Summer and other holiday seasons change the daily operations of organizations more than is often realized. Permanent staff go on leave, responsibilities are redistributed, and substitutes, trainees and summer employees join the workplace. At the same time, the organization’s normal operating model changes, at least temporarily.
In most cases, the actual work tasks are learned quickly with good onboarding. The challenge arises in exceptional situations that cannot be fully anticipated in advance.
When something unexpected happens, a new employee may have to stop and think:
Should I report this?
Who should I report it to?
Is the situation actually serious?
Do I dare to alert help if I am not completely sure?
“For new employees, the biggest challenge isn’t usually performing the work itself, but a lack of information, uncertainty and the slower response that follows in exceptional situations,” says Jari Hirvonen, Senior Sales Manager at Secapp.
In this article:
- Why holiday seasons change an organization’s ability to operate
- Why disruptions are especially challenging for new employees
- How communication delays can increase the impact of an incident
- How dependence on individuals becomes more visible during holidays
- Why alerting should be easy for substitutes and summer employees too
- How predefined operating models support response in exceptional situations
An incident does not wait for onboarding
Exceptional situations are challenging precisely because they break the routines of everyday work. For new employees in particular, uncertainty is often linked to whether the situation should be reported and who is responsible for handling it.
“If a slightly bigger situation occurs, or even a smaller one, the employee may wonder whether they should report it to someone. And if so, who to?” Hirvonen describes.
This is especially relevant in environments where:
- there are lots people working
- responsible persons are not physically present
- operations are critical, or decisions need to be made quickly.
When the closest supervisor or person responsible for onboarding is on holiday, a new employee may be left alone to assess the seriousness of the situation. Even a small amount of uncertainty can then significantly slow down the response. This is not necessarily about a lack of competence, but about the employee not yet having experience of the organization’s exceptional situations or operating models.
The biggest risk is not always the incident itself, but the delay in response
Organizations often think that a problem only begins when a system goes down, equipment breaks or a safety incident occurs. In reality, the critical moment may arise much earlier.
What happens if:
- the right contact person cannot be found quickly?
- the employee does not dare alert help?
- time is spent searching for correct phone numbers?
- the situation is handled internally for too long?
“New employees often don’t want to constantly disturb others with questions. They may think they should be able to handle the matter themselves,” Hirvonen says.
This is exactly what can create risk. In many organizations, incident management is still viewed from a very technical perspective: systems, processes and instructions are emphasized, even though the real bottleneck often comes form human behavior in uncertain situation.
In incidents, a fast response is often more important than a perfect situational assessment. During the first minutes, the most important thing is not necessarily knowing everything about what has happened, but making sure that information reaches the right people quickly enough. At worst, the situation escalates because help is not requested in time or because too much time is spent assessing the seriousness of the situation.
Holiday season reveals the organization’s real ability to operate
In many organizations, tacit knowledge is still strongly dependent on individual people. One person knows who to call, another knows the correct operating model, and a third knows who is on duty.
In normal daily work, this hidden risk may not be visible. During the holiday season, the situation can change quickly.
“Summer inevitably changes an organization’s ability to operate, because the same people aren’t present and responsibilities need to be distributed differently,” Hirvonen says.
That is why incident communication should not depend on memory, the availability of individual people or whether an employee knows how to search for the right contact details under pressure.
Holiday seasons also reveal another issue: in many organizations, operational capability still relies heavily on informal tacit knowledge. In practice, this means that critical operating models exist in the minds of experienced employees instead of being truly embedded in the organization’s structures.
Such a model can work surprisingly well in everyday life without causing any visible problems. In an exceptional situation or during personnel changes, however, its vulnerability becomes clear very quickly. Especially in critical industries, the ability to operate should remain stable regardless of who happens to be on shift.
Alerting must be built for uncertainty
In exceptional situations, people do not act in the same way as they do in calm everyday conditions. Pressure, uncertainty and urgency affect decision-making even among experienced professionals.
“When panic sets in, even professionals may take longer to send a message because they start thinking about the wording or whether the message will definitely reach the right people,” Hirvonen explains.
This is exactly why many organizations build predefined operating models for holiday seasons and substitute arrangements. Alerting should not depend on an individual employee’s memory or on searching for the right contact details. Instead, information can be automatically directed to the right people and groups.
