Partner Article

How to Keep Productivity Up Even During the

Keeping your employees engaged during the holiday season can be a bit challenging; between decorating, shopping, and getting ready to meet the family, they may hardly find time to stay focused on work. In fact, majority of them will be doing holiday shopping at work places, surfing through net, and ordering stuff online.

Considering the holiday season, from New Year, Thanks Giving to Christmas, managers should find efficient ways to keep productivity up otherwise they’d end up losing a lot of money during that period. It is the duty of the senior management to keep employees focuses that work; here are few tips that will help in keeping the productivity up even during holiday season.

Set an Example

The leadership quality actually plays an important role during such period; if being a leader you don’t come out with an action plan and do some goal-setting, and keep working less than usual, or come too late during the holiday season, chances are very high that your sub-ordinates will take the same path. If you stay focused on the project or set weekly or monthly goal, your employees too will do the same. Form some agenda, comprising of short and long term goals, and offer them rewards, while reminding them of organization’s key purpose at the same time.

Celebrate Success

If your employees are performing well at work, reward them, giving thank-you cards, emailing congrats wishes, or making casual phone calls. You can take the entire team or individual out to have a small party. On the other side, if your employees are lacking the ability to complete the task, do not burden them as it’ll drop the productivity levels. Take this holiday season as a good time to ask what needs to be changed, and how you can solve their problems. It will motivate them to stay a little more interested in their work.

Do not be a ’Scrooge’

Perk up productivity by offering holiday gift or treat to employees, such as holiday cookies, celeb luncheon, or festive decorations. Yes, all these depend upon the company’s budget and agenda; if the company happens to be a big corporate, then this practice may be too costly. Do not demand weekend hours or excessive overtime during festive season. If the additional work is very crucial to be completed, request them work to manage it over the regular hours, giving tempting comp-offs or allow some flexibility in working hours.

Do Not Repeat the Mistakes of History

Had your company’s productivity suffered in any prior holiday season? Check out what had gone wrong and discuss with employees and come up with a better solution. If the productivity is hampered by giving too much flexibility, such as allowing the employees to come too late, taking repetitive breaks, longer lunch breaks, then set some strict rules about time limits. If company suffered from more demand and less source last time, plan recruiting some people or temporarily shift the work responsibility in order to complete the projects in time.

Creating Enjoyable Atmosphere

When an employee feels that he/she is playing an active role in the progress or development of the company, it is more likely that they won’t oppose the management, and co-operate to the maximum possible extent. Keep a monthly meeting to keep everyone on the same level of understanding; by creating an atmosphere of unity, camaraderie, and acceptance, your employees will feel more engaged in work.

The holiday seasons are actually tough time in terms of keeping up the productivity levels, but one can very well manage the work-force by keeping these tips in mind.

Jasper is the CEO of Xpress Solutions, and he has vast experience in terms of managing human capital. He has scaled up a small company of just 3 into a million dollar organization by Racking up the work-force quickly over a span of just 3 years, and he knows what it takes to run a company successfully.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Brown .