Top Ways to Motivate Your Team to Start the New Year Right

With the New Year approaching, reengaging and resetting your team for your business is vital. After the Christmas break it can be quite difficult to get back into the flow for anybody and motivation and productivity can be at an all-time low. To help you start the New Year right, it is vital to motivate your team by encouraging, supporting, and recognizing your team and the work they do. This can be done in numerous ways and providing benefits and a positive work environment can help them flourish.

Use these top ways to motivate your team to start the New Year right and continue it throughout the year to have a productive and motivated staff for your business.

Set team resolutions

Come together as a team to set and clarify your business goals for the year. Brainstorm what needs to be achieved throughout the year and create a space to answer any questions or worries. This helps to reduce the anxieties and stress your team may have and sets out a clear guide for the year of goals you can achieve together. Involving your team also informs them correctly, motivates them to achieve goals they have brainstormed, and personalizes the goals for their work.

Celebrate your staff

It is vital to value your staff and what they do for your business to increase motivation and productivity. Make it key to celebrate your staff for personal and professional milestones so they can feel appreciated, supported, and welcomed. Celebrate achievements and milestones such as birthdays, the birth of a child, work anniversaries, completing a huge project, and promotions.

When staff feel like their workplace cares about their personal well-being and professional development, they can feel more connected and engaged with the work they do. Plus, it creates a vital positive atmosphere.

Be transparent with pay

Employees want to be listened to and have fair compensation for the work that they do. The majority of feedback businesses tend to get from staff is focused on pay and being underpaid can be a huge factor to members leaving or feeling unsatisfied with their jobs. It is important to be transparent with pay to your staff within the pay review process. Ensuring to have regular reviews for pay is essential to make sure you are fairly paying your team and keeping within the competition. Plus, it motivates staff as they feel heard and supported for their lives outside of work.

Promote work-life balance

A great way to motivate your team and help your staff do their best is to promote an appealing work-life balance. Today, work-life balance is essential to employees, and many are seeking a place that offers flexibility. This flexibility could be introducing hybrid working in your business, allowing personal time off for childcare or appointments, or having mental health days. Providing a work-life balance not only motivates staff and creates a positive work environment, but it also takes care of your staff and their mental health.

Involve staff in decision-making

Let the New Year be welcomed into your business with a new collaborative approach. Instead of always telling your team what to do, you can bring them on board for the decision-making process. This gives them ownership and an opportunity to be correctly informed while feeling involved in company decisions that impact them. You can hold meetings to present issues and ask your team to share ideas and opinions. Doing this gives staff a stronger sense of purpose and engages and motivates them in their job roles. 

Recognize contributions

Often, when a manager or senior member of staff gives feedback to their employees it is negative. Positive work can usually go unnoticed which decreases job satisfaction and motivation. Giving positive feedback is crucial to motivate your team, so make it a regular reminder to appreciate the good work too. 

Welcome honest feedback

Employees strive to feel valued and listened to. This means you need to provide a safe space where they can be heard with valuable feedback and insights into how your business is actually working. This can be done through anonymous employee engagement surveys or within a feedback workshop. Following this with one-on-one feedback sessions will strengthen the feedback process and allow you to collate vital honest insights to make changes. Ensure to act on the feedback and change common issues to keep your staff engaged and satisfied.

Promote wellness

Providing opportunities for health and wellness helps to ease stress and increase productivity. Promote mental health care by setting boundaries such as after-hours work and communications. To further help with health and wellness, you should give employees access to useful tools and apps, such as meditation apps. Make mental health days the norm by giving mental health time off where staff can use it as a holiday, without taking holiday hours away from them. You could also allow an hour or so out of a day for exercise or a team lunch.

Encourage creativity

To motivate your team, you need to challenge them and let them reach their full potential. Have an informal morning chat with employees to find out the professional goals they have. Provide hot beverages and snacks to encourage staff to attend. Listen to your team and encourage their creativity and development goals. You could offer advice and resources to aid them in their growth and set creative tasks for them to slowly achieve over the year. 

Make a fun working environment

Your team can’t be on point if your workplace is all about work with no play. Plan fun office and out-of-office events to encourage staff to blow off some steam and de-stress. This could be holding birthday parties for members or having a happy hour party. You could also bring in a fun activity once a week like having a buffet or pizza day or providing a social activity such as fun games. Doing this gives everyone the chance to unwind a little and form relationships with their colleagues. Plus, after a fun break, they can feel motivated and re-energized again.

Use these top ways to motivate your team to start the New Year right and create a positive working environment that works for your staff. Appreciating and valuing your staff allows you to have a dedicated, inspired, and invested team that works to their full potential and provides excellent work.