In Secapp, for example, a dedicated help request channel can be built for new employees or summer employees. Through this channel, the situation can be escalated to the right responsible persons without the employee having to assess the seriousness of a given situation alone.
Predefined message templates and automated operating models significantly shorten response times, especially in situations where there is no time for hesitation. When asking for help can be done with one button, the threshold to act becomes much lower.
This is not only about usability, but about organizational resilience. Well-built incident communication takes into account that people act differently in exceptional situations than in normal daily work. That is why operating models should support an uncertain user as well, not only an experienced one who knows the organization inside out.
Read more about Secapp’s alerting and notification features.
Incident management cannot depend only on onboarding
Onboarding seasonal employees and substitutes is important, but it alone cannot solve everything. It is not possible to practice every potential situation in advance.
“You never know what will happen. Often, the unexpected scenario happens exactly when nothing is expected to happen,” Hirvonen says.
That is why an organization’s ability to operate increasingly depends on how easily people can get the right help at the right time.
Of course, this is not only about summer or new employees. The same challenge appears in all situations where:
- responsibilities change
- personnel changes
- operations are carried out under exceptional arrangements
- people need to act under pressure.
Ultimately this all boils down to the organization’s ability to operate even when everyday work does not go according to plan.
Operational capability is not measured during normal daily work
Holiday seasons reveal how dependent an organization’s ability to operate can be on individual people, tacit knowledge and informal operating models.
In reality, an organization’s operational capability is not measured when everything goes according to plan. It is measured in situations where:
- the responsible person cannot be reached
- a new employee faces their first exceptional situation
- decisions need to be made quickly with incomplete information
- the organization is operating with reduced staffing.
That is why holiday seasons are a good test of how reliable an organization’s incident communication truly is.
When operations are built only on onboarding or the memory of experienced employees, even a small amount of uncertainty can slow down the response at the very moment when speed matters most. Critical communication and alerting should therefore work just as reliably regardless of who happens to be on shift. Secapp helps organizations build operating models where asking for help and alerting the right people can be done quickly, even when new employees, substitutes or exceptional arrangements are involved.
Summer and other holiday seasons change the daily operations of organizations more than is often realized. Permanent staff go on leave, responsibilities are redistributed, and substitutes, trainees and summer employees join the workplace. At the same time, the organization’s normal operating model changes, at least temporarily.
In most cases, the actual work tasks are learned quickly with good onboarding. The challenge arises in exceptional situations that cannot be fully anticipated in advance.
When something unexpected happens, a new employee may have to stop and think:
Should I report this?
Who should I report it to?
Is the situation actually serious?
Do I dare to alert help if I am not completely sure?
“For new employees, the biggest challenge isn’t usually performing the work itself, but a lack of information, uncertainty and the slower response that follows in exceptional situations,” says Jari Hirvonen, Senior Sales Manager at Secapp.
In this article:
- Why holiday seasons change an organization’s ability to operate
- Why disruptions are especially challenging for new employees
- How communication delays can increase the impact of an incident
- How dependence on individuals becomes more visible during holidays
- Why alerting should be easy for substitutes and summer employees too
- How predefined operating models support response in exceptional situations
An incident does not wait for onboarding
Exceptional situations are challenging precisely because they break the routines of everyday work. For new employees in particular, uncertainty is often linked to whether the situation should be reported and who is responsible for handling it.
“If a slightly bigger situation occurs, or even a smaller one, the employee may wonder whether they should report it to someone. And if so, who to?” Hirvonen describes.
This is especially relevant in environments where:
- there are lots people working
- responsible persons are not physically present
- operations are critical, or decisions need to be made quickly.
When the closest supervisor or person responsible for onboarding is on holiday, a new employee may be left alone to assess the seriousness of the situation. Even a small amount of uncertainty can then significantly slow down the response. This is not necessarily about a lack of competence, but about the employee not yet having experience of the organization’s exceptional situations or operating models.
The biggest risk is not always the incident itself, but the delay in response
Organizations often think that a problem only begins when a system goes down, equipment breaks or a safety incident occurs. In reality, the critical moment may arise much earlier.
What happens if:
- the right contact person cannot be found quickly?
- the employee does not dare alert help?
- time is spent searching for correct phone numbers?
