Unless company representatives have Scrooge-like tendencies, the excitement of the holidays is probably boosting their spirits. Organizations should capitalize on this widespread positive sentiment, ensuring that it does not dissipate as soon as the festivities have come to an end.
As many business owners may know, having content staff members usually results in improved production rates, increased employee retention and generally healthier work environments. For this reason, companies should make an effort to preserve a sense of cheer among their personnel.
Make work more playful
There are few better ways to fight off the gloominess presented by the remaining winter months than creating opportunities to reward diligent employees with promotional giveaways. Although simply handing out items may be enough to make staff members’ day, it is even more effective for businesses to have a little fun with their teams.
According to the Business Standard, a recent study performed by researchers at Penn State, Loyola University of Maryland and The Ohio State University revealed that company representatives who enjoy their work are less likely to leave it. Among these findings, the ability to have fun at the office appeared to play a major role in terms of firms’ employee retention rates.
Taking the precautions needed to ensure that staff members will stay at their organizations benefits businesses in a couple of principle ways. If employers go above and beyond to foster loyalty throughout their teams, then they will likely create a more cohesive and unified workforce because individuals won’t be coming and going. Additionally, from a more utilitarian standpoint, the costs associated with replacing personnel who decide to leave can be avoided with better employee retention.
“High employee turnover is consistently quoted as being one of the problems that keeps managers up at night because if you’re involved with recruiting and training constantly, then you can’t focus on effectively managing your existing staff and providing a high-quality service experience,” stated Michael J Tews, assistant professor of hospitality management at Penn State, according to the news source.
Don’t go overboard
With that said, the research carried out by these three universities also determined that incorporating too much amusement into the office culture may hurt production. While business managers should make employee satisfaction a leading priority, they also need to be certain that staff members are not distracted.
Companies should look to strike a balance between fun and foolishness throughout their operations. There is some middle ground, and organizations just need to find it so that they can have a optimal amounts of staff happiness and productivity.
Chances are, business owners are not going to come across a viable solution to this problem in one of their MBA textbooks. The Houston Chronicle explained that executives can successfully bolster employee productivity through collaborative competitions, offering business gifts as incentives.
Let the games begin
The key to these competitions is to design them in such a way that they require cooperation. There is no sense in turning representatives against one another for the sake of driving up production. Instead, companies should establish group goals and reward the entire team with promo items if they realize those objectives. This is an excellent tactic to foster teamwork, raise satisfaction and kick operations into overdrive.
On top of that, the news source stated that organizations can schedule regular company-wide game tournaments. These can be either after-hours celebrations or breaks throughout the workday, giving employees a chance to relax, have fun and bond with their coworkers. To encourage attendance, businesses can offer small corporate gifts to whomever shows up to the games, in addition to awarding prizes to the tournament winners.