6 Holiday Incentives to Motivate Your Team During Year-End Meetings

Companies and employees worldwide are working hard to close the books on a successful year. Saying a lot is going on during this time is an understatement. While companies are planning for the upcoming year, their employees are getting ready for the holidays.

Whether your workers are traveling to see their loved ones, hosting them at home, or enjoying time alone, people can find themselves dealing with a lack of work-related motivation as the holiday season arrives. On the other hand, dwindling employee performance is the last thing most companies want to encounter at such a vital time.

However, your business may still have crucial topics that require discussion through meetings. Thankfully, there are many ways to motivate your employees while getting work-related discussions and announcements in the books. That’s by offering incentives. But where do you start?

Find out why incentives are beneficial and the ones to choose for the perfect dose of year-end motivation.

What Makes Incentives Beneficial?

You know incentives work. But why is that the case? Here’s more information about why incentivizing employees benefits them and the companies they work for.

Helpful for Retaining Employees

A recent study found that it costs 33% of an employee’s salary to replace them. That already high cost can become astronomical if a company regularly loses workers.

Instead of continually replacing workers and earning a reputation as a business with a notoriously high turnover rate, incentivize your employees to help ensure they stick around. 

Any company can offer someone a job. However, offering incentives that stand out can keep workers in it for the long haul.

Plus, year-end incentives could not be more perfectly timed. Understandably, some people consider the end of the year as a time for new beginnings. 

If you think anyone wants to jump ship, offering enticing incentives can do away with these feelings and let employees know how valued they are.

Keeping Motivation High

It can get tough for anyone to stay motivated work-wise, especially as the holidays are about to arrive. 

Unfortunately, such a drop in motivation could lead to poor company results. However, that changes when employees know there’s a potential or guaranteed reward right around the corner. 

A good incentive can sometimes be the one thing that gets workers over a pre-holiday slump.

Boosting Collaboration

Additionally, incentives can get every employee working toward the same goal or shared goals. A great way to ensure this happens is by linking incentive-related rewards to team or department-wide performance.

There’s nothing wrong with offering incentives on a per-employee basis. However, this type of contest could see employees striving to work solo to outshine their peers. Instead, giving group-based incentives helps ensure everyone is working together.

Effective Workplace Incentive Ideas to Motivate Employees 

Now that you know why incentives work, the other key to success with motivating employees means choosing the right motivators. There are many ideas for rewards and incentives. Try these helpful tips below to ensure your company ends this year achieving optimal results:

1. Giving Additional Time Off

As the holiday season approaches, most employees begin to schedule time to visit family or host their loved ones. They’re also likely setting aside time for year-end vacations, shopping, and everything else this time of year entails.

After months of working hard, now is a crucial time to let workers handle commitments outside of work. Plus, who couldn’t use a few extra days off to simply relax to prepare for the holidays?

Regardless of why your employees use this extra time off, letting them return to work fully recharged can lead to significant performance improvements.

2. Providing Monetary Bonuses

Gift cards are great. However, they limit where your employees can spend them. While you may love visiting certain restaurants or retail stores, there’s no guarantee your employees feel the same way. Instead of stressing over what gift cards to buy, why not choose something no one will turn down? Money.

Gifting bonuses in the form of a Visa prepaid card to your work team gives them the freedom to spend their presents however they’d like. It can also come in handy for those holiday shopping on a tight budget. Trust us—this type of incentive is something employees will find more useful and valuable than any pizza party.

3. Recognizing Your Employees

Sometimes, the best employee incentives don’t require a cent of a company’s budget. Instead, they come from recognition. You can likely recall how proud it made you feel to get recognized positively at work. Now, it’s time to do the same for your employees.

It’s not that companies don’t appreciate their workers. However, it’s too easy for workdays and workweeks to fly by at a fast pace. That’s especially true during the end of the year, which is peak revenue times for some companies.

The simple act of recognition can motivate your employees, pushing them to provide better results. The power of recognizing employees doesn’t just extend to the one receiving positive feedback. It can have positive effects on your entire company! When employees feel good about work, generating a positive and supportive workplace almost becomes second nature.

4. Firing Up Everyone’s Competitive Spirit with a Year-End Competition

Another way to motivate your team involves fueling their competitive fire. Before your business closes its doors for a few days or weeks, try ending the year with a company-wide sales or commission-based contest.

The best way to motivate workers for this contest is with enticing prizes. You can also think outside the box regarding the winning person or team’s reward. Letting the contest winner choose a charity that receives a sizable donation is a notable example.

5. Hosting a Non-Mandatory Holiday Party

The company holiday party isn’t a new idea. However, not making these get-togethers mandatory is a recent idea. And it's beginning to gain steam. You and others may look forward to and plan for a company party. However, you must also understand that some employees won’t want to or be able to make it.

6. Condensing Meetings into Fewer Get-Togethers

A company wanting to keep employees up-to-date on its developments is understandable. Your business isn’t likely to nix meetings because the holidays are coming up. However, condensing these work-related get-togethers might be a better solution.

Of course, carrying out this strategy takes a lot of planning. To do this, company leaders must decide and filter what top-tier and imperative information is for meetings. That doesn’t mean the less important information won’t be communicated. Instead, choose a non-meeting-related way to relay it.

With so many holiday-related distractions floating through your workers’ minds, taking a few meetings off their plates will always be appreciated.

In Conclusion

Focusing on work as the holidays approach can be tough, but it doesn’t have to wreak havoc on a company’s bottom line. Implement the aforementioned tips to see why a little incentivization goes a long way as the year draws to a close. 

Who knows? The upcoming year might be your company’s most successful one yet.