- the situation is handled internally for too long?
“New employees often don’t want to constantly disturb others with questions. They may think they should be able to handle the matter themselves,” Hirvonen says.
This is exactly what can create risk. In many organizations, incident management is still viewed from a very technical perspective: systems, processes and instructions are emphasized, even though the real bottleneck often comes form human behavior in uncertain situation.
In incidents, a fast response is often more important than a perfect situational assessment. During the first minutes, the most important thing is not necessarily knowing everything about what has happened, but making sure that information reaches the right people quickly enough. At worst, the situation escalates because help is not requested in time or because too much time is spent assessing the seriousness of the situation.
Holiday season reveals the organization’s real ability to operate
In many organizations, tacit knowledge is still strongly dependent on individual people. One person knows who to call, another knows the correct operating model, and a third knows who is on duty.
In normal daily work, this hidden risk may not be visible. During the holiday season, the situation can change quickly.
“Summer inevitably changes an organization’s ability to operate, because the same people aren’t present and responsibilities need to be distributed differently,” Hirvonen says.
That is why incident communication should not depend on memory, the availability of individual people or whether an employee knows how to search for the right contact details under pressure.
Holiday seasons also reveal another issue: in many organizations, operational capability still relies heavily on informal tacit knowledge. In practice, this means that critical operating models exist in the minds of experienced employees instead of being truly embedded in the organization’s structures.
Such a model can work surprisingly well in everyday life without causing any visible problems. In an exceptional situation or during personnel changes, however, its vulnerability becomes clear very quickly. Especially in critical industries, the ability to operate should remain stable regardless of who happens to be on shift.
Alerting must be built for uncertainty
In exceptional situations, people do not act in the same way as they do in calm everyday conditions. Pressure, uncertainty and urgency affect decision-making even among experienced professionals.
“When panic sets in, even professionals may take longer to send a message because they start thinking about the wording or whether the message will definitely reach the right people,” Hirvonen explains.
This is exactly why many organizations build predefined operating models for holiday seasons and substitute arrangements. Alerting should not depend on an individual employee’s memory or on searching for the right contact details. Instead, information can be automatically directed to the right people and groups.
In Secapp, for example, a dedicated help request channel can be built for new employees or summer employees. Through this channel, the situation can be escalated to the right responsible persons without the employee having to assess the seriousness of a given situation alone.
Predefined message templates and automated operating models significantly shorten response times, especially in situations where there is no time for hesitation. When asking for help can be done with one button, the threshold to act becomes much lower.
This is not only about usability, but about organizational resilience. Well-built incident communication takes into account that people act differently in exceptional situations than in normal daily work. That is why operating models should support an uncertain user as well, not only an experienced one who knows the organization inside out.
Read more about Secapp’s alerting and notification features.
Incident management cannot depend only on onboarding
Onboarding seasonal employees and substitutes is important, but it alone cannot solve everything. It is not possible to practice every potential situation in advance.
“You never know what will happen. Often, the unexpected scenario happens exactly when nothing is expected to happen,” Hirvonen says.
That is why an organization’s ability to operate increasingly depends on how easily people can get the right help at the right time.
Of course, this is not only about summer or new employees. The same challenge appears in all situations where:
- responsibilities change
- personnel changes
- operations are carried out under exceptional arrangements
- people need to act under pressure.
Ultimately this all boils down to the organization’s ability to operate even when everyday work does not go according to plan.
Operational capability is not measured during normal daily work
Holiday seasons reveal how dependent an organization’s ability to operate can be on individual people, tacit knowledge and informal operating models.
In reality, an organization’s operational capability is not measured when everything goes according to plan. It is measured in situations where:
- the responsible person cannot be reached
- a new employee faces their first exceptional situation
- decisions need to be made quickly with incomplete information
- the organization is operating with reduced staffing.
That is why holiday seasons are a good test of how reliable an organization’s incident communication truly is.
When operations are built only on onboarding or the memory of experienced employees, even a small amount of uncertainty can slow down the response at the very moment when speed matters most. Critical communication and alerting should therefore work just as reliably regardless of who happens to be on shift. Secapp helps organizations build operating models where asking for help and alerting the right people can be done quickly, even when new employees, substitutes or exceptional arrangements are involved.
