Typically, people choose to participate in Dry January—a month without booze—after a holiday season of overconsumption. But this New Year, Dry January comes after not just a couple of months of above-average drinking, but nearly a full year.
We don’t know what the future will hold. The COVID-19 pandemic might start to recede, or it might worsen. Our children may continue remote education, or they may head back to school. The economy might begin to recover, or it might drop a bit more.
One major source of uncertainty for your employees is the question about where they might find themselves working in the coming weeks and months. Will they stay at home for the foreseeable future, or will they be called back to the office?
The war for talent hasn’t stopped just because of the pandemic. If anything, the competition for top employees has intensified in 2020. With so many companies embracing remote work, many employees are no longer restricted by geography when it comes to their employment options. Another effect of the rise in remote work? It’s become even more difficult for companies to keep high-performing workers from considering employment elsewhere.
It’s understandable if you’re not feeling 100% like yourself in 2020. Neither are your employees. In times of upheaval, the “soft” skills we use at work—focus, patience, creativity, attention to detail—can all suffer.
How can we regain our sense of stability?
I’ve noticed there's a lot of talk in the business world about engaging employees and improving morale, but a large percent of the workforce continues to be actively disengaged. According to a recent Achievers report, only 19 percent of employees consider themselves “very engaged.” In addition, employee burnout is hitting an all-time high with more than two-thirds, or 69 percent, of employees experiencing burnout symptoms while working from home. What can we do to address disengagement? Start with employee recognition.
Motivation. We all want more of it, but few of us can seem to find enough of it. And when we do find that burst of enthusiasm, how often do we use it to improve our health and well-being?
Odds are, you’re not the only one having trouble putting yourself first and taking steps to improve your health; your employees are, too. But imagine what could happen if you could change that—if you could boost motivation among your entire staff, energizing them to take action toward improving their well-being?
The term “carrot and stick” comes from farmers dangling a carrot in front of animals to encourage them to make forward progress. But while farmers rarely let the hard-working animals get the carrot, today’s employers know better.
Instead, they understand that to encourage positive change—like participation in biometric screening—they need to offer the “carrots” employees can actually earn and enjoy.
