Make it a Healthy, Happy Holiday Season
Five Tips to Help You Boost Morale and Productivity
For many, the holiday season brings to mind celebrations, merriment and a giving, thankful spirit. But, it has also been shown to increase stress, induce weight-gain and even trigger depression for many people. And, if the demands of personal life aren’t enough, work often piles on extra expectations, expenses and activities. This can push many people over the edge, transforming the holiday spirit from delightful to dreadful. So how can you create a positive, healthy work environment this time of year? These five tips can help you remember the body, mind and spirit of your employees, making work less stressful and improving morale.
Make health a priority. With comfort foods abundant and cold weather causing many people to stay indoors, diet and exercise are particularly important during the holiday season. In addition, eating well and being active can reduce stress and increase a sense of well-being that many lack as winter begins. One way to make sure your workplace puts employee health first is to provide healthy food choices at holiday parties and gatherings. You can also encourage employees to take breaks for walking or other physical activities during the workday.
Respect the diversity of beliefs. The stress of coping with personal religious beliefs and celebrations during the holidays can be overwhelming for employees who don’t participate in traditional holiday observances. In the spirit of courtesy and openness, consider making an office calendar where employees can mark down the holidays they will celebrate. This will also provide you with knowledge of your employees’ observances so you don’t accidentally schedule a meeting on an important day. It’s also important to be flexible with employees in approving time off for religious observances outside of the traditional days.
Don’t pile on too much. Make holiday parties and gatherings optional for employees. Remember that work is only one part of people’s lives, and while many enjoy a time of celebration with co-workers, others become stressed and overwhelmed when there are too many things on their plates. Encourage participation, but don’t guilt people into adding your celebrations to their must-attend list.
Share the love. The holidays are a perfect time to get your team involved in local charity or fundraising effort. The gift of giving to others can motivate your team and bring a sense of well-being to the whole office. This holiday season make a new tradition of giving outside your workplace. Adopt a needy family in lieu of having internal secret Santa parties. Have employees purchase, wrap and give gifts to those in your community who truly need a holiday blessing. Also consider taking your staff to volunteer as a group at a soup kitchen or local charity during work hours as a team-building exercise that fosters a giving holiday spirit.
Give the gift of time. One of the most valuable and scarce assets for workers during the holidays is their time. Especially during the holidays, work/life balance can be difficult to achieve. Instead of spending money on gifts or parties, consider giving employees extra paid time off during the holidays to spend however they please, whether shopping, relaxing or spending time with family. The automatic morale boost this gesture can generate will show you just how much your staff appreciates your thoughtfulness.
You can make the season a merry one at your workplace by making efforts to promote a healthy, balanced lifestyle during the holidays. Helping to ensure that their jobs aren’t a cause of extra holiday anxiety will go a long way in making your employees more productive and will truly make “happy holidays” a reality in your workplace.
Plan Your Way to Team Success
A Quick Guide to Creating SMART Goals
As the end of the year approaches, the topic of goals is certain to come up. Whether you’re creating overall organizational goals, departmental objectives or personal goals for the upcoming year, it’s important to have a set of guidelines to help you create goals that work, because not meeting goals can be bad for morale.
A popular mnemonic device for goal-setting is to think SMART. That is, create goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time based. But, meeting these demands can often make managers feel like they’re swimming in alphabet soup. This quick overview of SMART goals will explain each requirement and offer a quick solution for creating effective goals.
Specific – First, your goal must have a precise purpose. If a goal is too vague or complex, it may do more harm than good. A goal like “to make this company No. 1” is vague and general, making execution difficult. A specific goal would be “to increase overall sales by 15 percent.” If a goal isn’t precise, it will make the goal-setting process cumbersome and confusing.
• Simple solution: Create goals that are clear and well defined.
Measurable – Good goals are quantifiable and quantified. But, this means more than just attaching a number to your goal. It must also be something that can be measured in the real world. Attitudes, beliefs and loyalty aren’t measurable but survey scores, feedback, sales figures and quality of work are. Sometimes, making a goal measurable is simply a matter of how you word it. So, instead of creating a goal that is written to be immeasurable, such a, “to improve attitudes about the organization” create a goal that you can measure, and then set an expectation of what to count. For example, a measurable goal would be “to improve customer satisfaction scores on response cards by 30 points.” Remember, if goals aren’t measurable, it will be impossible to tell if you’ve reached them or not.
