According to CV-Library’s latest research, the majority of workers find it difficult to get back into a routine after a summer holiday, with over half (57.1%) going as far to as say that they are more likely to consider a new job as the summer comes to an end. For businesses, while increased candidate appetite can be good for finding and attracting new talent, it could also result in employers losing out on key workers to competitors, a devastating blow in the current economic climate.
As a result of this, it is important that employers focus on their role in maintaining morale as a way to keep staff happy and motivated after the holiday season. In fact, according to our study, while over half (55.8%) of workers think that workplace morale drops as the summer comes to an end, 86.9% said it’s an employer’s responsibility to keep morale up. Below, I explain exactly what organisations can do to optimise staff efficiency after the holiday season.
Help workers get back into a routine
Our research found that nearly three quarters of workers admit that they find it difficult to get back into a routine after a summer holiday, with 72.3% revealing that it takes one to two days to adjust to work.
Overcoming this by helping your staff to return to work with ease can help. In fact, we found that employees feel much better if they have an update meeting on return, followed by time to catch up on emails and projects, as well as speaking with team members and having enough time to create a priority list. Ensuring you accommodate these needs can help workers feel more positive about their return to work after a summer break and hopefully prevent them from looking for work elsewhere.
Discuss development opportunities
Providing great development opportunities is a given in any business that wants to keep staff motivated, but even more so after the summer when morale can be particularly low. Conducting informal discussions around employees’ career goals, including where they see themselves in the future and how they plan to get there can help considerably. After all, when employees are working towards a goal they are far more likely to feel motivated and ready to make a valuable contribution to the business. Some organisations approach this in a savvy way by conducting their annual review process in March so that six-month check-ins can be made in September – a good time to catch up with staff after the holiday season.
Offer flexible working
Returning to thousands of emails that need to be addressed can be daunting for many workers, especially if there is an expectation for them to get cracking on with work straight away. This alone can leave many employees fearing the return to work but some report that these worries could be alleviated with the opportunity to work flexible hours when they come back from holiday. While this might seem like a big ask, 70.1% of employees admitted to struggling when trying to get back into a routine after a summer break, so doing all you can to help them adjust could mean that they’ll get back into the swing of things much quicker.
Think about employee wellbeing
Stress is one of the factors that influences an employees’ decision on whether to stay at or leave a company, and our study found that employees worry about dealing with work stress when they return to work. While it’s inevitable, given that workloads will likely have built up in an employee’s absence, many employers will wait until stress levels begin to bubble over before actually addressing them. This can have negative impacts on both the wellbeing of staff and overall business productivity. Keeping an eye on staff who have returned from a break and arranging 1:1 catch-ups to discuss how they’re feeling, or discussing what has happened with their work in their absence can help considerably.
Over all, businesses that want to get the most out of their staff and maximise productivity must truly focus on addressing their workers’ needs, concerns and fears when it comes to returning to work after the holiday season. Our data suggests that candidate appetite picks up considerably in September, so businesses must act now to prevent losing out on key members of staff in the run up to Christmas.
Interesting links:
- Work-life Balance: Is Your Business Getting It Right?
- Infographic: What Positive and Negative Morale Can Do to a Company
- Only Several Days Left before the event EX Driving CX!