In many industries, sales change with the seasons. Handling the peaks and valleys of sales from quarter to quarter can be challenging for established businesses and small startups alike. Juggling sales, inventory, and workforce can be a difficult task. Luckily, some businesses find it easier than ever to make seasonal adjustments with new flex labor services.
What is Seasonality?
Businesses and products go through predictable periods of high and low sales volume during different times throughout the year. This means demand may correspond to certain recurring events (holidays) or spikes during a particular season (summer). As such, sales figures and objectives differ from time to time and create challenges to inventory and labor force needs.
Seasonality Planning Tips:
Creating a Sales and Inventory Forecast
The best way to plan, navigate and evaluate business seasonality is to examine past trends. To paint a better picture, analyze historical data, consumer behavior, and competitor sales. This helps create a plan for your business and contextualizes your industry outlook as a whole.
Next, consider your inventory:
● Which products consistently sell throughout the season?
- Which products are high-volume seasonal products?
- Is there a particular inventory you need to sell?
Make note of these inventory trends to help determine labor volume changes.
Creating a Workforce Forecast
After considering sales and inventory demands, plan business labor needs. If a business has seasonal sales and inventory changes, the workforce needs will likely correlate with those trends.
To meet higher sales demand, many businesses look to hire short-term, seasonal employees for busy seasons. But due to onboarding costs and time commitments, this quick turnover process may not seem worth it. Employers want an immediate labor force of skilled workers during peak season. As such, you should explore new solutions to meet your shifting labor needs.
How Can I Solve Seasonal Employment Needs?
To solve seasonal employment issues, we recommend exploring new digital solutions. In particular, workforce network sites like HapiGig help fill these seasonal needs without the hassle of employee overtime hours or temp agencies. The site enlists workers looking for part-time “gigs” to work for employers within their predetermined availability. As such, flex employees can work on their own schedules without long-term commitments.
“As a former VP of Operations, I know how hard it can be to handle ever-changing workforce needs,” says Hisham Khaki, HapiGig founder. “For that reason, HapiGig helps employers find not only immediate but also skilled workers to provide labor as needed without a long-term commitment.”
To maintain a quality workforce, HapiGig only accepts two to seven percent of applicants into their employee network, depending on location. As such, HapiGig works with businesses to meet seasonality ups and downs by providing an available and qualified workforce when needed.
With sites devoted to workforce deployment, businesses can evolve with the “gig economy” to match labor supply with inventory and sales demand. As your business looks to plan for seasonality changes, consider how workforce network sites may fit your organization’s needs and goals. Managing seasonal shifts presents a problem, and flexible workforce options may offer the best solution.
