Thanksgiving brings staffing and HR challenges in the US

This week sees some particular staffing challenges as American Thanksgiving is celebrated today.
Thu, 28 Nov 2013This week sees some particular staffing challenges as American Thanksgiving is celebrated today.

As a story today on the Huffington Post details, more and more retailers are opening and for longer and longer on the holiday – leaving staff the dilemma of whether or not the extra pay is worth it.

But some of the workers have no choice, and express irritation at their employer’s inflexibility and yearly encroachment onto one of the US’s most important festivals.

And this year the Department of Labor agency the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), whose name is most commonly associated with enforcement following horrific accidents, has ramped up its work with retailers during the holiday.

Recent years have seen fatal crushes as shoppers look to take advantage of deals on ‘Black Friday’, the day after Thanksgiving. In response, OSHA has sent letters to individual retailers and the Retail Trade Association to remind them of the importance of safe crowd management, including the possible need to bring in additional shop floor staff or security personnel.

However, besides busy times at retailers and their suppliers, Thanksgiving is generally a time of business slowdown, in particular seeing the Staffing Index produced by the American Staffing Association (ASA) taking a sizeable, albeit temporary, hit.

  • See the December edition of Recruiter for our Global Spotlight on the US market, or for more retail recruitment news and updates from recruiter.co.uk.

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