As the months flow by like the wind, seasons change, making an impact on the moods and motivation levels that goes into our daily work routine. That feeling of waking up on Monday morning gets a lot stronger when its summer time, when in your mind your on holiday, lounging on a beach or exploring with friends and family. This is common among many employees and the measures taken from the organisation to maintain a healthy work-life balance can impact in the productivity, employee engagement, and retention amidst tough times like these. Here are tips to help you get started.
Summer Fridays
Amidst the flexible working hours and agile working certain organisations have started the practice of Summer Fridays, which basically means that your Friday is not as long as it used to be. That allows employees to work shorter weeks and spend a portion of their Friday afternoon with family and friends. Being one of the least productive days, many would enjoy having a shorter and productive Friday over a long and boring one. Although this would mean that you will have to finish all your work within a lesser amount of time than usual, which is what the organisation recognizes as higher productivity. What many would postpone or take a longer period of time to complete would be completed with lesser time. The motivation of leaving early on a Friday creates a sense of relief that many would consider clearing out the pending tasks over procrastinating. A longer more relaxed Friday afternoon can do a lot for your employees’ motivation levels than you expect.
Work outdoors
When the weather is warm and sunny outside, yet you are stuck within a cold and gloomy office, people are bound to be demotivated and unhappy at work. A bit of sunlight and fresh air can make a difference in an atmosphere where it’s all papers and computers. An open area for meetings, meals or even a break can be the healthy balance of outdoor and indoor employees need to feel relaxed in a space they spend most of their day in. A few activities, such as marathons, bike rides and treasure hunts can not only promote employee engagement but also aid in connecting with the outdoors that many seem to miss during the summer months. Structuring the workspace to bring in more natural light, adding more color and change to the work environment can add more to the motivational levels as well.
Balanced Benefits
As much as employees enjoy monitory benefits, they also enjoy maintaining a perfect work life balance. Providing flexible working hours is widely practiced within many organisation and the option of working from home is surfacing making it a viable option to those that would stand to gain from its benefits. For example mothers with young children or employees with special needs or health conditions will be more productive working from the comforts of their home much rather than travelling to work. If the organisation is not prepared to provide this option to all its employees, the opportunity to consider it as an option for those who may require it will provide that sense of comfort and motivation to continue working from wherever they maybe despite the difficult situations. Temporary work at home options, day care facilities, flexible working hours are also areas that will benefit both the organisation and the employees in many ways.
When its summer outside, and you’d rather enjoy the warm weather, work just feels like huge distraction from all the fun that you would rather be having. It is quite simply possible to bring a bit of fun to the workplace. Not too much since it would be a distraction from the work but the right balance will help employees seek out for the silver lining that is outside the gloomy dark cloud called work. Organisations come up with creative concepts to make work the best place to be and in that pursuit the perfect balance of work and life will be achieved.
