In this week’s #BusinessTipTuesday, November 12th marks the unofficial holiday National Happy Hour Day. While this may seem like a silly thing to talk about when discussing how you run a business, this day can actually serve as a great reminder that running a successful business should include time to relax with employees and appreciate the hard work you have put in over a certain period of time. While cultivating your business requires focus, determination, hard work, and many other key attributes, sometimes what you need to maintain a consistent approach is an opportunity to spend time with employees outside of work and really recharge to stay motivated. This also allows your employees an opportunity to connect on more than just work and encourage the building of interpersonal relationships among team members.
Keeping your employees happy, yet motivated all the time can be a difficult task to accomplish. The ability to do so requires you to recognize when some of your co-workers may be mentally drained from work. When this occurs, here are some ideas on how to get everyone together outside of work to really connect on a better level and take time to recuperate from the work over the previous week/month. Although it is called National Happy Hour day, the idea of bringing everyone together does not have to revolve around alcohol. Here are some great ideas and opportunities to become more involved with co-workers outside of the typical work environment.
- Have a “Fun Lunch Friday” or host a Potluck at the office
Whether it’s going out to eat or hosting a get together with your co-workers, it can go a long way in maintaining a positive morale in the workplace. Inviting them to your home for a few hours to let loose and enjoy each other’s food ideas or simply taking everyone out to eat somewhere can be a great opportunity to connect with everyone outside of the workplace.
- Organize team activities outside of work
There are ample opportunities for you to organize team activities with your fellow employees outside of work. This can include ideas that range from a bowling team to simply encouraging a weekly health walk with everyone to get some fresh air and discuss topics that aren’t related to every day work issues.
- Celebrate birthdays, the company’s success, or even a team member’s promotion
There are many opportunities to take advantage of when it comes to celebrating throughout the course of a year. Taking time to celebrate birthdays in the office or perhaps the promotion of employee not only encourages a positive work environment, it can also motivate employees to work harder in order to receive a similar type of celebration in the future. Using the company’s success as a means of celebration for surpassing a company goal or milestone can also go a long way in positive reinforcement. Showing that working towards a specific goal has its benefits outside of just the company succeeding will motivate employees to work harder and achieve more goals in the future.
A business is only as successful as the people that work for it. In order for people to be successful in their work, it is important to make sure they find a balance between work and a social life whether that includes family, friends, etc. By contributing to that balance on both sides on a consistent basis, you are able to show employees that you value and understand both aspects and that you value people’s necessity for the stability of the two. Hopefully this tip motivates you to reach out to employees and get them out to some sort of social gathering together in the near future!
Sean Myers
SBDC Intern
The University of Scranton
Small Business Development Center
