6 Tips to Motivate Employees this Festive Season

It’s that time of year when productivity levels begin to slip and employees gradually switch off in preparation for their long-awaited holiday. For businesses where Christmas requires employees to be at the top of their game, such as retailers, maintaining a positive and productive staff culture is pinnacle to success.

A business that knows this more than anyone is Australia’s most awarded online experience retailer, RedBalloon – a business that sells a gift every 3.3 seconds and takes in $1 million-plus on Christmas Eve alone (its busiest day of the year). Its CEO, Kristie Buchanan is available to discuss the strategies that she has in place at this time of year to maintain employee productivity including how she motivates her team through this period.

Below are Kristie’s 6 tips to motivate employees this festive season based on her examples from behind RedBalloon’s ‘big red door’.

1. Bring the Christmas spirit as early as November. “We hold events on a weekly basis from mid-November such as ginger bread house decorating and desk massages to engage the Christmas spirit and our values of sense of humour, fun and generosity. We also have ‘treat stations’ around the office and on hot days we make sure the fridge is stocked with delicious ice cream treats,” says Kristie.

2. Take time to reflect on the year. “Despite being our busiest day of the year, we stop for an hour on Christmas Eve to celebrate what we’ve achieved as a family. We hand out our annual Value Awards, recognising those who have kicked amazing goals throughout the year. We also swap Secret Santa presents.”

3. Make the little things count. “During the month of December we have ‘desk drops’ where our favourite treats are left on our desks to motivate us through the busy period. These include personalised treats – every employee fills out a Christmas favourites list and we choose things off that list to surprise and delight them. It could be something as simple as their favourite chocolate bar! We also have a huge chocolate waffle breakfast where we bring Max Brenner into the office. It’s like a huge family gathering over special treat.”

4. Show appreciation for those that bear the load at this time of year. “We organise special desk drops for our Customer Happiness team as their phones are generally ringing off the hook.”

5. Don’t forget those who have contributed to the company but may not be in office. “We make sure that a Christmas care package is sent to our mums on maternity leave, our remote workers such as IT support in WA and on Christmas Eve we send gifts home for employees to provide to their kids.”

6. Always remember that a random act of kindness can go a long way. “We encourage the team to surprise and delight each other when they can.”