Summer: The season of pools, beaches, vacations, boating and yard work. We envy the kids out of school; spending their days out of doors or as their parents long for school to start again. But for us adults hopefully this is also the season of “Vacation Messages!” It’s hard to stay focused at work when your mind is on the next vacation, the beautiful day outside and the grass needing to be mowed. Needless to say, keeping employees motivated at the workplace is tough during the summer.
This is the time of year when some incentive programs go quiet. Managers go on vacation, employees slack off and points do not get awarded as freely. To me this seems like a missed opportunity. I think it’s time to review all the wonderful ways you can reward your employees and stay motivated in the summer.
Wellness: Summer is the perfect time to start a wellness program to keep employees motivated! The weather outside is perfect for bike riding, running and brown bag lunches on the corporate picnic tables! You can reward your employees with points by bringing their brown bag lunch to sit outside on nice days. I had a wellness program that kicked off by giving all of their employees points for attending the kickoff meeting on the lawn of the corporate campus. The more you encourage employees to be healthy and enjoy the sunshine, the less they will resent you for making them work inside.
Attendance: Is your attendance low in the summer because employees aren't feeling motivated to come in? Reward those who show up! Perfect attendance for a week or a month could earn extra points in an incentive program. Your employees will be happy they showed up and able to select a higher point value item later.
Keep employees motivated in the summer with a self-selected one-time gift, or add points to their account to show you appreciate them not giving up in the summer! No one wants to be at work, we might as well make it fun by making sure employees are motivated properly!
