With the bank holiday weekend now upon us, many employees will be looking forward to downing tools early and enjoying a four-day weekend.
While some employees will be relaxing on the sofa, going for walks or pottering around in the garden, others will have to continue working throughout the bank holiday.
For those that will be working, either for all or part of the four-day weekend, it is crucial that employee engagement and productivity doesn’t take a hit.
To ensure that productivity and engagement remains high, HR Grapevine has collated three top tips for the HR function.
Read on to find out more...
Show appreciation to staff
While it may sound obvious, showing appreciation to staff and thanking them for their hard work is a good way to keep staff engaged and productive during this time.
With data from Socialcast finding that 69% of staff would work harder if their efforts were better appreciated, this could make all the difference.
And there are lots of ways that employers and HR can go about appreciating staff members.
For example, employers could offer staff an extra day off at another point in the year, send them a small gift in the post or even just send them a simple ‘thank you note’ to recognise their hard work.
Elsewhere, some organisations have come up with entirely unique ways to show appreciation for their staff.
In fact, the HR consultancy firm Reward Gateway launched a ‘Thank You Festival’ earlier this year which featured bands, video messages of appreciation from its leadership team and ways for co-workers to chat in real time.
Speaking on the initiative, Catrin Lewis, Head of Global Engagement and Internal Communications at Reward Gateway, said that the firm “wanted to create a moment of gratitude, celebration and connection for our people”.
Organise after-work activities
After a busy day at work, it is important that staff have something to look forward to at the end of it.
As such, HR and employers could look to organise after-work activities such as a virtual drink or trivia contest. This could be a good way to keep employees motivated during the day.
With many employees cooped up indoors in light of the pandemic, data has shown that employees have missed the social interactions with co-workers.
For example, previous research from CIPHR found that 51% are excited about after-work drinks with colleagues when they are able to return to work.
Therefore, hosting fun after-work activities could be a good way to keep staff motivated throughout the bank holiday.
Create Spotify playlists
With so many people working from home, employees will likely plug into Spotify and have music on in the background to help them get through the working day.
In fact, data published in Nielson’s Total Audience Report: Work from Home Edition found that 75% of people listen to music while working from home at least once a week.
As such, employers and HR could consider creating a team Spotify playlist.
Not only could this create a sense of community, but it could also give colleagues something different to chat to one another about.
Do you have any tips for maintaining high levels of engagement among teams working through a bank holiday? Let us know in the comments below…
