Congratulations; you’ve near enough made it through your first winter as an established business. Through rain and dark nights, you’ve managed to create a company to take you far. The good news is that keeping morale up doesn’t get much harder than through the winter challenges you’ve already faced. The bad news is that summer could impact productivity more than you realize.
Undeniably, cold weather and dreary days can take their toll. But, options like artificial light and decent heating can somewhat alleviate the problem. By comparison, hot summer days and tempting blue skies aren’t quite as easy to overcome. Before you know, they could see your team daydreaming and struggling to work. Even you might fall foul to that sneaky summer sunshine. Within no time, sales could decrease as a result, just when you need to improve your game.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways you can keep morale strong during this first summer. All you need to do is consider the following before heat gets its rays in.
Keep the office as cool as possible
No one can work well when facing sweltering heat. Even worse, window-fronted office blocks are a lot like greenhouses. At the very least, that’s a health and safety nightmare. Not to mention that such levels of heat could leave everyone feeling sleepy. That’s why your first port of call should be how you’re going to keep that office cool. If heat is already getting too much as it stands, you may find it worthwhile to invest in a few fans to put around the place. In the long-term, though, you want to turn to hvac services which can see every corner of your office cool again. Then, you should see work continuing no matter how high the sun gets in the sky.
Loosen the reins on uniforms
It’ll also be well worth your while to loosen the reins on uniform standards when summer is in full swing. Obviously, you’ll all still need to dress up when customers are due in the office. Other than that, though, letting a few things slide is essential. That doesn’t mean applying a short and t-shirt policy. You should merely let team members leave blazers on the back on their chairs and get rid of their ties. It’s a small step which can make a massive difference to both how comfortable and how productive everyone is.
Implement summer incentives
It’s also worth implementing a few summer-specific incentives if you want to keep your staff happy and productive. For one, keeping ice lollies in the breakroom freezer at all times is sure to add a fun touch of sun into the office. It can also work wonders for anyone who’s feeling the heat. You may also benefit from allowing half days in the office where possible. That way, team members will be able to work remotely from their gardens if the mood takes them. As simple as that, you remove the risk of work suffering due to summer-based daydreams.