James Palmer - Vice-president of sales and marketing, Great Little Box Co.
Keeping employee morale high is critical for any business year-round, but even more so during the busy season. While fall is our busiest season in the packaging industry, December is peak season for other industries such as retail, and can be extremely stressful for staff members. Whether your business is just easing out of your busy season or is in the thick of it, it’s critical to ensure that the joy of the holidays isn’t lost to high levels of stress, and to focus energies towards showing appreciation towards your staff.
Every business will benefit by hosting a holiday party, to connect employees on a more personal level outside of the work environment – whether it’s just a small team dinner or a larger event. Use this party as an opportunity to express gratitude towards your employees and acknowledge successes.
For example, at our company’s holiday party we recognize employees who have reached milestones (five, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years’ service with the business) with a slide presentation and a memento to thank them.
It’s also great to include your staff’s family in your holiday festivities wherever possible. Our CEO personally gives a gift to the children or grandchildren of our staff members, and on December 24 each employee receives a grocery store gift certificate, which is our way of ensuring everyone has the chance to enjoy a turkey dinner for the holidays.
Small gestures such as these will make your employees feel valued and boost their morale even through the busiest times.
Roy Osing - Author, Be Different or Be Dead
It’s an interesting contradiction.
The holiday season is festive for people who are fortunate to get time off, but it’s a bit of a downer for those who are asked to remain at the office.
The challenge for a leader is to turn a downer attitude into a fun time for people and a productive period for the organization.
Try these four tactics:
1) Plan for it. You have 11 months to consider your options and create a strategy to prevent a crash in motivation and productivity. Make it a December plan to enhance your chances for success; a two-week plan musters little momentum and almost zero effectiveness.
2) Make your motivation plan strategic. It’s not party time; the challenge is to capture the energy of the holiday season and channel it to maintain the organization’s performance through to year-end. Many companies plan for a soft December; don’t be one of them.
3) Select one or two elements of your strategy to focus on during the month. In the face of an energy meltdown, asking for too much will fall on deaf ears; motivate no one and you could actually reduce performance.
4) Support your 31-day plan with special employee incentives. Apply it over and above any annual plan you may have. Design it in the image of the festive season. For example, you might want to designate the incentive pool that is earned for the month to a charity that embodies the spirit of the holidays. Hold some type of contest and give employee recognition.
Ryan Spong - CEO, Food.ee
The holiday party season is a busy time for everyone, and exceptionally busy in the corporate food delivery space. Our recipe for maintaining a productive, high-energy workplace is living the lifestyle and nutrition choices that we help other organizations achieve throughout the year.
For starters, encourage staff to spend that extra minute in the morning making a healthy breakfast and sticking to local tasty ingredients instead of chain junk food.
Treat your team and boost company morale by taking the time for team lunches and after-work holiday activities.
Enjoying meals and holiday drinks with colleagues builds camaraderie, encourages conversation between departments and gives people a break from the 9-to-5 work structure; it is important to keep your team bright-eyed and hydrated with healthy fluids like fresh juices and H2O.
Because holiday closures and vacation days play into the season, use this time to make sure your team stays aligned and that staff members are distributing the work of people who are out of the office on holidays.
Finally, set realistic expectations for the end of the year and for the new year. Having targets and goals helps keep people’s eyes on the prize, and encouraging competition keeps people charged and creates a feeling and sense of accomplishment.
I want people excited, motivated and ready to get going in January – especially since we are gearing up for a very busy 2016.
Darren Gibbons, Co-founder, ThoughtFarmer
Many employers take the wrong approach when trying to keep everyone productive during the holiday season—trying to monitor and control them into working more efficiently, or throwing up their hands and declaring the holidays a write off. A better approach is to create a flexible working environment, where employees can get the time off they need for family commitments, but also get the opportunity to focus on their work.
Forceful approaches to productivity aren’t generally effective for knowledge workers, regardless of the season. Douglas McGregor, MIT management professor, described this phenomenon with Theories X & Y. Theory X states employees are inclined to avoid work, and management needs to provide external controls and incentives to enhance productivity. In contrast, Theory Y assumes employees inherently want to do a good job, therefore management should nurture their motivation and provide them goals to help them succeed. For jobs that require outside-the-box thinking and complex problem solving, Theory Y empowers employees to think for themselves and achieve better outcomes.
Applying this theory during the holidays, it comes down to creating a flexible environment where employees can self-manage holiday distractions and work priorities. Flexibility doesn’t necessarily just mean time off and fun holiday activities. The assumption that all employees want to slack off is false. With fewer meetings and reduced client emails, the break gives employees time to focus, get caught up, and plan for the coming year. They still may need to take some time out for kid’s Christmas concerts and holiday shopping, but when employees are at work, they can actually be highly productive.
As managers, our job is to make it easier for employees to focus through the holidays. Managers can create a flexible, nurturing environment by providing priorities, tools, and options to employees. Recognize there are fewer working hours, so be realistic with setting priorities, so employees know where to focus. Understand employees may need to work remotely; tools like a social intranet can help employees stay connected while out-of-the-office. Lastly, team-building holiday festivities can be fun, motivational, and engaging, but don’t enforce participation. Let employees make their own decisions around how to manage their workload, and you’ll be surprised by what they accomplish.
