Winter Employee Management Tips

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Winter employee management comes with a few hurdles that can be hard to get over at first. However, dealing with these is easy when you are attentive to the needs of staff and treat them well. Of course, you can only help some, and some won’t engage. But there is a lot you can do for the staff who come into work and want to help the business be the best it can be. So, from knowing the law to keeping up productivity, here are some useful suggestions for winter.

Keep Field Communication Open

The back office often feels like it’s so far away from the workers out in the field doing their jobs. Winter is a hard time for anyone working outdoors, but business can’t stop just because it’s cold. However, employee safety is vital, and you need to monitor progress. For example, refrigeration contractor software that provides real-time updates will come in handy when there are bound to be issues with your clients during the winter months when it’s freezing, and into the spring.

Winter Employee Management and the Law

There are certain laws and regulations around staff, and even more when it comes to specific conditions. Winter is, of course, cold, and even as a business, you have heating bills to pay. However, the law states that you must provide a working space with a temperature of at least 16°C inside for stationary workers and 13°C if the work involves a lot of physical activity. Working conditions below this means that the staff can raise concerns and possibly take action.

Be Attentive to SAD

There are many challenges in winter, but some of the hardest come from within. Seasonal Affective Disorder affects millions of people at this time of the year and is now a recognized condition. It can happen due to lack of sunlight, which lowers vitamin D. Keep an eye out for employees who are suddenly lacking in performance, who are usually hardworking and chipper. It could be a case they have SAD and are trying their best to work through it and need support.

Offer Advice About Winter Risks

Some of the risks of winter are obvious. With the cold weather comes the risks of personal injury, which happen more often in the season. Ice causes more slips, trips, and falls, which are already bad for workplaces. Yet the decreased sunlight and shorter days mean we can also end up working in darker conditions, increasing the chance of an accident. And, of course, employees may need advice about social distancing to reduce the spread of cold and flu.

Encourage Exercise and Wellness

It’s vital that you invest some time and resources into looking after your workers. This doesn’t have to even cost anything, just a willingness to help encourage the things that can make staff feel better during the winter. If you are stuck for ideas, here are a few that might help:

• Provide employees with weekly videos about exercise routines they can easily do.
• Create an office challenge game for running and walking activities with prizes on offer.
• Set a competition for catching photos while out jogging together and promote them.
• Share videos about alternative activities such as yoga for beginners or meditation.
• Make efforts to maximize the amount of office sunlight to make workers feel better.
• Encourage employees to talk with on-site counselors if your company has them.
• Organize colleague gatherings to share wellness ideas together and socialize.

Employees can become less motivated and productive during winter for numerous reasons. Yet wellbeing activities such as exercise, self-care, and eating healthily can encourage your workers to look after themselves and each other during the cold and harsh days that get us all down.

Consider How People Celebrate

Winter comes with many public holidays, such as New Year and Christmas. A workplace should be inclusive of everyone, but it also needs to be sensitive to the needs of others. And this includes how people celebrate. For instance, Christmas is a Christian holiday, yet religion shouldn’t be forced upon workers, and some of other religious backgrounds may be offended. It is best to generalize the festivities and use broader terms and activities unlikely to offend.

Keep Up the Motivation

Motivation is always a core concept at work. And it’s vital during winter when there are many things that get people down. Such things include SAD, the cold weather, and even having no one to spend Christmas with. It helps to drive home the purpose of your goals and the work the staff is doing. Offer valuable feedback more than usual that highlights the positives during a miserable time. And if you make any promises, such as bonuses, make sure you deliver.

Productivity and Winter Employee Management

There is a massive productivity dip during the winter months. There are a few reasons for this, but the main one is that employee absence increases. Personnel Today conducted a survey and found absences increased by around 53% in January. That’s pretty big, so addressing the issues is vital. Some suggestions for tackling this are to offer incentives to come into work, such as free stuff. It also helps to manage employee time better with smaller, attainable project goals. Another way to look at this is that Winter is generally a time where people are sick more often, so measures should be taken to try and reduce the likelihood of this happening. Investing in office cleaning from a reputable company like Green Facilities Management Ltd can help to sanitise office spaces and reduce the spread of germs. It also keeps your office spaces looking presentable for clients and employees to give them a mental boost too. Another measure that could be considered is managing who is in the office and who works at home, allowing staff to work remotely if they’re feeling under the weather can stop them making other staff sick. 

Expect Sickness and Absence

The absence level during winter is huge and is mentioned above. It will help to do all you can to encourage staff into work rather than pull sickies because they are worn out from Christmas. However, you should also still expect that the absence level will still be higher than usual. There are genuine factors that affect staffing levels in winter. These include things like colds, flu, and other viruses, needing more time to watch the kids, and a lack of general seasonal well-being.

Summary

Keeping communication channels open between staff in the field and the office will help with winter employee management. It also helps to offer advice about staying well and fit over the colder months. And make plans for the expected higher staff absence level starting in January.