HR Answers: How to keep your employees engaged through the holidays

Holiday stress and end-of-year tasks can make December a tough time of year for your staff. But you can help.

Eggnog and sugar cookies. Bing Crosby and Burl Ives. Sledding and shopping. Although most of us (nine in 10 of Americans, according to a 2016 Consumer Reports poll) look forward to the holiday season, they’re also a major source of stress for many people as well, with concerns like finances, family tension and jam-packed schedules on people’s minds just as much as glad tidings of joy.

In fact, a 2015 poll by Virgin Pulse found that 70 percent of employees say they are significantly more stressed during the holidays than the rest of the year.

No one wants to be a Grinch, but the holiday season can be a time of frustration for many employers as they see their productivity take a hit around the same time each year. All that holiday stress your staff is about to start feeling can compound and turn into a real employee engagement (and productivity) problem for your business as employees are consumed with holiday happenings.

 

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