For a lot of employees, it’s difficult to stay focused on work during the summer. Most of your workers would rather be outside doing something they enjoy or planning a relaxing summer family vacation.
As an employer, it’s important for your business that you’re able to keep your employees engaged during the summer months. One of the best ways to do this is by creating a work environment that boosts their morale during this time of year.
You can help keep the members of your team motivated by starting wellness initiatives, keeping their hours flexible and creating a little friendly competition. It’s also smart to ask your employees what things could help improve their workdays.
Here, we’ll take a look at five fun ideas that will help boost the morale of your employees this summer. Start with these ideas and see where it leads you.
Implement Official Summer Hours
When it’s warm out and the weather looks inviting, very few people enjoy being stuck in the office. It’s important to figure out new ways to motivate employees when their eyes and hearts are stuck on getting out of the office.
If at all possible, what would happen if you announced new summer hours starting the week after Memorial Day? You can offer half-day workdays every Friday, where the crew gets to head home at noon. Or, you could consider offering every other Friday as an entire day off through Labor Day weekend.
It’s important that you don’t make these off-times optional for employees. This will create a sense of confusion on if it’s really OK to take the allotted time off. Instead, make sure to shut down the office completely.
If you don’t want to give the time off unpaid, allow employees to work an extra 45 minutes Monday – Thursday, then be allowed to leave at noon on Friday. Or, they can work an extra hour for eight days, then take off every other Friday. This simple strategy will definitely boost summer morale.
Throw a Summer Company Party
Does your business typically have a big Christmas/Holiday Party in December? It might be a good idea to change things around and have the company’s big party in the summer months instead.
The great thing about hosting a company party in the summer is that everybody will have a lot more outdoor options. This will help engage employees both at the party and when they head back into the office on Monday.
Consider going all-out and hosting a themed party, such as a rafting party with Lickety Split rafting or any other local raft tour. An experience like that will give employees something to talk about, and look forward to, for the rest of the year.
Ideas like this show your workers how much you and the company care about them.
Allow for Work-At-Home Days
Summer is the perfect time to launch a new telecommuting policy if you haven’t already implemented one. If you don’t want to allow for a complete work-from-home free-for-all, consider allotting specific days where employees who have earned the right can work remotely.
When you do this, be clear that their remote office can be anywhere they want it to be. Tell them that as long as they’re available and have the ability to log in and perform regular work functions, the world is their office.
This fun idea will give your workers the freedom to enjoy more of the summer months, or even take their families on a working vacation. Even though they’ll still need to work during the day, as soon as they log off they’re back on vacation.
Even beyond the obvious morale boost, it’s been proven that remote workers are more productive than workers stuck in the office. Work-from-home days are a win for everybody involved.
Friendly and Fun Competition
Of course, the ultimate goal is that all of your employees work well together as a team. But a little friendly and fun competition really helps boost morale and increase summer engagement.
Think about starting a wellness-related competition, such as a contest where employees use their smartphones or smartwatches to count steps. Each week’s department winner for most weekly steps will get a paid lunch at their favorite (hopefully healthy!) restaurant.
Your contest can also be business-related. Organize several departments and have a complaint-reduction competition. The department with the fewest customer complaints at the end of the month gets a company-paid pizza party.
Whatever competition you decide on, keep it light and fun. This will definitely boost morale and summer engagement.
Ask Employees for Ideas
No two offices are alike. Talk to your employees and find out what fun ideas they have for boosting moral this summer. They might have creative ideas of their own that you haven’t thought of.
Any one of these five fun ideas could make the summer better for you and your employees. Give one, or all, try and see what happens!