• Simple solution: Design goals you can count.
Achievable – Make sure your goal makes sense in terms of past performance and future projections. Every organization wants to improve dramatically each year, but goals must be reachable to be effective. Otherwise, they are just words on paper. This element of goal setting is difficult, at best. Balancing the extremes between setting aggressive goals that aren’t realistic or creating meaningless, easy-to-reach goals is a challenge that impacts motivation and productivity. In other words, a goal that is too high may de-motivate workers, while a goal that is too low could be an insult to their efforts.
• Simple solution: Produce goals you can reach through diligence.
Relevant – Your goal must strategically benefit the organization and promote meaningful contribution. A relevant goal has the organization’s best interests in mind and goes beyond simply maintaining the status quo. This aspect of goals ensures that they are a mechanism of improvement for your organization and employees. This will help ensure buy-in from the top all the way down to entry-level employees. Goals that aren’t relevant don’t help the organization and end up wasting time and effort.
• Simple solution: Make sure your goals matter.
Time based – Goals aren’t worth much if there is never an end-game in mind, even if they meet the other SMART goal requirements. Goals that don’t have a deadline will rarely make it to the top of anyone’s priority list. However, this is often the part of goal setting most people leave behind. Think of it this way: creating a goal that doesn’t have a deadline is like running a race without a finish line. Not only is there no end in sight, but there is no way to set the pace and motivate a strong finish.
• Simple Solution: Give your goals deadlines.
Following these SMART guidelines will make goal setting a meaningful part of ensuring that the coming year is a success for you, your organization and your employees.
Sharing Knowledge in the Workplace
Three Tips for Creating a Mentoring Program
When faced with a personal crisis, many people turn to a mentor. In the work world, it’s also important to have someone to turn to when facing professional challenges. Workplace mentoring programs can help employees become more capable and confident, and organizations benefit as well. Pairing senior-level employees with less experienced workers can help education and development continue beyond initial training. In addition, mentoring programs improve productivity, expand problem-solving skills and allow employees to build better relationships with their colleagues. You can create a successful mentoring program by considering the following tips.
Think 'strategy first' - When designing a mentoring program, create a plan detailing management requirements, expectations and monitoring plans. This step is important because a haphazardly initiated mentoring program can waste time and frustrate efforts, doing more damage than good. By determining the desired outcome you can create clear goals that will ensure the program is a success from the start.
Play matchmaker - Pairing the right mentor and mentee will determine the success of your program. Both personality and tenure should be considered when determining mentor relationships. Positive interaction is crucial, and diverse pairings typically create the most beneficial partnerships, as long as both participants are open to communication and an alternative point of view. People from different cultures, backgrounds and generations can learn more from each other than those with similar experiences.
Encourage mentoring up - The successful pairing of an experienced employee with a rookie allows both individuals to learn. Don’t forget that younger or less experienced employees also offer knowledge to their seasoned counterparts, especially concerning technology or popular trends. Younger employees can also provide valuable insight on the values, attitudes and habits of their generation to upper-level management. This knowledge can impact how your business interacts with younger customers and provide insight into the future direction of your organization.
Through planning carefully, making good matches and supporting upward mentoring, you can create a mentoring program that helps strengthen your organization and your employees.
Employment Situation Summary
United States
Non-farm employment rose by 51,000 jobs in September, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 4.6%.
Major Industry Employment for September 2006
• Construction: + 8,000
• Manufacturing: - 19,000
• Retail Trade: - 12,000
• Professional & Business Services: + 12,000
• Educational & Health Services: + 15,000
• Leisure & Hospitality: + 10,000
• Government: - 8,000
Canada
Employment rose by 16,000 in September, and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 6.4%.
Major Industry Employment for September 2006
• Construction: - 7,000
• Manufacturing: + 19,000
• Trade: + 3,000
• Transportation & Warehousing: - 1,000
• Finance, Insurance, Real Estate & Leasing: + 8,000
• Business, Building & Support Services: - 3,000
• Educational Services: + 3,000
• Information, Culture & Recreation: - 5,000
•
Accommodation
and Food Services: + 8,000
• Public Administration: - 11,000
e-Xchange is a publication of Express Services, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Copyright 2006.