We've all been there. Waking up to the sound of the alarm clock early one morning after a holiday. Wishing for just one more day off before the daily grind of tasks, deadlines and a full email inbox begins again. To give employees a good and motivating start after the holidays, there are several things you can do as a manager.
Set up for a soft start
After a holiday, it's crucial to give employees the opportunity to warm up their mental muscles for the work ahead. This is according to Kinga Szabo Christensen, Head of Leadership Development and Productivity at DI, in an article in Danish Industry. As a manager, you should make room for a calm start where employees can use the first few days to get an overview of their tasks and catch up on what they left off before the holiday. At the same time, it's important to make room for them to rediscover each other socially so they can regain a sense of belonging and feel part of something bigger. This can be done, for example, by encouraging the exchange of holiday experiences as one of the first things after the holiday.
Help prioritise - without creating stress
While there may be important tasks and deadlines that employees need to meet shortly after their holiday, it's important that you as a manager don't push them. Instead, try to communicate clearly what you think they should prioritise and when you expect the task to be completed. Offer a meeting where you can prioritise the tasks together so that there is a clear alignment of expectations and the employee doesn't feel overwhelmed by a long list of major tasks and deadlines.
In this context, it's a good idea not to let your employees work overtime. Career expert and co-founder of Arbejdsglæde.nu, Alexander Kjerulf, points this out in an article on Job satisfaction.now. He emphasises that it can increase job satisfaction if you as a manager give your employees the feeling that it's okay to be behind right after the holidays, and don't put unnecessary pressure on them from the start.
Give feedback
An effective way to increase employee motivation is to give them positive feedback when they have done well after the holidays. Surveys shows that positive feedback in particular increases employees' productivity and job satisfaction, and that praise and recognition makes them less stressed and more creative. Furthermore, according to a study by Gallup, Recognising employees has a huge positive impact on a company's bottom line. Therefore, there are many good reasons to recognise employees' efforts or achievements, whether it's after a holiday or not. For example, highlight a specific task they have done well, praise them for a good suggestion, a good effort or their solution-orientated approach to a departmental challenge.
Choose systems that support a smooth and efficient workflow
A good and efficient workday, where employees feel motivated and resources are used optimally, requires modern and flexible systems. That's why we recommend that you choose administration systems that can talk to each other, i.e. where data can flow freely between systems and save you from duplication and errors in manual data entry. With efficient and user-friendly systems from Visma, you ensure that your employees can spend as much time as possible on what creates value, that they are paid the correct salary, and that you comply with the legal requirements for registration and documentation of working hours.
If you are interested in learning more about how Intempus with integration to other Visma systems can facilitate your workflows and support an efficient workflow, you are welcome to contact us for a non-binding demo on mobile: + 45 26390400. You can also design your own solution here:
Sources: danskindustri.dk, job satisfaction.now, gallup.com.
