December 2016
Don’t Stop Now: 5 Ways to Ensure Employee Productivity This Close to Christmas
It doesn’t matter if you’re a big fan of the festive period or a complete Scrooge: it’s important to keep your team’s morale and productivity up as we draw closer to the end of the year.
With only 10 days (gasp!) left until Christmas and the bank holidays that follow, you may be noticing your team slowing down ever so slightly. Obviously, you want them to enjoy the holidays, but before then you have a business to run. That’s why we’ve pulled together these five handy tips to ensure your team sees the year out (and a new year in) with a successful bang.
1. Reward Their Hard Work
Cracking the whip any harder isn’t likely to help with festive cheer, but acknowledging and rewarding your team’s hard work throughout the year and during December is a great way to ensure a positive environment where productivity can thrive. Arrange employee gifts or a festive event around everybody’s availability and refrain from interrupting the work day to show your appreciation whilst encouraging more success and keeping the workflow going.
2. Set Goals and Deadlines (and Stick to Them)
Making sure everybody understands their responsibilities in the run up to Christmas will go a long way towards ensuring continued productivity. The structure that everyone has become accustomed to goes a little awry when half the month is taken up with festivities and every work day is interrupted by the impending celebrations. Set realistic goals for employees and regularly reinforce the importance of reaching these targets.
3. Prepare in Advance
Ahead of the Christmas break, it’s important to ensure that all work is completed before people leave. Equally as important, however, is preparing for January. Rather than letting the new year’s productivity levels plummet following a period of readjustment, impart on your team the need to also position the organisation ready to hit the ground running in January.
4. Make the Most of Your Bespoke CRM
If you’ve gifted your team with a bespoke CRM (and we think it should be at the top of their Christmas lists), then now is the time to use it to its full potential. Automate small tasks to save time and pull out reports to frame how 2017 is going to look using your CRM solution and end the year on a high note.
5. Communicate
All of this is honestly for nought if you don’t first communicate with your team the importance of maintaining productivity in the lead up to Christmas. Making the goals and deadlines you’ve set, as well as the expectations for the new year, clear will ensure that everybody is very much on the same page.
Once the final push towards Christmas is done, you and your team can sigh with relief – then it’s time to celebrate!
Investigating how to make 2017 your business’ year to shine? Why not consider a bespoke CRM built around your organisation and its people? Simply get in touch to find out more or to arrange a free demo.