Your employees worked hard throughout the year. Now, with summer approaching, you may find a decreasing rate of employee engagement.
Is it something you did as a leader? Are there changes you can make to ensure you continue to improve company culture and boost employee engagement throughout the summer?
Don't be too hard on yourself. You can be the best boss, but when summer arrives, many employees have other things on their minds. They want to spend time with their family (maybe they have children out of school), they want to go on vacations, and maybe they simply need a break.
Because you're the type of leader you are, you're going to search for employee engagement ideas to use during the summer to help keep your employees engaged and happy. Not sure where to begin? We're happy to help!
7 Ways to Boost Employee Engagement in the Summer
1. Offer Flexible Hours
Flexible work schedules are something employees will appreciate any time of the year. It's even more appreciated during the summer. This will allow employees to schedule time off if desired.
How can you offer more flexible hours?
Consider having employees work half days on Fridays, allowing them to come in an hour early, leave work early if all work tasks are completed for the day, or offer work from home days. Not all suggestions here will work well with every type of job or company, but there are many ways to offer flexibility.
Find what works best for your company and then offer these options to your employees.
2. Suggest Use of Vacation Time
Be transparent with your employees about due dates and what tasks need to be completed for the month. When you do this, your employees can better plan for time off. As long as they're completing all of their work, then suggest they use their vacation time.
What employee doesn't love talking about vacations? You want your employees to take their vacations as it's a good way to recharge, refresh, and come back to the job ready to work.
Most will be more than willing to work hard and get all their work duties done in time to enjoy a much-needed vacation. You should also keep a vacation calendar where everyone has access to it. They can then see who's already taken time off on certain days and which days are available.
3. Provide Wellness Activities
Health and wellness activities and challenges give your employees something to keep them healthy and active. Plus, there's a little friendly competition in there as well. The main idea here is to encourage health while having fun.
For example, you can have an employee challenge to see who can make the most scrumptious, yet healthy, dish. The winner could possibly win a small prize. You can also use an app that employees can download which tracks everyone's steps for the day as a competition to see who got the most exercise in.
Designing an ergonomic office environment and providing healthy snack options in the break rooms are also great ideas.
4. Plan on-Site Events
Planning off-site events for your employees is always a great team-building strategy and helps boost morale. Taking the entire team off-site isn't always realistic, though. If you're unable to schedule team bowling or climbing exercises, then think of some things you can do at the office.
Can you set up fun events right where everyone works? Consider having different branches or teams come up with themes for their office space. They can decorate and then have a contest!
You can also set up office potlucks and other celebrations. This gives your employees a reason to want to come to work that day. Keep it fun during the summer, and they'll continue to look forward to the summer months.
5. Help Them Stay Cool
Depending on where you live, the weather can get quite hot outside in the summer. Help your employees stay cool by lifting strict dress codes if possible.
Otherwise, you can provide them with lots of cool and refreshing beverages and snacks (fruits) in the breakroom.
6. Communicate Effectively
Communicating effectively is something that's important all year round. It's even more important during the summer. Be sure to keep an open-door policy with your employees.
If there's something they need to ask you, then they should feel comfortable doing so. In the same sense, you should always be transparent with your employees.
7. Arm Your People-Leaders With the Four Engagement Elevators
Who are your people leaders in your office? These are the people you want to arm with the four engagement elevators. What are those?
The four engagement elevators are as follows:
When your people leaders understand each of these four distinct areas, they can then boost your employee engagement. With the right type of training, your people leaders will know how to create an amazing work culture and keep your employees wanting to come into work each and every day.
How Will You Boost Your Employee Engagement?
How can you ensure you boost your employee engagement for the summer months? It's not uncommon for employee engagement rates to drop during the summer as their minds drift towards other things. With help from Up Your Culture, you'll be able to measure your current employee engagement and identify areas where you can make the biggest impact.
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