed some of these challenges in the online panel, A Tactical Guide to Seasonality and Scaling. Michael Brady (LeaderOne), Loren Kennedy (World Travel Holdings), Chris Dobson (Mindseeker) and Devlin O’Neil (global retailer) each brought unique and valuable insights to the discussion (some of their stories, tips and takeaways are highlighted in this short recap blog).

If your organization is impacted by seasonality, planning and preparation (or a lack thereof) can be the difference between a prosperous and chaotic holiday season. We took all of the essential information from the full length session of A Tactical Guide to Seasonality and Scaling and compiled it into three easily-digestible mini sessions. These short clips are less than 10 minutes each – packed with the information you need to revolutionize your seasonal organization and avoid any disastrous mishaps.