With Christmas fast approaching and a list of seasonal events in the diary over the next few weeks it’s easy for team members to get distracted and start to lose focus. However, with inflation soaring and the cost of doing business ever increasing, it’s more important than ever for companies to get the most from their teams. So, whether you’re approaching the end of the financial quarter and have key revenue targets to hit or if you’re just looking to keep your team members on track this month, then this article is for you.

Here are some of our best tips to motivate and engage your team this December so that you can end the calendar year on top:

Offer Rewards & Incentives for Star Performers - it’s important to recognise great work throughout the year, but this especially true when your team are facing a particularly busy period of increased pressure caused by reduced numbers of staff and critical deadlines. Think carefully about what you want your team to achieve and create an award to match. Whether it’s recognising the ‘top sales person’ this quarter or crowning your ‘holiday season star’, think about creative ways to reward achievement and thank your team for their hard work.

Book a New Year Get Together - with lots of teams working remotely these days, it’s more important than ever to make time to encourage collaboration and team cohesion by bringing your team together for an in-person event or meeting. As December is often a busy month with lots of team members taking time off, if you’ve not already booked something we’d highly recommend scheduling your next conference or away day for the New Year. This not only helps to beat the January blues by giving your team something to look forward to once the holiday period is over, you can also secure some great deals from hotels or venues who will often offer discounts to businesses booking delegate packages at the start of the year.

Offer Increased Flexibility - if your company doesn’t already offer flexible working arrangements for your staff, it’s certainly something worth considering for the holiday period. With so many things in the diary these days it can make a huge difference to your team if you can allow them to schedule their work day around key events. It also means that staff don’t need to take as much holiday, giving you the added bonus of them working more hours over the festive period. Companies that allow team members to take a break during the day to attend their child’s nativity play or to finish early one day to attend a winter wonderland lights event or carol concert will reap the benefits when it comes to loyalty and engagement.

Look for Signs of Burnout - Christmas can be a stressful period for a number of reasons. Ensure that you speak to your team regularly and take time to check in if you feel that a team member may be feeling overwhelmed or overly stressed. Burnout can be a huge problem in the workplace not only for the affected individual but for their colleagues too. Look for signs of exhaustion, does a team member seem more negative than normal? Are they less engaged and enthusiastic than they are normally? Is it taking them longer to complete tasks or have they been suffering more with illness? 

Create a Rota & Communicate Availability - with lots of people taking time off over the festive period it’s important to ensure that holiday is allocated fairly and that everyone who wants to take time off work is given the opportunity to do so. Look at the staffing levels required this month and schedule a rota which ensures that the workload is shared fairly amongst the team. Once you know who is covering on which days, communicate this clearly to clients and colleagues. You can do this by adding an out of office or email footer that sets out your team’s availability and by highlighting priorities and deadlines in advance. This ensures everyone is clear about  who to contact if they need support, what they can realistically expect to be delivered this month and which items may need to wait until the New Year!

Wishing all a happy, productive and successful Christmas period, and, if you need help planning a New Year event, then get in touch! We’d love to help you organise your next meeting or conference to help you boost engagement within your team.