As I was talking to my daughter this week and encouraging her to focus on the road ahead for her senior year of high school and preparing for college, I found it difficult to energize and motivate her. I started thinking about how difficult it is for organizations to keep their employees engaged during the summer months due to distractions such as vacation, casual Friday’s and attitudes that are joined with this concept.
The definition of motivation boils down to the general desire or willingness of someone to do something. I keep reminding myself of this with my teenage daughter, but it’s not any different for employees in an organization. We can encourage and support our staff, but they always have to want to behave or do something, we can’t make them do it. Well we can, but that’s another article on “disciplining your employees.”
As an employer, how do we counter this decrease in engagement in the summer to ensure that our teams remain productive and operate at our expected levels of excellence? My first recommendation is to embrace this phenomenon, trying to counter it may be counterproductive. What I try to do with my team is to set different goals in the summer so they continue to perform at their best. We choose not to have staff meetings in the summer, we understand that communication response times can be slightly delayed, and often I try to push out internal deliverables to the early fall. By recognizing that my employees have personal commitments in the summer, and by trying to be adaptable and work within this reality, I find they work harder, are as productive as they are during other times of the year, and morale remains high. I also, find that it’s critical to check in with my employees to see how things are going and to help them set realistic goals that match my performance expectations.
As HR professionals, we must constantly gauge expectations and responsibilities to make sure our employees stay engaged and productive in the summer months while enjoying everything that comes with the season. When everyone returns in September, you have a fully engaged, motivated and energized staff ready to tackle the next project and/or initiative that comes their way!
