Employee Engagement and the Christmas Spirit
DECEMBER 2017
Interest in employee engagement has been on the rise in recent years but what happens during the festive period? It should be a priority at this time of year; instead the opposite is true. Just look at this Google Trends graph showing the frequency that “employee engagement” is searched for. Yes, those regular troughs are in December every year.
Interestingly New Year is when people are most likely to search for a new job. Here is another Google Trends graph for the keyword search “New Job”.
If your employees tend to search for a new job in the New Year, you can tackle this by prioritising employee engagement towards the end of the year and keeping your employees close. If retention is a priority in your business you need to be ahead of the game and it starts now. February will be too late.
Here are some suggestions for initiatives you can plan to implement in the New Year when everyone needs a boost. Perhaps even announce these on the first working day of the year when everyone is feeling low on energy.
- Health and wellbeing programmes. Have you ever made a resolution to get fit in the New Year but failed to keep it up past March? As an employer you can help your employees fulfil their resolutions. Imagine the uptake to a health and wellbeing programme if you announced it at the start of January? Start planning now.
- A charity day. Want to feel better? Do something kind for someone else. Why not postpone these activities to January when there is a greater demand for volunteers and more need to lift spirits after the excesses of the Christmas period. These activities also help build social glue in the workplace, a key contributor to staff retention.
- An external planning event. Get your staff out of the office in January to discuss the year ahead. Perhaps include walking meetings. Think creatively to invigorate your staff and free their thinking and you could reap the rewards for the next 12 months.
- Holiday trading. What better way to brighten up the dark winter months than by planning a summer holiday. Introduce holiday trading to allow your staff to book that extra break.
Whatever your plans, we would love to hear about them. Come and chat to us.
Merry Christmas and wishing you a prosperous 2018.
