On Top of Real Recognition: Top 10 Ways to Keep Productivity High During the Lazy Days of Summer June 22, 2009
Roy Saunderson
By Roy Saunderson
Summer equals vacation, rest, and escape yet, amid the sunshine and warm temperatures, schedules need to be met and workforce morale must stay high to achieve company goals. So how can you keep your employees from staring out the window or, worse, calling in “sick” for a day at the beach? Here are the top 10 ways to keep productivity high.
1. Find out each person’s motivation thermostat setting. Pinpoint every employee’s driving force that makes him or her perform at best. Through one-on-one meetings discover how achievement, responsibility, and growth contribute to an individual’s motivation.
2. Create a summer mentoring program. Offer your top performers an hour, an afternoon, or a day with a mentor. Involve them in a high-level project in order for them to learn and grow with the executives in your organization.
3. Begin a cross-training summer internship. This allows employees to learn new skills, making them more valuable and stimulating their engagement. Cross-training also provides managers more workforce flexibility in getting the job done.
4. Team-build from the outside. Offer special summertime gardening or eco-friendly workshops during lunchtime. Allow employees to create a lush, beautiful, fragrant flower garden at the entrance of your company building, or perhaps produce a vegetable garden out back.
5. Generate some sizzle with a little friendly competition. Whether it’s the “World’s Largest” vegetable-growing contest or some interdepartmental sports events, contests can spur great excitement. Be sure to capture pictures of the veggies and the participants, whatever the contest.
6. Have an old-fashioned company picnic. No budget required! Make it a pot luck by employees or pull from the petty cash jar for hot dogs and chips. Include fun picnic games like the water-balloon toss, three-legged race, and egg-and-spoon race, as well as a grand softball game.
7. Make a warm impression on your community. Provide an afternoon off or allocate hours for every employee to help out on a community project. Whether it’s cleaning up a park, painting and setting up a playground, or simply volunteering with a day-camp program, helping others always takes the mind off the hot summer heat.
8. Keep them fit for work. Studies show keeping the body fit keeps the mind fit, too. Start an early morning or after-hours workout club for employees to join. If hitting the gym does not work, start a lunchtime walking group. These groups will create strong friendships and stronger employees.
9. Turn the heat up on your managers. Make sure your managers understand everyday employee recognition is part of their responsibilities. Have managers greet their employees by name and provide positive, verbal acknowledgement for quality work.
10. Recognition is the great summertime motivator. Teach managers that delivering sincere and specific recognition turns any time of year into a great time. Just saying ‘Nice job’ or ‘Hey, thanks’ doesn’t cut it. Tell employees specifically what they have done and how they have made a difference. Connect with your people and summertime will be the best time!
Incentive online columnist Roy Saunderson is author of Giving the Real Recognition Way and president of Recognition Management Institute, www.realrecognition.com, which consults with companies on improving employee motivation that leads to increased productivity and profits. He can be reached at roySaunderson@realrecognition.com.
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