||
For many businesses, the festive season turns out to be anything but merry. Unfortunately, holiday stress statistics show that 54% of employees feel stressed leading up to the holidays. And the increased workload the Christmas season creates tops the causes of that stress.
Understanding these factors can help businesses to better support their employees during the holiday season, fostering a more positive and productive work environment.
One of the tips we give in this post for cutting down on holiday stress is planning your Christmas party early and getting it out of the way. Conversely, here are 5 tips from HR360Inc to help make that happen:
Top Reasons for Workplace Holiday Stress
The holiday season, while filled with joy and celebration, can often lead to increased stress in the workplace. The pressure to meet year-end goals, along with personal commitments, can create a challenging environment for both employees and management. Here are some of the top reasons why holiday stress tends to escalate in a business setting:
- Year-End Deadlines: Many businesses have fiscal year-end goals and deadlines that coincide with the holiday season, creating pressure on employees to perform.
- Increased Workload: Preparing for time off, handling extra customer demands, and year-end tasks can lead to a significant increase in workload.
- Balancing Personal and Professional Life: Employees may struggle to juggle holiday planning, family commitments, and work responsibilities, leading to emotional stress.
- Limited Staffing: With many employees taking time off, those remaining may feel overwhelmed by the increased responsibilities.
- Unrealistic Expectations: High expectations for holiday sales or performance, without proper support or resources, can cause tension and anxiety.
- Lack of Planning: Poor planning for the holiday season can result in last-minute scrambling, causing unnecessary stress and chaos.
In other words, ’tis the season to be stressed. The good news is you can adopt these tips below that will help you and your team manage the stress of the holiday season.
Tips for Managing Holiday Stress in Your Business
Bring in Extra Help During the Festive Season
Read this list of tips and tactics. They help reduce holiday stress in your business. And keep stress low for your team as well.
With permanent employees booking time off at the same time the company experiences a surge in business, it’s hardly surprising many business owners and employees suffer ‘festive fatigue’ at this time of year.
One effective way of managing holiday stress is to hire extra helping hands at Christmas.
Help Alleviate Holiday Stress with a Christmas Party
There’s nothing quite like letting our hair down with colleagues at the end of the year than having a Christmas party. Moreover, this much-loved annual event has a multitude of stress management benefits, including giving employees the chance to mingle, giving them something to celebrate and making them feel valued and that they’ve helped achieve something worthwhile.
Get the Christmas Party Planning Done Early
Despite the many benefits of Christmas office parties, organizing the festive social gathering is not without its stresses. As such, eliminate this additional festive stress by ensuring the social engagements have been planned and ‘ticked off’ well before the bedlam of the festive season kicks in.
Get Christmas Gift Sending to Colleagues and Clients Out of the Way
Experiencing festive burnout by having too many things to do in a short space of time is one of the holiday stress facts no small business can afford to ignore.
Similar to arranging the Christmas party well in advance, festive gifts should be sent to colleagues, customers, clients, partners and suppliers early, so it’s one less job to worry about during the busy festive period.
Pre-Plan Your Marketing Campaign
Christmas offers fantastic marketing opportunities, particularly for businesses operating in the retail, catering, leisure and food and drinks industries.
Another good stress management strategy to help reduce holiday stress caused by running marketing campaigns during this hectic time of year is to pre-plan a marketing campaign.
For example, get blogs and social media posts written and scheduled well in advance so you’re not having to use valuable employee time on such time-consuming activities.
Avoid Agreeing to Meetings
Holiday stress statistics show that up to 69% of people feel stressed due to having a “lack of time in the holiday period.”
Even the most pedantic of clients won’t want to have a meeting scheduled on Christmas Eve. With a million and one things going on, the busy holiday season isn’t the time to schedule a month of back-to-back meetings.
Most meetings with clients and colleagues will be able to wait until the New Year, so don’t make the season busier than it needs to be.
Streamline Business Operations
Another key way of managing holiday stress is to streamline business operations throughout the month of December.
Streamlining activities, such as turning inventory alerts on to notify you when certain stock is running low, is an effective stress management strategy that will help the festive season run smoothly and prevent stress overload from kicking in.
Tackle Festive Money Worries by Generating Additional Cash at Christmas
Check out another leading holiday stress fact: The festive season creates worry about money.
Read this survey carried out by the investment firm Principal Financial Group. It found that 53% of people feel financially stressed at Christmas.
This table organizes the essential details of each tip, providing a clear and concise reference for managing holiday stress in your business.
| Tips for Managing Holiday Stress | Description |
|---|---|
| Bring in Extra Help | Hire additional staff during the busy season to manage increased workload and prevent employee fatigue. |
| Christmas Party | Organize a Christmas party to celebrate achievements, foster camaraderie, and make employees feel valued. |
| Plan the Party Early | Get the Christmas party planning done well in advance to avoid additional stress as the holiday season approaches. |
| Send Gifts Early | Send festive gifts to colleagues and clients early, so it's one less task during the busy festive period. |
| Pre-Plan Marketing Campaign | Prepare and schedule marketing materials in advance to save time and reduce stress during the holiday season. |
| Avoid Meetings | Minimize or postpone non-essential meetings during the holiday season to free up time and reduce pressure. |
| Streamline Operations | Implement efficient practices, like inventory alerts, to ensure smooth operations and prevent stress overload. |
| Generate Additional Cash | Address financial concerns by exploring ways to generate extra revenue during the festive season. |
So, do you worry about the financial impact Christmas has on your business? If so, aim to generate an additional cash flow by implementing strategies like festive sales. Other options include 2-for-1 offers. Also, you can try introducing a special new festive product.
However, don’t wait for Christmas to put these strategies in place. Implement them well in advance. Then, you won’t juggle too many tasks and suffer from festive burnout in the process.
Image: Depositphotos.com
This article, "How to Manage Holiday Stress in Your Business: A Practical Guide" was first published on Small Business Trends
||----------------------------------------------------------------
By: Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead
Title: How to Manage Holiday Stress in Your Business: A Practical Guide
Sourced From: smallbiztrends.com/2023/08/holiday-stress.html
Published Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2023 13:00:12 +0000
