The Bagg Group Blog

At The Bagg Group, we know that giving your employees a high-five can make all the difference

It’s been more than a month since the Vancouver Olympics, but the cheering that took place in offices during the Games doesn’t have to stop.

During the Winter Games, our clients across the GTA saw employees interact in new, more positive ways.  Staff from different departments who rarely exchanged two words found common ground.  Cheers rang out office-wide when Canadians won medals.  Team spirit was high, and so was morale. 

In fact, the Winter Games were terrific for team-building in the workplace.  But like all team-building activities, the real challenge is to ensure the bonding continues long after the exercise ends. 

At The Bagg Group, our staffing solution experts talk to candidates every day who say they want to feel connected to their workplace, to be part of a community.  That’s why when there’s not an outside event to bring people together, our recruiters suggest creating one.

Here are two tips that our clients have implemented with great success over the years.

Get a company team together to participate in a fun-run:  Spring heralds the beginning of fundraising marathons, and now is the time to get organized and to get staff in shape and training.  As the Olympics proved, nothing brings people closer together than a physical challenge.  

Launch a Spring into Shape challenge:  Volumes of study prove that physical fitness improves productivity and morale.  Keep Olympic medal fever alive by setting up awards for employees who meet measurable, attainable physical fitness goals — like getting to the gym regularly for one month — and who buddy up to help colleagues meet their goals. 

An article entitled Finding the Right Fit that appears on the Canadian Bar Association’s website examines how some law firms are rewarding employees for getting into shape.  At one firm, staff voluntarily record their runs, yoga classes, power-walks, etc. on a special card, in exchange for points that lead to prizes.  

The most important reward, however, is nothing more complicated than a high-five.  And that’s been confirmed by a recent University of California study that shows the best teams in the National Basketball Association — the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers — recorded the most high-fives and slaps-on-the-back among team-mates. 

The researchers conclude that acceptable physical contact, like a high-five, reduces stress and increases good feelings.   

It’s been great cheering on our country’s best athletes, and now it’s time to cheer on each other for any and every professional and personal accomplishment.

With the warm weather comes daydreams of vacations and dips in employee productivity. Recently, a survey of a British staffing agency showed 68% of employees admit to spending a significant part of their workday thinking about their impending holidays and 25% of respondents acknowledged a drop in their productivity.

That’s not unusual. When fine weather finally hits, even the most disciplined of us find it difficult to block thoughts of canoes and cottages. 

At The Bagg Group, we advocate vacations.  They are all the more important in a recession when employees need a break from a heavy workload and office stresses.

Across Canada, most companies offer an average of 17 annual vacation days.  That’s down two days from 2007, but still three more than Americans, according to a  2008 Expedia survey of employed workers in North America and Europe

In Europe, the practice has always been to provide significant time off. In 2008, employees in Great Britain typically got 26 days off,  a two-day increase over 2007, and Germany, Spain and France saw increases of one day, with workers receiving 27 days, 31 days and 37 days respectively.

Recruitment agencies in  the GTA concur that there are three reasons to encourage employees to take their vacations:

Vacation help reduce burnout:  Rest and relaxation is the best way to re-charge the batteries.

Vacations promote creative thinking:  Often, in stepping away from a situation, you can see it more clearly and so come up with better solutions.  

Vacations improve work/life balance:  A holiday is a time for employees to reconnect with families and personal interests and increased quality of life can lead to increased quality of work on the job.

Still, daydreaming and vacationing employees can add up to a seasonal headache for managers and hiring authorities who must ensure smooth operations, regardless of the temperature outside.  As staffing solution experts, here are some tips that we have shared  successfully with top employers in the GTA.

Create work schedules for the summer frame of mind:  Allow flexible work hours that let workers start and finish the day earlier.  In this way, workers complete eight-hour days at the office and still have time to enjoy the sunshine

Post a visual chart showing who is absent when:  This is useful for colleagues, and helps managers ensure key employees are not on holiday at the same time.

Have employees compile a list of clients, suppliers, and anyone else who may need to be contacted in case of an emergency:  This list is useful year-round, and the summer holiday is a great incentive for the employee to put it together.

Cross train employees to take over duties of others:  Have employees prepare a list of their major duties and step-by-step instructions on how to fulfill these. But put on hold those tasks that can wait a week.  It’s not helpful to to overburden  colleagues left behind.

Consider hiring temporary staff or contract workers:  This ensures continued smooth operation, and allows the other employees to focus on their work.  Also, it helps the vacationing employee who can suffer a bad case of post-holiday blues if returning to work that has piled up.

Look for opportunities to celebrate summer:  After our long winter, we do need to make the most of summer.  Consider holding one-on-one meetings at a patio or allowing Bermuda short and sandal days.