Summer energy: Keeping everyone engaged during the holidays.

At last, it’s beginning to feel like summer, the cool weather seems to have finally been left behind (although by this publish date, this may well have changed!).

You can start to enjoy the long warm evenings and as we get to this time of year, you’re looking forward to an annual holiday too. However, as trusted support for 100’s of small business leaders in our region, we’re also acutely aware that holiday-season can be a long period of (even busier) busy days and sleepless nights for many.

We’re hugely passionate about employee engagement at Pro-Development, which means that were aware of just how important it is to keep teams engaged and focused all year round. For reactive, disengaged teams, it can all become so much harder when everyone is planning for their upcoming holiday and resources are at their tightest.

Our incredible trainers and leadership experts at Pro-Development have shared their top tips to help you and your team stay engaged and motivated during this time.

• Establish Clear Goals Establishing clear goals and objectives can help your team stay focused and motivated. Be sure to provide specific timelines and deadlines to help keep your team on track. Rewarding your team for meeting short-term goals and objectives may also help to encourage continued productivity.
• Stay Connected Use virtual meetings and other collaborative tools to stay connected with your team. This will keep everyone informed of new updates, tasks, and progress. Regular check-ins and one-to-ones prior to and post-holiday can also help to keep people accountable, and remote group activities can help create a virtual team building atmosphere.
• Engage, Reward, and Celebrate Celebrate completed goals and tasks with your team and consider giving out rewards or incentives to boost motivation. Think pizza nights or making a ‘proper coffee’ run. Make your team feel appreciated and valued during this time and encourage them to have fun.

A big ‘side-effect’ of holiday season is that some individuals may begin to feel isolated. This is perhaps more common than ever with the increase in remote and hybrid working. One pressing concern that we’re hearing from our clients that have teams in multiple locations or a hybrid working model is of a ‘them and us’ culture. Those that work in the office vs those ‘out in the field’ ‘on the production line’ or working at home.

This is a common disruptor that we see for manufacturing businesses, charities, and engineering/construction too. Teams or departments that ‘silo’ themselves off from each other and don’t collaborate across functions or groups. Bring holidays into the mix, reducing resource in one or multiple areas, and this culture can spiral down-ward quickly if not prevented.

In many cases, working in silos leads to an unproductive and harmful culture. Without the ability to leverage collective knowledge and empathy for each other’s roles and experience, a team can become isolated and unable to meet their, and the organisation’s goals.

This doesn’t just have a negative impact on profitability; as research suggests, when employees are isolated from others, they are at an increased risk of mental health problems.

Working to create an engaged and empowered team across your business is what we do best but to get you started here are a few key steps you can take to proactively break down silos and foster a more collaborative and productive working culture (even during your low resourced times!)

• Promote transparency Involve team members in cross-departmental activities, help them understand how their work impacts others and vice versa.
• Encourage cross functional training this helps to understand how their peers fit into the bigger picture and they’ll get a clearer view of what their colleagues are responsible for. It will also help individuals know what resources or information might be of help to other departments.
• Cultivate a healthy, inquisitive culture Asking a lot of questions is the first step to working with colleagues across silos because what people experience on the other side is often different from what they might imagine. Managers with a high level of inquisitiveness tend to develop relationships with colleagues in all parts of an organisation.
• Work toward common goals using collaboration tools each person in the organisation needs to work toward common goals. When people across the company have the same objectives, they are more likely to communicate better. Each department’s goals should reflect the overall goals of the business. Working together breaks down barriers to cooperation, communication, and collaboration.

But what about the extra workload while people are off – look out for Michelle’s blog later this month where she’ll be sharing some tips on how to make sure you don’t end up with anyone burning out.

In the meantime, if you feel that your teams are becoming disconnected, why not drop in for a coffee and chat to see if we can help. If anything, it would be great to see your holiday photos and suntan (but no white bits!).