How will your fourth quarter end?
It’s that last couple of weeks of the year. All around your business your employees are starting to take their proverbial feet off the gas. It’s not that productivity has slumped and it’s certainly not like they’re no longer putting the effort in.
Nonetheless, you sense that things are starting to slow down. Your workforce has Christmas set firmly in their sights and you can’t exactly blame them.
Around this time of year, we all start to feel like school kids; keeping a watchful eye on the clock’s minute hand, just waiting for it to alight on 3 pm when that fateful bell will ring and school will be out for the holidays.
Here’s what to think about for your company’s fourth quarter.
The importance of the fourth quarter
Yet, while you may be sympathetic to the feelings of your workforce, now is not the time for complacency. Many believe that the fourth quarter is the most important of the year. If your profits haven’t been as strong as you were expecting over the quarter, you may feel the urge to write the rest of the year off.
Conversely, if your performance has been string so far this quarter, you may feel that it’s time to pump the brakes. In either case, rather than sleepwalk through the next couple of weeks, now’s the time to push onwards harder than ever and end the year on a high note.
There’s still time to reverse your fortunes or even put an exclamation point on an already strong quarter, and jumpstart your growth in 2019.
Safeguard your employees’ physical and emotional health
Your vision and leadership are the guiding force of your business, but your employees are the ones who will propel you onward to a strong end of year. Now, more than ever, it’s important to look after them. No employee, however motivated, can be at peak productivity while they’re in ill health. With this in mind, it may be worth talking to a commercial HVAC contractors and getting them to give your AC the All Clear. Harmful diseases can breed in poorly maintained AC units. Some of your employees may also be struggling with Seasonal Affective Disorder.
What could you do to make their lives a little easier?
Fun team building exercises, making your working hours more flexible, ensuring that your workplace has plenty of plants and keeping your door open for those who need to talk are all surprisingly effective strategies for keeping the winter blues at bay in your business.
Incentivize your workforce with micro-bonuses
Christmas bonuses are a great way to motivate employees and boost morale at close of year, but who says that you have to stop there? If you feel that your employees’ motivation is flagging somewhat, try giving daily micro-bonuses to reward productivity on a daily basis. They don’t even have to be monetary. Allowing employees to leave an hour early also works.
Love profit? Hate waste!
Finally, aside from a motivated workforce, eliminating wasted time, effort and resources is also a potent way to boost your end-of-year performance. Take the time to have a really good look at your processes and think of ways in which you can start to make them more efficient for a leaner, meaner start to the new year.