Summer Holiday Hacks - Ways To Keep Your Team Engaged

It’s the great British summertime (if you can believe it!) which means the usual working cadence often changes for a lot of businesses.

The summer season can sometimes lead to a dip in employee engagement, not only because the allure of blue skies and sunshine elsewhere can be somewhat distracting for your team members who are dreaming of a week of sun, sea and sangria, but for many there comes the added challenge of balancing childcare with work. Which if Covid taught us anything, was really really tricky.

So yeah, fun times.

Employee engagement – how strong the relationship, mental and emotional is between your workplace and your people - is extremely important for businesses. It is estimated that disengaged employees are costing the UK economy £340 billion every year in lost training and recruitment costs, sick days, productivity, creativity and innovation (Perkbox), so its definitely something you should be thinking about.

In this post we are going to give you some tips on how to keep your team motivated, connected, and productive during the sunny (or not so sunny) months.

1.     Check that people are ok

Not everyone in your workplace has children, but if you have people who do, its worth checking in with them to make sure they are ok.

The little darlings will have been off school for long enough now to be driving parents and caregivers to distraction and it’s a difficult balance if you are in charge of a small person and juggling time off to look after them and all the other ch-admin that needs to occur in the school holidays.

If you do have someone in your team struggling, it’s worth looking to see if you can offer any flexibility with their work schedule. It could make all the difference to them.

2.     Check in with your goal setting and progress tracking

If it is a little quieter than normal, take the time to sit down with your people and see where they are at in terms of their goals and objectives.

How are things tracking? Is there anything they need support with? Do they need new objectives because they’ve smashed the ones already set for them?

Summer doesn’t mean that all progress stops – in fact, this can be a great time to crack on with some projects or goals while there is a little less noise in the day.

Not got any goals or objectives set for your team? Well then my friend, this is a perfect time to book a discovery meeting at Human Everything and we can talk to you about setting your performance measurement goals for your team!

3.     Outdoor and team building activities

Yep, of course it’s raining, but in the gaps between the downpours, there’s some rather nice weather out there.

Summer is a great time for some outdoor get togethers. Arrange a team walk or picnic, go and look at something lovely, kayak down a river, visit an outdoor theatre or cinema night… there are plenty of things going on so make hay while the sun shines!

4.     Learning and development opportunities

You can encourage growth during the summer months. Find out what development your team are interested in and get them planning it in.

September is a month we are programmed to start a new school year and this is the perfect time to be thinking and talking about their ongoing learning and development. As an added bonus, once you’ve had your goal setting and progress tracking chats (see tip #2), you’ll have a clear idea of what they want to do!

5.     Keep communicating

During summer holiday season, teams can often feel a bit like ships passing in the night.

Depending on how time-off falls or whether more people are working from home, it can start to feel a bit disjointed.

Make sure everyone is kept in the loop with any developments happening over this time. Keep talking and checking in with people, give them updates, get updates from them… and if there isn’t much to report, report that!

Going silent if there’s not much to say isn’t helpful and will just enable people to drift further off-piste.

Communicate, communicate some more, and when you think you’re done, communicate again.

The summer holidays shouldn’t spell a downturn in employee engagement, even if we are all a bit sad about the weather this year.

By embracing flexibility, setting goals and implementing creative strategies, you can keep your workforce motivated and engaged throughout the not-so-sunny months.

Remember, a motivated and engaged team shines all year round!