January is a time when people are keen to make some changes to their life and this may include looking for new job opportunities.
Coupled with people worrying about their expanding waistline, fretting over the amount of money spent over the festive period and feeling gloomy about the cold, wet weather, many employees’ motivation levels may be very low.
It’s vital that employers don’t just accept this as unfortunate and unavoidable, but undertake initiatives to ensure that employees are engaged.
Here are six simple measures, which can help you tackle the ‘January blues’ and keep hold of your employees.
Organise some events
You may feel that you have just spent significant time and resource organising the Christmas work party, but it’s worth trying to organise some other events, such as team building, group challenges or charity and community projects. These types of events bring colleagues together and give them something to look forward to and be motivated about.
Get them excited about new challenges and projects ahead
January is a fantastic time to remind employees of everything that’s going to happen over the next 12 months. You should highlight the key objectives and how valuable their contributions are towards achieving business goals. If they feel part of the business’ future vision, this will boost morale and increase engagement levels.
Think about well-being strategies
New year’s resolutions will often result in your employees starting new diets, joining the gym, abstaining from alcohol or quitting smoking.
There are a number of ways you can support them.
For example, you can offer some discounted gym classes, organise some team sports or group exercise, have free fruit and vegetables available on site, or show your support during ‘Dry January’.
Promote any new benefits, incentives or policies
If you’ve got new initiatives to introduce, now is the time to shout it from the rooftops to all your employees.
You could be thinking about:
- New flexible working arrangements
- Free parking
- Subsidised food; or
- Health insurance.
Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have first consulted your employees to ensure you make an informed decision about what employees really want and value.
Recognition Schemes
If you have a recognition scheme in place, make sure that you clearly set out the goals to employees and what they need to do to achieve these targets.
It’s a proven motivational technique.
Career Progression
Have one to one meetings with your employees and talk about career progression, professional development and training opportunities.
If done correctly, this will help build loyalty.
Don’t forget…
It’s not just in January when retaining your talent is a priority, so read our guidance on How to reduce employee turnover and 7 ways to improve employee retention to explore this matter further.