Do you feel like your staff motivation drops every year over Christmas? December often sees a huge drop in productivity, in one study conducted by Peakon; staff members reported that they feel their productivity drops by 30-40% throughout December.

So, it’s no surprise that both the quantity and quality of work being done takes a hit.

As a manager, this can be quite frustrating. As business keeps going and targets still need to be met!

Fear not, we have some fool-proof ways that you can keep your staff motivation up throughout December!

We all have a lot on our plates over Christmas

It isn’t ground-breaking news that for many of us, Christmas is a highly stressful time.

There are many contributing factors as to why so many of us suffer from seasonal stress, anxiety and depression. Some of these reasons include:

• High expectations
• Monetary worries
• Extra domestic duties to be taken care of
• Family commitments
• Heightened sense of Loneliness
• SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder – caused by dark and cold days)

We’re all in the same boat, even those of us that relish the festive period can be overcome with stress and anxiety on the run up to Christmas.

It is good practice to empathise with your staff throughout the year but understand that everyone has a lot going on especially through December, so a little understanding will go a long way!

Although, it isn’t great when a member of staff turns up bleary eyed from a night out on the Snowballs. Whilst your employees shouldn’t be taking advantage, we are all just human. Levelling with them and giving some leeway will increase their productivity and initiative to work harder for you!

December expects a lot of us, burning the candle on both ends until the sweet relief of January 1st. Where we can all hibernate back into our blanket forts until the Spring time.

So, it is good to have reasonable expectations of your team and your general staff motivation levels. Set a precedent and your December targets, and put a process into play that encourages your staff to work hard, where it doesn’t make your hair fall out with stress when you see them knocking off a bit.

This post will outline some great ways to improve staff motivation, reflect on the great year past and get ahead for 2020. It all starts with you!

How to Improve Your Staff Motivation Levels

Cheap & Easy Employee Incentives

1. Gratitude – Say thank you verbally or via a card
2. Create a top performer office – Sporadically throughout December allow a member of staff to use this office
3. Double their breaks – Christmas means there’s shopping to be done, nail and hair appointments to attend and errands to be run. Allow your staff to choose a day where they take a double break to do whatever it is, they need to do!
4. Create a casual dress day – Let your staff pick one day every week or once in December where they can wear relaxed clothing
5. Reward positivity – With a gift card to a local restaurant or cinema
6. Recognition in team meetings – Call out a member of staff who has gone above and beyond amongst their peers
7. Educational afternoon – Whether this is off site or allowing them an hour or 2 to watch video training or podcasts in their area of expertise/interest

Generally, you want to make your office a fun and inviting place to be. A happy worker is a productive worker! When people feel valued, they want to work harder and achieve well for the company.

Decorate the office!

Cheer up the workplace with some tinsel or lights. Encourage workers to pop in some Christmas earrings or a festive Rudolf jumper. Jazzing up the office space is guaranteed to put a smile on your employees faces.

Similarly, let them listen to music if it isn’t what you would usually do anyway. 65% of business’ say that playing music in the office increases productivity. It was also found by the University Miami, that when playing music, IT specialists were able to complete tasks much quicker.

Music of course can be counterproductive, you must make sure it isn’t on too loud, and to some degree is to everyone’s tastes. If you have a large team, you can allow people to alternate between choosing radio stations or Spotify playlists.

It’s all about breaking the routine to improve staff motivation, getting people up and moving or excited about any small thing to boost happiness in the workplace. Food is a fabulous way to do this, whether it is by holding a fuddle one day before Christmas to get the team together, or even take them out for a quick coffee before the day properly begins. Work with what you have and what your team’s preferences would be. But you’re never too far from a Starbucks and everyone loves a ‘bring a plate’ luncheon.

Support goals and targets

As drive and productivity dips, December might be a great time to review your staff’s goals for the future and work out how you can support them to achieve these goals. You can set targets out for where you feel the staff member should be in a years’ time.

This isn’t necessarily a formal review, but something to show your support and encourage staff members to have professional goals. Maybe you can set up a day in early 2020 for staff to shadow other staff members to gain valuable company insights or decide where their career progression may be.

Think out of the box

There are so many weird and wonderful ways to improve staff motivation. It doesn’t have to be the same old tried and tested methods. You may have your own ideas you’re keen to try out. If you’re struggling for what this looks like, check out the below list of cool ways to hype up your staff before Christmas!

1. Game up your targets!

– Add points to each task, such as ‘called 20 customers’ – 10 points, or ‘filed all invoices’ – 15 points. Then staff can reach levels;

• Average Employee (50 Points)
• Above Average Employee (100 Points)
• Medium Employee (150 points)
• Rockin’ It Employee (200 points)
• Absolutely fabulous employee! (300 points)

You get the gist, you can have a lot of fun with this, but it will motivate your staff to pump out the work, of course each level offers a different incentive, such as;

• Free coffee
• Extra 15 mins lunch break
• Box of chocolates
• Leave 30 mins early

Etc…

2. Own Hours December –

This one depends on how much you trust your staff of course, but at the same time it will instil trust and respect between you.

Allowing your staff flexi hours could be a great incentive. Of course, still fulfilling their 40 hours over 5 days (or similar), but they can choose when they come in and leave.

3. Save a big project –

Sometimes when motivation is lacking, and your staff are spending more time dreamily staring out of the office window it could be a good idea to mix it up a bit. Is there a different project that is a little out of the usual? Now could be the perfect time to pull it out. Something fun and different that gets your staff engaged.

4. Work from a different location –

Could you let a few people work from home one afternoon or even take a team and set up a hot spot office in a board room or even a local coffee shop? A change of environment can be refreshing and get the creative juices flowing.

5. Hold an education day –

Stop trying to work and use this time to train your staff up on something new that will benefit the business as you move into 2020.

Could you pay a company to come into your office on 1 or 2 days to hold a presentation skills course or a Negotiation skills course. There are some fab companies out there that hold these days.

6. Participate in a charity event –

Helping the less fortunate and a good cause can really boost morale and mental health.

7. Advent rewards calendar –

Have a reward a day throughout December for achieving certain targets. Rewards can be time off or small gifts such as mini wine or beer etc.

A time for reflection

Sometimes, all that is needed is a great morale boosting team meeting. One that focus’ on all the wins of the business throughout 2019.

Now is the time to celebrate your staffs big wins. Company mile stones, financial targets (yes sometimes it’s good to be transparent about these things!), goals for next year, how the company plans to achieve these, and how pivotal each employees role is within the grand scheme.

If your yearly targets have been met, why not give your staff a Christmas Shopping afternoon off!

The point of this is to share the success, and team involvement. Everyone wants to feel like they’re part of something great. So, celebrate it together! If your year hasn’t gone as well as planned, that’s okay too, it’s just more of a reason to look to the future!

Have a Great Christmas

Hopefully by this point your staff motivation has soared and has a new lease of life ready to tackle December and that workload. Ready to get ahead ready for January!

Enjoy this time and remember to lead by example and set the precedent you wish to see from your staff.

Do you have recruitment needs for 2020, we are here to help you get ahead of the game. Visit our website for more information https://turnerfoxrecruitment.co.uk/employers/

Alternatively, please call us on 01623 656 303 or email recruit@turnerfox.co.uk.

Mostly importantly, have an amazing Christmas!

From all of us at TurnerFox Recruitment.