Post pandemic working: boosting employee morale this summer

The pandemic has transformed work-life—and for many—it still continues to do so. The past 16 months have seen trials and tribulations for business across the globe. Whether it’s the implementation of strict safety measures, transporting your workforce to a home-working setup or a complete overhaul of your day-to-day business activity. A lot of times, these changes happen without warning, placing high demands on employees—at an already challenging time.

Summertime usually brings with it a much-needed boost to organisations. It brings summer social parties, long-awaited holidays and much-needed sunshine. We have had some luck with the sun so far, but this year many workplaces won’t have summer events planned. The effects of the pandemic may even mean that some of your team members have gone over a year without face to face interaction too. So we’ve come up with some alternative ways to boost employee morale this summer. It's time to inspire and motivate your people to keep doing what they do best.

Summer incentives

Nothing gets the team going like a spot of healthy competition. Encourage your team this summer with an incentive. Promote wellbeing in the workplace with a step challenge. Get your sales team spurred on to success with an enticing initiative. You could even encourage above-and-beyond service with prizes for the most impressive feedback. Whether company-wide, team-by-team or individually—there are plenty of different initiatives you can run to increase employee engagement.

Team building days

Restrictions on groups means that many have gone from day-to-day contact with colleges to almost rare encounters of full team meetings. Plus, sometimes the ease of a video call suits busy work schedules. But getting the team together face-to-face can help boost communication. It can also help to build important connections that are essential to effective teamwork and positive group morale.

If you're back in the office, a team lunch could pave pathways for new creative campaigns. Still home working? You could encourage employees back to the office team by team for some socially distanced future planning sessions.

It’s the little things

You might not have the resources to pull together a big summer social this year. But a lot of the time—it’s the little things that count. Arrange a coffee morning where employees can catch up with colleagues they’ve missed over the pandemic. Organise a small thank you gift for all your employees help over the past year. Lift spirits with a dress down day or have your very own Happy Hour on a Friday evening. Sometimes the small gestures can mean the most.

Invest in personal development

The COVID-19 pandemic has put life on the back burner for most over the last 16 months. Cancelled plans, forgotten goals and crushed expectations have left people feeling demoted and uninspired.

Investing in personal development allows employees to regain this progress in their professional lives. This provides long-term benefits for both the employee—and the business as a whole.