How to Keep Staff on Track Through Vacation Season

Maintaining productivity throughout the vacation season isn’t always an easy task. Warm weather entices employees, and everyone wants to exchange responsibilities for some fun in the sun. In the long run, encouraging employee vacations can increase your overall production for the year because employees return to work revitalized. However, in order to maintain production during highly coveted vacation times, you need to have a plan in place to minimize employee distractions.

In order to avoid chaos, you need to plan in advance so business continues as usual when employees are away. Most companies have a vacation policy that outlines when employees can take vacations and how much vacation time employees accrue each year. It’s important to ensure that all employees have read and understand your company’s policy. In addition, managers can take additional precautions to make sure that production remains unaffected when employees take time off, including:

• setting a deadline for submitting vacation requests;
• having employees leave a list of projects they are working on and their major responsibilities to make it easy for co-workers to complete outstanding tasks if necessary;
• delegating vacationing employees’ work to multiple employees instead of one person; and
• reviewing the company’s written vacation policy with employees before vacation season arrives

Remember, even managers get distracted easily during vacation season. It’s important to encourage your managers to set a good example for their teams. If their goals and attitude are lax during vacation season, it’s likely that their team members will follow suit. Take some time to remind managers and team leaders that it is vital for them to arrive at work on time, avoid leaving work early and maintain production throughout the vacation season.

Vacation season often corresponds with children’s school breaks. For parents, this may mean finding adequate child care that isn’t needed when school is in session. You might find that some parents spend a lot of time worrying about their children while they are at work or fielding more personal phone calls than normal. Giving employees the option to work from home during these times helps them remain focused and productive.

Vacation season is a great time to educate employees on workplace distractions. Emphasize the importance of staying focused during work time. Remind employees to turn off audible email and instant message alerts and avoid nonemergency personal phone calls and text messages while they work. Also, if the nice weather is distracting close the blinds or curtains to make it easier for employees to focus on their immediate surroundings.

It’s normal to feel slightly panicked when popular vacation times are approaching. Taking the time to create a plan in advance, reviewing your company’s vacation policy with employees and eliminating distractions will help your company maintain normal production levels throughout the vacation season.

(Photo courtesy of sattva at freedigitalphotos.net)