For many organisations employee engagement and productivity can decrease at this time of year. Summer months mean summer holidays, erratic working hours and a distracted work force. Here’s a few ideas to help keep your team engaged when there’s so much distraction:
- First Day of Summer Freedom – A common moral boosting benefit is to give employees the freedom to leave work the first day of the year that it reaches 20 degrees. This is a cost-effective way of lifting everyone’s spirits.
- Free Summer Fridays –In a recent article, USA Today said that of 200 employers surveyed in the USA, 42% were offering Summer Fridays this year. That being either Friday’s off or half days. If you notice your team lacking focus on Friday afternoons this could be something worth considering.
- Offer Flexitime – Make life easier for your employees by offering flexible hours and the ability to work from home one or two days a week. A May survey by staffing firm OfficeTeam found that 39% of workers are looking for flexible schedules at this time of year. Allowing employees to create their own work schedule facilitates all important family time and supports a better work life balance.
- Sports Day/Summer party – Remember sports day in school and how excited everyone got? Try this out within the company. Hire a local sports ground and arrange mini tournaments – three-legged race, potato sack races, five aside etc. Include food and drinks to make it a full-blown Summer party.
- Surprise them with Ice-cream: It’s an easy thing to do, in a small company just grab an ice-cream for everyone and surprise them during their working day. Larger companies, book an ice-cream van to visit the offices. It’s a clever way to bring a little joy to the workplace.
- Summer Dress Code – This won’t be suitable for every industry but if possible relax the usual dress code to allow for more casual and comfortable attire. Tried and tested by global leading tech companies this is a cost free Summer per that could make a real difference to employee attitudes.
No matter what you choose to do, be sure to take the company pulse so you know what your team are thinking. Meet for performance check-ups or use pulse surveys which provide invaluable feed-back and offer managers a great opportunity to stay ‘in-the-loop’.
Author: Sara Glynn, Marketing Executive, Wrkit
