The one thing you should do to beat Blue Monday
Christmas is over. New Year resolutions have probably been broken. The weather’s lousy and the days are short.
Welcome to ‘Blue Monday’ - the third Monday in January, which this year falls on the 21st of the month. Apparently, it’s the bleakest day of the year at work, when productivity, positivity and morale all take a nosedive.
As if January wasn’t already problematic, research suggests this is the month people are most likely to consider changing jobs - with 45% of workers looking to jump ship in 2019.
So what can your business do to keep morale high on Blue Monday? There are lots of fun short-term fixes that can make the day more enjoyable for employees, like:
- Announcing a ‘dress down’ day.
- Organising a team breakfast or lunch.
- Setting productivity targets for the day with a prize for winners.
- Hiring a massage therapist to offer head, neck or back massages.
- Having a ‘life admin’ afternoon where people are free to research their next holiday or break - or catch up on chores online.
But for something more long-lasting and meaningful, our advice is to focus on the one thing that could make a real impact: aiming to have positive conversations with your team.
The power of the catch up
Frequent, spontaneous dialogue may already be part of your workplace culture. Perhaps you aim to make yourself as available as possible, with an open door policy or frequent rounds of employees’ desks in case they want to bring anything up.
With a large team, catching up in person with each member of staff on Blue Monday could be a tall order.
But having a positive interaction with staff away from the stresses and strains of their usual performance appraisal could play a crucial role in how engaged they feel. When it comes to Blue Monday catch ups, here are some areas you might focus on:
Great work
Proper praise and thanks sometimes get lost in the day-to-day grind of business operations and it can be hard to keep track of the latest achievements and wins. Could any of your staff feel their hard work’s going unnoticed?
Aim to highlight the part each team member plays in the success of the organisation through their day-to-day responsibilities. People generally feel more engaged in the business they work for if they can see what they do actually makes a difference.
Upcoming training
Employee and employer both benefit when staff are equipped with the latest skills in this ever-changing technical workplace. And top technical candidates, in particular, value having decent training and development opportunities baked into their role - it’s something we notice every day at RHL.
Chances are, your business already has strong learning and self-development programmes in place.
But make Blue Monday an extra chance to get together with employees to assess their training needs for the year ahead, and find out any emerging areas they’d like to focus on.
Future plans
Are there any plans for the business that could keep employees engaged and invested? Updating people on business objectives for the year - and showing how they’ll play a key part in achieving them - can be a good motivator.
Just make sure the conversation goes two way, encouraging staff to make their own contributions.
Make it your Blue Monday goal to really connect with your employees, actively listening and seeing where you can take action on their feedback.
While focusing on your staff will help everyone get through this Blue Monday, it could also make a difference to whether they’re still on your team when the next third Monday in January rolls around, too.