How to Get Your Employees Back on Track After Holidays

The holidays have come and gone and your team is back at the office. You are ready to kick things into high gear and dominate the market but you are finding it difficult to ramp things up after the holidays. Does this sound like a situation you have faced or are facing right now with your employees? Not to worry as this is a common occurrence after the holidays when everyone returns back to the office and team members are finding it challenging to get the ball rolling again. Just like a plane taking off, the initial thrust is the hard part but once you’re in the air it is smooth flying that point onward.

So how do you get things rolling again and operating at peak efficiency? It can be challenging but if you have a plan and try these tips you will find that it is not as difficult as you may have thought and that things can get back up and running in top speed in no time.

One of the biggest hurdles with everyone returning back to work is that the daily rituals and routines have been thrown off for longer periods than normal. After all, this isn’t a typical weekend or only a few days off. It takes time to build a routine and unfortunately not as long to dismantle one. Try these tips to get your employees out of the laid-back vacation mode they are in and get them motivated to achieve more and become more productive in the new year.

Communicate with Your Employees

After the holidays, it is important to have a meeting to reset and reboot everyone. Of course this is a good opportunity to ask everyone how their holidays went and share some stories but you don’t want to linger on this too long as it will be counter-productive. This is not to say that you should function like a robot with no feelings; rather a great leader will spend an appropriate amount of time on personal discussions with team members and then jump into the main focus of the meeting.

During this meeting it is important to discuss the goals for the coming year and begin creating a plan together. The key word here is together. It is a good idea to let your employees know that you understand the struggles of returning back to the office and getting back in the swing of things and that you understand the large work load in front of them. Present them with this as an opportunity to work together as a team to discuss strategies of getting back on track and tackling the work load together as a group. This serves as a great team-building exercise and also sets out a concrete plan for the team to follow.

Focus mostly on short-term goals for the office to get things back up and running smooth and then a follow up meeting can dive more in-depth into long-term goals for the year.

Build Excitement and Motivation

A great way to get the team motivated is to hold employee education sessions, offering employees opportunities for professional development. This can help motivate employees to get back in the swing of things and provide them with something to look forward to after the holidays when they return to the office. During the post-holiday goal meeting mentioned above, you can take this opportunity to ask employees what training would benefit them or interest them the most and then you can host training seminars or bring in an industry-specific trainer or coach.

It is important to excite and inspire your staff to get them back into production mode. One way to do this is to host a work day full of team building activities outside of the office or an employee-focused wellness event such as a healthy lunch or day of yoga etc. When your employee motivation is low, it is important to help them switch gears and this can be achieved with support and perks that can help reboot and reset their minds. It may seem like this is the wrong time to “lose a day of work” but in actuality you would be taking a small step back to take a big leap forward and get your employees mindsets back into production mode.

Start the New Year Off Fresh in Your Ottawa Office Space

Sometimes people just need a fresh start after the holidays. This can be the perfect time to reduce clutter and streamline your Ottawa office space. Take advantage of the slower season  as people adjust to their work load after the holidays and reorganize teams in your office as well as the office layout, storage, and even desk placement. This can help give employees a new perspective and a fresh start for the new year.

We hope you enjoyed these tips and that you will be able to benefit from them to kick things off the right way this year and get the ball rolling faster.

All the best in 2018!