As the magic of Christmas fades and New Year’s resolutions materialise, this January may be an opportune time to re-engage your employees returning from their Christmas break.
Here are some ways to avoid the post-Christmas slump, and to motivate your employees in the right way to begin 2022.
Help Your Employees Achieve Their Resolutions
The New Year is a fresh start for everyone. According to YouGov (2021), approximately one in seven of us will aim to make a new habit in 2022, and with 19% of New Year’s resolutions focusing on career ambitions, it may be important, as an employer, to consider what goals your workforce may have for the next 12 months. As such, it may be useful to:
· Have a performance review with your team to focus on their successes and opportunities in 2021, and to outline any career ambitions they would like to work towards in the next year. Having an open avenue for feedback and career discussion may create a “safe space” and deepen your relationships with employees as you listen to them.
· Alternatively, why not increase awareness of any workplace benefits that may help employees achieve their goals, such as free gym memberships or the opportunity to learn new skills?
In doing so, your employees may feel encouraged by your care and commitment to helping them realise their potential, thereby increasing engagement in the workplace.
Keep Your Team on the Right Track
With the advent of New Year, it may not be only your employees looking to achieve new goals. As an employer, it may be time to take your organisation to the next level. Therefore, it may be wise to consider your organisational goals over the next 12 months, and break down into steps. Here are some ways to incorporate ‘Small-Wins” into your organisation:
· Communicate your organisational goals and roadmap to your team. For example, if your 12-month business plan is to increase sales by 20%, communicate this to your team while acknowledging the scale of the goal. To make it feel more achievable, break the goal down into smaller steps with a deadline (e.g. increase sales by 5% by April) and create incentives around this to help your team get there. Why not introduce a little competition into your team and recognise achievements with small prizes?
· It may be important to recognise that success is not only measured by turnover or net profit, but also in the opportunity and commitment of your team. Celebrate team members demonstrating the correct attitude and desire to succeed, or those creating “Small-Wins” of their own.
By communicating and celebrating the “Small-Wins” of your organisation and your team, you will be sure to keep your team on the right track. By recognising the behaviour of team that drives the correct results, it may be possible to create a team that reflects the values of your organisation and its goals. In doing so, you may be setting your strategy and team up for success.
Keep Your Team Connected
Keeping your team engaged may be prove additionally challenging if your team is home-based. With 26% of workers continuing to work-from-home permanently or occasionally following the Covid-19 pandemic (according to Finder UK), it may be more important than ever to keep your team connected to increase engagement and prevent loneliness. Here are some ideas to keep your team well-integrated:
· Keep your team connected via a group chat on Whatsapp or Microsoft Teams. Alternatively, it may prove useful to sign your organisation up to Yammer, a social media for workplaces, where your team members will be able to create groups, ask questions, share achievements and photos.
· If your employees work remotely in multiple different locations, the luxury of in-person workplace socialising may prove impractical. Therefore, it may be beneficial to appoint a team member responsible for organising virtual social events, such as a “pub quiz” or games night.
Although your team may not operate from a traditional office space, it may be possible to keep well-connected and integrated if the correct care and attention is put into creating a workplace “social network”. If your team does operate in-house, it may be useful to plan a social calendar to keep engagement high following the Holiday Hi-Jinks.
As the Christmas festivities fades, your strategy and goals do not have to take a backseat. You may be able to propel your team from strength to strength by encouraging their development, celebrating their achievements and keeping them well-connected.
Here’s to a successful year ahead!
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