The holiday season is notorious for hurting productivity levels in most small businesses. Self-reported surveys note over 60 percent of employees admit to being less productive over the holidays. It’s after all the festive season. Employees are naturally distracted by the upcoming holidays, vacation planning, shopping trips and everything else.

While small businesses can tolerate a little less productivity at the very end of the year, the level is certainly not ideal at the start of the new year. Small businesses should actively work to reverse the holiday productivity slump as January begins. Here are several tips for doing that from GR-US.com consultants:

Pinpoint Productivity Downswings over the Holiday Season – Before you start fixing the problem, understand the scope of the problem. Management experts recommend firstly analyzing historical data of the company with regards to performance and attendance of employees. Look for patterns where productivity is hurt particularly. Then, the managers can formulate solutions that directly tackle a problem. This is a more effective approach than applying generic solutions, which rarely work.

Be More Flexible – This is the time of the year for employees to spend with family. People will be getting together with their extended families. If the workplace can accommodate these emotional concerns, then employees will be able to perform as usual. It’s recommended to offer flexible hours to employees who need them. It’s better to have the employee for half a work day than have an absent employee.

Offer Incentives – Boost overall employee morale by offering incentives. Most small businesses offer year-end bonuses. At the start of the year, companies can offer incentives in the manner of flexible hours as mentioned above. Other incentives to try in January include thank you meetings, staff lunches, and New Year’s gifts.

Set Short Term Goals – The workplace will be more productive overall with a goal to work towards. The start of the year is a great time to set short-term goals that employees can achieve by the end of the year. For example, the company can set sales goals to reach by December. There could even be shorter goals to achieve by the summer. Setting goals leads to progress tracking, which motivates employees to be as productive as possible.

The New Year is also a great time for small businesses to evaluate overall productivity at the company. There are always ways to improve. First, opt for one of our Global Resources LLC Reviews and have our experienced consultants analyze your company’s performance levels and offer recommendations for improvement.