Preparing your frontline staff for the festive season rush

The tinsel might not be up yet — but for frontline teams, the countdown to Christmas has already begun. Across industries like Retail and Hospitality, the end of the year signals a very different kind of season: more customers, longer hours, and higher expectations. While many desk-based workplaces wind down for the holidays, frontline operations ramp up.

These are the people greeting shoppers, serving tables, managing stock deliveries, and keeping customer experiences consistent when foot traffic peaks. Preparing for this busy stretch isn’t just about getting more people on the floor — it’s about setting your workforce up to thrive under pressure. The right preparation means fewer surprises, better morale, and a smoother, more profitable season.

Here are some tips to ensure your frontline teams excel during this busy time of year.

1. Roster early, roster smart

An effective roster is the foundation of a successful festive season. It does more than ensure every shift is covered — it gives your staff predictability, helps managers control costs, and keeps operations compliant.

In high-volume periods, manual scheduling quickly becomes unmanageable. With Humanforce Rostering & Scheduling, managers can create data-informed rosters that align staffing levels with actual business needs. By drawing on previous trading data and projected demand, you can identify your busiest days and times — and plan coverage accordingly.

Compliance is one of the biggest headaches this time of year. Public holidays, penalty rates, and overtime entitlements can easily slip through the cracks when rosters are rushed. Humanforce’s Awards & Compliance solution, driven by a sophisticated pay conditions engine, interprets the relevant award/EBA and automatically calculates pay and entitlements, ensuring every shift complies with modern awards and Fair Work requirements.

Once published, staff can view their rosters instantly through the Humanforce Work App, update their availability, bid on available shifts, or even swap shifts with approval — reducing the endless back-and-forth between managers and team members to fill roster gaps. With clear visibility, your people can plan their lives confidently, reducing stress and last-minute absenteeism. And when your team trusts the system, they can focus on delivering great service instead of worrying about scheduling errors.

2. Communicate expectations clearly

In the festive rush, communication becomes the glue that holds everything together. Clear, consistent messaging helps every team member understand what’s expected of them, especially when the pace picks up and new faces join the mix.

Whether it’s outlining dress codes for special events, reminding staff about peak-time service standards, how to manage difficult customers, or sharing updates on extended trading hours, small details make a big difference. With Humanforce Performance Management, leaders can set specific, measurable goals for the season — such as improving average transaction times, increasing upsell rates, or maintaining customer satisfaction scores — and track progress in real time.

Feedback doesn’t need to wait for the end of the season. Managers can recognise great work on the spot or provide quick, constructive guidance through the Humanforce Work App. In-app announcements replace the chaos of group chats and bulletin boards, ensuring every update — from new promotions to last-minute roster changes — reaches everyone, including casual and part-time staff who may not check emails daily.

When everyone is aligned and informed, it creates a calmer, more coordinated environment — even on the busiest trading days.

3. Build your seasonal talent pool and keep engagement high

Many businesses start from scratch each year when it comes to seasonal recruitment, but there’s a smarter way. Building and maintaining a seasonal talent pool — a group of trained, reliable workers who already understand your brand and systems — can transform how you handle peak periods.

With Humanforce Talent, managers can easily maintain a database of previous employees and strong candidates. When the festive period approaches, you already have a ready-made list of pre-qualified people who can step straight in. Communication tools like bulk SMS and in-app job alerts mean you can hire staff rapidly and fill shifts within hours, not days — saving both time and recruitment costs.

However, hiring is only half of the story. Keeping engagement levels high during the chaos is what sustains great service. The Humanforce Employee Engagement module makes it easy for managers to send quick pulse surveys, recognise achievements, and identify signs of burnout before they impact performance.

Frontline work can be physically and emotionally demanding — especially when customers are stressed or queues are long. Checking in regularly with your people, celebrating milestones, and acknowledging effort keeps morale strong and reinforces that their work matters.

4. Onboard and empower seasonal staff

Seasonal workers are essential to keeping operations running smoothly during the festive period. But without a structured onboarding process, they can quickly become a source of stress rather than support.

Humanforce Onboarding & Offboarding creates a customised onboarding process that streamlines every step of bringing new hires on board — all before they even start. From signing contracts and completing tax or super forms to uploading right-to-work documents, everything is digital and trackable. New employees can complete mandatory training modules at their own pace, familiarising themselves with workplace policies, safety procedures, and customer service expectations.

For managers, this visibility is invaluable. You can instantly see who’s completed onboarding tasks, identify gaps, and step in before issues snowball. When new hires walk into their first shift already understanding the basics, it builds their confidence and reduces the burden on supervisors and permanent staff.

This kind of proactive onboarding helps create a sense of belonging from day one, turning temporary staff into motivated contributors who enhance the overall team dynamic.

5. Reflect and refine for next year

When the rush finally slows and the decorations come down, taking the time to review the season can deliver lasting value. Reflection turns experience into improvement.

Humanforce’s integrated HCM suite connects talent acquisition, onboarding, rostering, performance, and engagement — giving you a single view of how your workforce performed. With our Workforce Analytics and People Analytics tools, you can analyse where shift gaps occurred, where labour budget was spent, identify which roles were hardest to fill, and measure engagement trends across teams. Did certain stores or venues experience higher fatigue? Were some onboarding processes more effective than others? These insights help you make evidence-based improvements ahead of the next busy cycle.

Use this data to forecast future demand more accurately, plan recruitment earlier, and refine training materials to better prepare new starters. Over time, these small refinements create a well-oiled seasonal operation that feels less reactive and more resilient.

Wrapping up the season

The end-of-year rush doesn’t have to drain your people or your profits. When frontline teams are supported with the right tools, communication, and preparation, the festive season becomes not just manageable — but rewarding.

With Humanforce, you can turn the chaos into coordination. Intelligent scheduling keeps shifts compliant and cost-effective; digital onboarding ensures every worker starts strong; performance and engagement tools foster connection and motivation.

About Humanforce

Humanforce is the all-in-one platform for frontline and flexible workforces, offering a truly employee-centred, intelligent and compliant human capital management (HCM) suite – without compromise. Founded in 2002, Humanforce has a 2300+ customer base and over half a million users worldwide. Today, we have offices across Australia, New Zealand, the US and the UK.

Our vision is to make work easier and life better by focusing on the needs and fulfilment of frontline workers, and the efficiency and optimisation of businesses.

To learn more about how Humanforce’s solution can help automate people processes in your business, please contact us.