Holiday Hangover: Revitalise Your Team for the New Year

Welcome to HR to Go by Effective Workplace Solutions. In this episode of HR to Go, I’ll be sharing some ideas to help you boost enthusiasm in the workplace after the holidays.

It’s January - Happy New Year! Or is it? A lot of employees are now working through their holiday hangover and after all the hype and festivity surrounding Christmas and the New Year, many can find themselves in a bit of a slump.

As an employer or Manager, you may be wondering how to get your employees to bounce back from the holidays and re-engage with the workplace and your workplace goals.

Never fear: the team at EWS have compiled 10 ideas for January to ease your employees back into the rhythm of things and set them (and you) up for success!

TIP #1: After the festive period staff may be keen to book their next holiday. Many employers find they are inundated with leave requests after Christmas. Rather than increasing stress levels by fobbing staff off, ensure you deal with these requests as soon as practical. Having a leave request process in place will assist you with this task. Dealing with holiday requests promptly will not only make sure staff feel valued (which should increase productivity and quality of work), but it will also allow them to move on and focus on their work.

TIP #2: Recognise your employees. Acknowledge the staff who have worked antisocial or additional hours over the festive period. Your business wouldn’t operate without these staff members working over this period, and let’s face it – no one likes working when others are on holidays. Ensure these staff members are appropriately acknowledged, and that this is highlighted at their next appraisal.

TIP #3: Create a positive environment! Give praise where praise is due! The easiest way to pick staff up is by telling them you appreciate the good job they’re doing. Acknowledging hard work is an instant mood booster and staff will be keen to keep the momentum going!

TIP #4: January is a time for setting resolutions and goals. Encourage your employees to share their New Year’s resolutions (personal and professional) with their team.
Off the back of this, you may be able to integrate some of these resolutions into the workplace to help your team succeed. Some of the most common resolutions are:
• Eating healthy + active living: Create a wellness calendar for your team and communicate important health and wellness dates, programs, and initiatives.
• Learning a new skill or hobby: Host a monthly show-and-tell with your team to explore new hobbies! Do you have an employee that is really into cooking? Take the team to a cooking class together to try out a new hobby.
• Saving money: Invite your team to participate in a savings challenge or consider starting a Christmas Club.
• Travel more: Encourage employees to take time off by sending vacation reminder emails. Additionally, highlight recent employee vacations! Did one of your team members recently travel abroad or check out a new city? Ask if they would be willing to share a few of their favourite photos in the employee newsletter! It’s always a great idea to include employee content. Plus, it will encourage other employees to take some time off which we all know is a win-win for everyone. Leave balances are always a challenge for HR so what better way to encourage using leave.

TIP #5: Get planning! January is the perfect time to set out your plans for the year with your staff. January and February are the best months to look for work, and it is the time of year that many people are reassessing their plans and goals. With this in mind, you will want to be retaining your valued staff, so communication is key. It’s a great idea for line managers to sit down with staff to discuss the key role they play in the success of the business and what plans there are in place for the business over the next 12 months. This should be a two-way conversation, allowing the employee to contribute their objectives too.

TIP #6: Keeping with the planning theme and retention of staff, take time to assess employee training needs for the year ahead. Learning and self-development go hand-in-hand and are the perfect staff incentive, with both the employee and the employer benefiting. Encouraging learning and development of skills increases staff retention levels and motivation.

TIP#7: Which brings me to the next tip. Training, tools, and resources: January is a great month to send (or resend) training and learning resources to your employees. It tends to be a quieter month for many businesses so why not dust off the employee handbook and ask the team to reread it, or follow up on any outstanding training and get those finished off.

TIP#8: Revamp your rewards and recognition program. It’s hard to argue against the fact that recognition feels good. Positive recognition releases the feel-good hormone in the brain, known as dopamine. Dopamine stimulates the feeling of pride and joy, in turn, improving work ethic and productivity. But the effects of dopamine are short-lived, so how do we combat this? Well, when employee appreciation and recognition are implemented as a standard fixture in the workplace, employees can enjoy a steady supply of dopamine. It can be as simple as Employee of the Month, acknowledging work anniversaries and birthdays.

TIP#9: Set the social calendar for the rest of the year. Plan some events in advance that the team are interested in. It might be Christmas in July catch-up, a fun run or charity event that your employees are keen to support, perhaps a race day they would like to go to together. Creating a sense of community boosts morale.

TIP #10: Be stress-aware! The come-down after the festive season can bring with it increased stress levels and lower moods. Other factors such as changes in staff, decreased staffing levels due to leave, and post-Christmas blues can trigger stress in staff. Promote an open discussion on stress in the workplace. Ensuring staff know how to access information and services to assist them is important. Plus, ensure managers and supervisors are aware of the symptoms of stress and other mental health issues and how best to approach it.

Are you ready to kick off the year on a high note? Start by integrating these tips into your workplace today.

Thank you for listening to another episode of HR to Go. If your business is based in Australia and you would like HR or employment law advice, visit our website EWSOLUTIONS.COM.AU