How to Motivate Your Employees During the Holiday Season

As the holiday season is quickly approaching, employees are starting to get distracted. With the holidays comes family gatherings, travel, school break from children, and an influx in hours or caseloads for the working adult. With employees being distracted by their upcoming holiday plans and travel, they tend to get stressed and that leads to a lower productivity rate for their work. When you are in the lead role of your company, it is your job to keep every one of your employees motivated and create a positive environment to work in.

Make the WorkSpace Festive

Holidays are not just about family time and celebrating, it is also a time to decorate and be festive. When you acknowledge that your employees celebrate these holidays, you are implementing team building. By allowing your employees to plan dress-up days, decorate the office or their cubicle, and schedule a holiday party, your employees are going to appreciate your hand at employee engagement. There are many different tactics that you can implement in the workspace to create a low-cost holiday party and a festive environment.

The holidays tend to always sneak up on people. By being prepared and planning ahead, you can avoid any last-minute additions to employees’ already high-volume workload. About a month or so before the start of the holiday season, schedule a staff meeting to discuss everyone’s scheduling needs and work that is expected to be completed before the holiday. Make it clear about what expectations are for each department or employee. There is nothing worse than holiday burnout when employees have to pick up someone else’s project at the last minute.

Reward Your Employees

Nothing motivates employees like rewards. Choose to give out a holiday bonus, or little customizable gifts. Around the holidays, nothing can say “I appreciate you and your hard work” as a gift or bonus can. While a lot of companies choose to give our bonus’ during this time of year, you can give your employees a simple gift to remind them how thankful you are for them. You can even use this time to let your employees relax by hosting an office holiday party during lunch breaks or towards the end of the workday. When having this office party, you can set up a mirage of different office games for your employees to play that offer little extra holiday gifts for them. You can also opt to schedule a few extra days off for your employees as a thank you gift. Allowing your employees to relax and enjoy each other’s company before spending time with their families and traveling can help reduce the amount of stress they can be under.

Finding different ways to motivate and keep your employees happy is an essential part of being a part of a workplace. By planning ahead, creating a fun, festive, and relaxing environment, you will see your employees excel at their assigned task