Finding ways to keep your team productive this holiday season can be challenging. Your employees likely would rather be engaging in holiday festivities than working.
Although keeping your team productive during the holidays can be difficult, you can take steps to improve engagement. These suggestions can help.
Choose among these methods to keep your team productive this holiday season.
Detail Your Holiday Time Off Policy
Clarify your guidelines and procedures for requesting time off around the holidays. Include how many team members can be off each day, which days everyone must work, and other relevant details.
Share your holiday time off policy so your team thoroughly understands and adheres to it. Then, your team can focus on their work and maintain productivity.
Consider using a shared calendar to show your team who has off on certain days and which days everyone is expected to work. Having a visual representation of your team’s work schedules clarifies who will and will not be working on a given day and whether a team member can ask off for a specific date.
Offer Flexibility
Provide your team with as much flexibility as possible. Examples include a flexible schedule, working extended days to have one day off each week, and the ability to work remotely at least one day per week.
Offering flexibility helps your team maintain work-life integration. The ability to fit in holiday shopping, decorating, baking, school events, celebrations with family and friends, and other personal responsibilities helps reduce stress. As a result, your team can remain productive when they are at work.
Set Holiday Expectations
Clarify your individual and team expectations for the holiday season. Examples include project due dates and other productivity-related issues.
Letting your team know what you expect from them helps reach company goals. Team members can understand what they are working toward, how success will be measured, and other relevant details. As a result, your team can maintain productivity as they work toward their goals.
Allow Time to Discuss Holiday Plans
Set aside time for your team to share their holiday traditions, activities, and events. These discussions help your team stay excited about their festivities while at work. The conversations also provide insight into what matters most to your team members.
Providing time for your team to connect over holiday happenings helps relieve stress. Your team members can provide suggestions and support to make things easier for each other. These actions help your team stay motivated, focused, and productive while working.
Share Festive Food
Bring in food that honors diverse holiday celebrations. Show that you value and respect diverse holiday traditions by sharing unique cuisine with your team.
Include some background on the dishes and why they are important for holiday celebrations. Your team can stay productive as they look forward to enjoying the food during breaks and lunch.
Examples of diverse holiday food include:
- Latkes for Hanukkah
- Fish for the Feast of the Seven Fishes in Sicily
- Saffron buns for Lucia’s Day in Sweden
- Spiced hot chocolate for Christmas in Peru
- West Indian curry for Kwanzaa
- Butter tarts for a Canadian Christmas
- Bahn Chung for Tết (rice cakes for the Vietnamese New Year)
Organize Team Holiday Events
Plan activities that encourage your team to come together during the holiday season. These events support camaraderie, cohesion, and collaboration. Teammate interactions also encourage work engagement and productivity.
Examples of team holiday events include:
- Gingerbread wars: Divide your team into pairs or small groups. Distribute gingerbread house kits. Provide a time limit to create a house. Award prizes for the homes that fit predetermined criteria, such as “most unique” or “best constructed.”
- Card crafting: Set up a table with fancy paper, markers, glitter, and other decorations. Encourage your team to make customized holiday cards for family and friends.
- Carol karaoke: Get a karaoke machine or microphone and television, projector screen, and laptop. Que up holiday songs your team members want to sing. Or, divide your team into small groups, then have them write and perform parody lyrics to the tunes of holiday carols.
- Volunteer Day: Gather your team to spend the day spreading kindness and goodwill by completing service projects with a local nonprofit organization. You might write holiday cards for soldiers overseas or sort toys at a donation drive.
- Holiday trivia: Divide your team into small groups. Have each group choose a holiday team name. Pass out paper and pens to each team. Read holiday-themed questions. Have the teams write the answers on their papers. When the questions are done, have the teams exchange papers. Read the answers so the teams can score their results. Award prizes to the winning team.
Provide Team Recognition and Rewards
Celebrate your team’s contributions and results from the year. Emphasize individual and group accomplishments and their impacts on the organization. Include the value your team added and how it benefitted the company.
Provide appropriate rewards for your team members. Examples include gift cards, cash, additional vacation days, bonuses, pay increases, and promotions.
Recognizing and rewarding your team for their hard work shows you value and respect their efforts. As a result, your team should increase their performance and productivity.
Proactively Resolve Productivity Issues
Consider the productivity issues your team faced last year. Then, develop solutions to these problems.
For instance, perhaps your team members spent a significant amount of time online shopping or planning holiday events during work hours. Or, maybe certain team members often were absent due to extensive celebrating.
You might want to talk with your team about the importance of focusing on work during work hours and personal responsibilities during personal time. You also could remind your team about the importance of time management and setting limits while celebrating so they can fulfill their personal and professional responsibilities.
Are You Short-Staffed This Holiday Season?
If you become short-staffed this holiday season, contact Vector Technical to fill your needs. Find out more today.
