Getting Past the Holiday Lull

The holidays raise the concern of productivity decline. Employees are more distracted. Their attention is focused on family, friends, and more. But there are ways to maintain productivity during this time of year. Here are a few ideas.

Do some planning.

Get together with your staff before the holidays and plan ahead. Establish what goals you want to achieve by the end of the year or what projects you want to complete. Then develop a step-by-step action plan for how you intend to reach those goals, along with outlining who will be responsible for what tasks and the timeline for when tasks need to be completed. This will help to build some accountability in your planning as well.

Make flexibility a priority.

Part of the planning process should also be getting together with your staff and talking about their plans for the holidays. Find out if they’re planning to take time off, how much, and when. This will enable you to put together a schedule so that you will have enough people at work to prevent being shorthanded.

You should also allow people a little more flexibility with their schedule during the holidays. That means allowing them to come into work a little later or to take time off during the day for holiday errands and other obligations and allowing them to make up the time later.

Making these accommodations for your staff will also show them how much you value them and their work, which will also contribute to their motivation and productivity.

Show appreciation.

The holidays are also a good time to show your gratitude to your employees for all of their hard work throughout the year. A simple gesture will do, such as a Christmas card and a small gift. Even these simple actions go a long way toward helping employee engagement and motivation.

Be the reason for the season.

Another good way to maintain morale and engagement is to embrace the celebration of the season. Decorate the office. Have a gift exchange. Have a holiday party.

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