A seasonal staffing review, sometimes called a peak season debrief or post peak review, is a short close-out meeting held while the peak is still fresh. It turns a busy season into a one-page record you can plan from: seven numbers, a check on any casual worker who has reached a 6 or 12 month point, and a page filed where next year's planner will find it.
This guide is for operations, warehouse and production managers who have just finished a surge.
Run the seasonal staffing review while the data is fresh
Hold the review soon after the last peak shift, while the rosters, timesheets and supervisors' memories still agree with each other. Leave it for months and the reasons people left and the shifts that ran short fade, and the next peak gets planned from a feeling.
Keep it to one meeting and one page. Invite the operations or warehouse manager, the shift supervisors, whoever answers pay queries, and the safety representative. If you used labour hire, bring your supplier's numbers alongside your own.
Count from rosters, timesheets and incident logs, not from memory. If nobody counted something, write "unknown" rather than a guess, and count it from day one next time.
The seven numbers worth keeping
These are the seasonal workforce metrics worth copying into a spreadsheet or onto a printed page. The example figures after the list are invented to show the arithmetic and are not a benchmark.
- Ordered against filled. How many workers you asked for, week by week, against how many were on the roster for the first shift. Record the date each order was placed.
- Show rate on day one and day five. Of the people booked to start, how many turned up on day one, and of those, how many were still working on day five. Write the counts first, then the percentages.
- Early exits and reasons. Everyone who left before their booked end date, the date they left and the reason they gave: other work, hours, travel, the job not matching its description, or no reason given.
- Hours against plan. Hours in the forecast against hours worked, split into ordinary hours and overtime.
- Incidents and near-misses. The number logged, and whether each involved someone in their first week.
- Pay queries. How many questions about pay or rosters seasonal workers raised, and what caused them.
- Supplier or shift hot spots. Which supplier, shift, line or area had the most gaps, exits or incidents. Split every number above by supplier and by shift, and you have a labour hire performance review built from your own figures.
Here is the arithmetic with invented figures. You ordered 40 workers and 34 were on the roster for the first shift, a fill rate of 85 per cent. On day one, 31 of those 34 turned up, about 91 per cent. On day five, 28 of those 31 were still working, about 90 per cent.
Over the whole peak, 9 of the 31 who started left before their booked end date: 5 gave no reason, 2 left for other work and 2 left over the hours. Hours worked came to 3,550 against 3,200 planned, which is 350 over. The five exits with no reason are the weak spot in this record, because a reason nobody recorded cannot be fixed next year. If your gaps sit mostly between the booking and the first shift, the post on stopping seasonal ghosting looks at why casuals drop out before they start.
Add one more column for the workers your supervisors would ask back. The post on building a re-hire strategy covers how to stay in touch with that pool through the off-season.
Casual clocks that may have started
If any seasonal worker was engaged as a casual on your own payroll, two timing rules in the Fair Work Act 2009 may have started running during the peak. Both count from the day the employment started, so the review is the right moment to check start dates.
Both rules apply to the employer. Casuals on your payroll are yours to check. If the workers are employed by a labour hire provider, ask the provider where its casuals stand.
The 6 and 12 month casual notification points
A casual employee can give their employer a written notification if they believe they no longer meet the Act's definition of a casual employee (section 66AAB, which refers to section 15A). They can do that only after at least 6 months of employment, or at least 12 months if the employer is a small business employer. A small business employer is one with fewer than 15 employees, counting regular casuals only and treating associated businesses as one (section 23).
The second clock is the Casual Employment Information Statement. Under section 125B, an employer must give a casual employee the statement as soon as practicable after 6 months of employment, and again as soon as practicable after 12 months. A small business employer does not have to give it at the 6 month point.
What an employer must do after a notification is covered in the article on casual conversion for seasonal workers who return. For this review, add two columns to your sheet: each casual's start date, and the dates they reach 6 and 12 months. If a worker has come back after a break, check the current Act or take advice on which start date counts before you rely on your own reading.
Turning the record into next year's forecast
The record only earns its place if next year's plan uses it. Turn each number into a forecast input.
- Orders. Your fill rate and show rates tell you how many extra bookings to place to land the crew you need on day five, and how early to place them.
- Hours. Start next year's hours from the hours you worked, and write down why they differed from the plan.
- Exits. Take the most common reasons for leaving and fix what you control before the peak: the shift pattern, the job description, the travel.
- Safety and hot spots. If incidents clustered in first weeks, change the induction and the first shifts. Decide which shifts or suppliers need more support or cover.
The post on forecasting seasonal labour walks through building the forecast itself, from past production data to a hiring schedule. For the measures a site tracks all year, with their formulas, see the guide to workforce KPIs for manufacturing site managers. Building scenarios and trigger points for demand swings is the subject of the article on workforce scenario planning.
If next year's crew includes warehouse labour hire, share the one-page record with your supplier. Chandler Personnel is an independent Melbourne-based blue collar specialist, positioned on depth rather than scale, and it supplies warehousing and logistics staffing. You can read how Chandler's process works before you brief any provider.
Related Resources
- Fair Work Act
- Forecasting seasonal labour
- Stopping seasonal ghosting
- Building a re-hire strategy
- Warehousing and logistics staffing
- How Chandler's process works
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I measure after a seasonal peak?
Record seven numbers: ordered against filled, show rate on day one and day five, early exits with reasons, hours against plan, incidents and near-misses, pay queries, and supplier or shift hot spots. Add each casual's start date so you can check the 6 and 12 month points. Where nobody counted, write "unknown".
How long after the peak should I run the review?
No rule sets a deadline, so treat it as good practice: run it soon after the last peak shift, while supervisors remember why people left. Casual start dates are worth checking at the same meeting, because the 6 and 12 month points count from the day each person's employment started.
Who should be in the review meeting?
Include the operations or warehouse manager, the shift supervisors, whoever handles payroll or pay queries, and the safety representative. If you used labour hire, bring your supplier's numbers for fill, attendance and exits to compare with your own.
How do I use this year's numbers to forecast next year?
Treat each number as an input. Fill and show rates set how many bookings to place and how early. Hours worked give the starting point for next year's hours. Exit reasons and first-week incidents show what to fix before the peak. Build the forecast on those inputs.
What records should I keep about workers who finished early?
Keep the date they finished, the reason they gave and the supervisor's note. This is practical record-keeping that makes the review useful, not a checklist of legal duties. Pay and employment records an employer must keep are a separate question, so check with the Fair Work Ombudsman or take advice if you are unsure.
Next year's peak is planned this week
A seasonal staffing review costs one meeting and one page, and it gives next year's planner counted numbers to work from. Fill in the seven lines, add the start-date check for every casual, and file the page beside the forecast. Chandler Personnel is available 24 hours a day because blue collar staffing changes hour to hour. When you are ready to staff next season, you can request staff from Chandler Personnel.
