Employees rest and relax over the holidays to start the new year strong. Your firm may close for Christmas, operate with a skeleton crew, or continue as usual. How can you persuade employees to take holiday time to match your work schedule and prioritize work-life balance? Qwick has some excellent tips here to help out. https://www.qwick.com/

Teach. 

Teach the team about the physical and emotional benefits of work-life balance. Hire a pro if needed. Explain that they need a holiday break to face the demanding year ahead. Companies are scrapping the end-of-year rollover to encourage holiday vacations. Recommend prioritizing leave to boost productivity upon return. 

Travel and hotel vouchers are incentives. 

Holiday gifts go beyond time off. Instead of financial bonuses, provide travel vouchers and hotel gift cards to inspire your team to take a vacation or do something different. Investing in your employees will boost productivity and engagement. Consider including rewards in your annual plan. 

Provide choices. 

Like businesses, employees are unique. Giving workers an opportunity is the best approach to satisfy everyone. Can they schedule their days off around other events? Happiness increases with workday control. Unpaid holiday leave for extra days may be possible. Parents may suffer during school holidays. 

Flexible work hours. 

Flexible work schedules also make employees happy. By adding two hours to one day, may they work four days instead of five? Can kids have longer lunches with friends and family if they start earlier? Many job searchers need flexibility, which will improve employment retention. 

Allow home work. 

Can certain team members work remotely? Telecommuting frees up time for your workers to spend with their families. It also helps parents who stay home with sick kids. In 2016, Gallup found that 43% of workers worked from home, up from 39% in 2012. Even offering this incentive throughout the holidays will please your team. Telecommuting is becoming commonplace. 

Inspire work-life balance. 

If you’re still in the office at 7 pm and telling your colleagues to leave early, they may feel guilty. Leave the office on time and don’t email your team on vacation. Otherwise, they may feel compelled to check their emails while traveling and never truly disconnect from work. 

Reduce workday restrictions. 

Be generous if your team needs to order gifts online to avoid their partner. Let their personal life touch business hours. It may be possible to extend hours for holiday shopping. Staying late can make up for it. 

Cut overtime. 

Your staff may need to work weekends occasionally, but not during holidays. Some employees love working late, while others feel bad about missing family and friends. Avoid overtime during the holidays to be fair to everyone. 

Give unplanned afternoons. 

Give hardworking employees an afternoon off without impacting their compensation. If it’s offered without asking, they won’t refuse. If done sometimes, it will improve their work-life balance. 

Managers can urge employees to take time off and take care of their health, but they cannot create work-life balance. This region will reward your perseverance and motivation.