Author: Ethan Theo

With Christmas rapidly approaching, staff morale tends to decrease as the workload gets harder and staff start to dream of that Christmas break. The build up to Christmas is a time that will really trust your managerial credentials as keeping staff morale high in such a key trading period is essential. Here are three simple ways that you can do just that and ensure that all of your staff are happy right up until their well earned break:

Make Sure they’re Properly Trained

Staff members are much happier when they know what they’re doing. If you’ve worked your way up from the bottom of a business, you’ll know how frustrating it is when a customer asks you a question that you don’t know the answer to and, from a managerial perspective; you’ll know how annoying it is to lose business because of it.

Christmas is all about the rush for businesses and time means money. For this reason, you should invest time into making sure that all of your staff members from the bottom to the top of the business are properly trained.

From quick refresher training for sales assistants to advanced training for selected management, training can be the key. Media training courses like the ones provided by Media Mentor can be pivotal if a problem arises and can save you thousands of pounds in lost custom, so remember that staff training should include everyone and not just those at the bottom.

Offer a Christmas Freebie

Sometimes, staff lose their focus in the approach to Christmas because they feel that they do not get the recognition that they deserve. In truth, some staff members will feel like this no matter what you do, but buying each staff member a small gift should bridge the gap significantly and show them that they are all valued.

The employee Christmas gift idea that you buy is dependent on how many staff you employ. A personal gift will always go down well if you know enough about the staff member but, if you employ too many, an individual generic gift such as a bottle of wine each or a chocolate selection will suffice. If in doubt, simply buy a tab behind the local bar one night after work.

Make Team Bonding a Priority

Sometimes when you’re feeling down, the workplace can feel like a lonely world. For this reason, you should encourage team bonding as much as possible. Whatever form you choose for this is will work, and it entirely depends on the scale. A weekend retreat will always bring staff closer but, if you don’t have the budget, a nice meal out together should be just as good.

Developing your employees is an integral part of keeping your business a successful one. How you choose to do this, however, is another question. It varies greatly from business to business, because more often than not, it depends on the organisation itself and the skills needed.

Training and coaching often go hand in hand, and can work well together as part of a complementary development programme.

Training

Training is, simply, sharing of knowledge. Those who are experienced or have knowledge and expertise in a particular field teach individuals who have less knowledge of that field. This can vary from an instruction on the best way to lift a heavy box, to language classes to a wine tasting session.

Training is direct. The trainer is the expert, and will tell the trainee(s) what to learn and how to do it.

Coaching

A coach is not necessarily more knowledgeable, or has more expertise or experience in a particular area than the ‘coachee’ or ‘mentee’. Instead, a coach facilitates development in an individual. They don’t impart knowledge; instead, through coaching methods, a coach will raise awareness of the individual’s skills, knowledge and expertise, and their own possibilities. The coach will then motivate the individual to utilise these skills to be who they want to be or do what they want to do.

Coaching or Training?

The best answer is both, but it depends on how you want to support your employees. A typical training and development programme within an organisation looks a little bit like this:

Introduction – for new starters, an introduction to the company is essential. The company’s goals and how they as an employee contribute towards those goals, is a good place to start.

Review the Job Description – Identify anything that they don’t know how to do, or things that they want to know about in more detail.

Training – group training or individual training; make sure that your employee is competent and able to do their job.

Ongoing Development – on site training should be confirmed and updated regularly. Offsite training at conferences or workshops help your employees feel that they are valued, and equally have something of value to contribute to the company

Coaching – Coaching will help employees develop their skills, not only as employees, but in other aspects of their life as they begin to identify ways that they can develop themselves. You can hire a company like Watt Works Consultancy who can mentor your employees for you, or you can develop your own coaching programme, using other employees as coaches.