Keeping motivation high as the year comes to a close is important to keep your teams working well, instead of checking out early on vacation. Boosting employee morale not only helps your retention rates, it can also improve performance. Happy employees are more helpful, proactive, and productive; traits that go on to benefit your customers and your business.
Here are a few different ways you can improve morale in the office.
- Have a hard stop. Don’t schedule your holiday party one week before work lets out. Once you’ve had that celebration, let your employees shift mindset to vacation mode, but no sooner.
- Show you care and notice good work by telling your employees what you appreciate the most. If your team is small enough, do this individually. It’s a great opportunity to show that you’ve been paying attention to the meticulousness of one salesperson, or the innovation of an HR manager.
- Give incentive to finish strong by showing numbers. If you’re close to hitting a goal, make those numbers internally transparent so your team can monitor how far they have to go to hit the targets.
- Look for non-monetary incentives. Although a end-of-year bonus is a common expectation, not all companies (especially new ones or startups) can afford it. Even if your business does provide financial bonuses, you can also surprise and delight your teams. Lean toward experiences, or thoughtful gifts you know they could use.
Want more ideas? Here’s some extra reading material to help you get started.
Keep an eye on our public seminars, as we occasionally host a Motivating Your Workforce seminar.
About the Author: Jocelyn Pick
