How To Keep Your Employees Motivated During The Summer

The summertime months can be difficult to work through. When your crews and other employees would rather be out in the sunshine with their families on vacation, it can be difficult to keep people motivated. Why can’t everyone just have summer break, like the kids do? Life just doesn’t work that way. Doing their top work most of the time is your company’s goal, and sadly not theirs all the time, when the distraction of the gorgeous weather gets in the way of their work ethic. We know your crews are amazing, but people are only human. Fluctuations in working stamina by your crews is a normal part of job life, especially in nicer weather.
Productivity Drops In The Summer Heat
Here’s the bad news. It’s been shown that productivity during the summer months drops off significantly, according to United States Department of Labor’s “Bureau of Labor Statistics.” This can include employees in all sectors of industry, including the sweeping business. So how should you as an employer combat summer burnout? Here are some easy ways to keep your employees motivated during the summer months.
Motivation Tip #4: Make Sure Everyone Schedules Vacation Time Early
This is a great tip to keep your employees looking forward to their vacation days. By having everyone put in their requests early, it not only allows you to make adjustments in your company’s workload and scheduling, but it can also give your employees something to look forward to. They can easily count down the days to their vacation when they know specifically the time they are going to be taking that much needed break. It makes the time they are working more productive, because they know they will be getting some rest and relaxation on the horizon.
If you have some employees who aren’t keen on taking their vacation days during the summer months, just gently encourage everyone to do so. It’s much better to have employees that are refreshed and invigorated from a decent break, then wallowing in job burnout everyday working through the summer months.
Motivation Tip #3: Throw A Great Summer Bash For Your Employees
This is a nice way to treat your employees and their families to a fun day together. Make it more special then just hot dogs and soda on the docks after a day of sweeping parking lots. Schedule an outing or bash on an regular work day that you’ve budgeted to have everyone off. Make the schedule adjustments early, so that everyone can attend. This goes a long way in employer and employee relations when you show them how much you appreciate their continued good work for you with a relaxing day of fun.
Motivation Tip #2: Be Understanding Of The “Summer Flu”
It’s inevitable that you are going to have some call-off’s during the summer months. The “summer flu” hits just about every industry with employees taking unscheduled time off to kick back and enjoy those sparkling summer days. Many of them have children that are off during the summer that they just want to spend extra time with, so be a little more understanding of those unexpected sick days. Sometimes a “mental health break” from the job can allow your employees to come back more ready than ever to do a better job for you.
Motivation Tip #1: Bring In Special Treats For Extra Fun
To make summer more tolerable, show up with special treats or goodies to give to your work crews. Even a cooler with soda, candy bars, and ice packs can be a welcome gift to take along while they are working out in the hot summer sun. This is an inexpensive way to show your appreciation to your hard working crews that are in those sweeper trucks day after day doing a terrific job for your company.
Or another great idea is to have a “Friday Funday” where you do a different theme every week of breakfast or lunch treats in the office that they can come back to enjoy on their break. Mixing up the fun in summer does help to keep the summer blahs away, when the gorgeous weather doesn’t make people want to work as much.