Best Ways to Boost Employee Productivity During the Holiday Season

Check out the 10 tips you can use to boost your employees’ productivity during the holidays.

December 21, 2021
Press the button to generate random icebreaker questions.
There are 300 more icebreaker questions at the bottom of the article
How would you describe your job to a five year old?
What season would you be?
What is a weird food you have tried? Would you eat it again?
What is your favorite holiday tradition?
Would you go in the mother-ship with aliens if they landed on Earth tomorrow?
What is your favorite season?
Do prefer working from home or the office?
What is your earliest memory of this job?
What is the best thing you have bought so far this year?
What is the earliest book you remember?
If you had to move to another country, which one would you choose?
You are the best criminal mastermind in the world. What crime would you commit if you knew you would get away with it?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
What was the last thing you ate?
What person from history would you add to Mount Rushmore?
What is a weird fact you know?
What is your favorite part of working from home?
Were the Spice Girls a good team?
Imagine you can instantly learn any language. Which would you choose?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Which fictional team is the best team of all time?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
What do you usually eat for a quick lunch?
What simple food will you never eat?
Show us the weirdest thing you have in the room with you right now.
Would you rather stay at a hotel or an AirBNB?
What is your favorite movie genre to watch?
Are you more productive in the morning or at night?
Who is someone in your community that makes a difference?
Who was your most unique pet?
Choose one famous person from history you want on your team during a zombie apocalypse.
What is a good way to give back to the community?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
Is Hugh Grant funny?
What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
Would you want to have an imaginary friend today? Did you have one as a child?
What actor or actress would you want to play you in the movie about your life?
What is the best super power?
What is your New Years resolution?
You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
What is the best work holiday?
What is the first gift you remember receiving?
Would you rather join Metallica or Backstreet Boys?
What is the best example of a community you have seen?
What is an easy way to do something nice for someone?
Show us your phone background and tell the story behind why you picked this image.
What was your first job?
Pick any band to play at your funeral.
If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would you pick?
Which superpower would you give to your arch enemy?
What is the most obscure superpower you would want?
What emoji best describes how you are feeling right now?
If you could live in any country, which country would you pick?
Would you rather live in a city or a town?
What is your favorite holiday?
What is something you accomplished as part of a team?
What is your standard office lunch?
What is your most used phone app?
What is your favorite season?
Have you ever won something as a team?
Imagine you are a professional baseball player. What is your introduction song?
Beach holiday or ski trip?
Have you ever been to a funny comedy show?
Would you rather live at the North Pole or the South Pole?
What is your favorite song to sing?
If you could live in any state, which state would you pick?
Imagine you could teleport anywhere. Where would you go right now?
What is the most unusual job you have heard of?
What was the last thing you ate?
You can visit any fictional time or place. Which would you pick?
What do your family and friends think you do all day?
What movie do you wish you could watch again for the first time?
Show us your most-used emoji.
What was the most unique style or fashion trend you ever embraced?
What movie defined your generation?
You are stranded on a remote desert island. Are you alone or with your worst enemy?
What is your favorite knock-knock joke?
Have you ever told someone Santa is not real?
Do you know how to speak more than one language?
On a scale of 1 – 10, how much of a team player are you?
What is your #1 recommendation in this city?
What is your favorite holiday?
What bucket list item do you most want to check off in the next six months?
What is your favorite mythical creature?
What was the first way you made money?
If you could be great at any Olympic sport, which would it be?
Which song could you listen to over and over again?
When did you start liking/hating mushrooms?
Where is your favorite vacation spot?
Do you take your PTO all at one time, or another way?
Which show do you remember most from your childhood?
Which beverage goes best with pizza?
Would you want to have a personal assistant follow you around everywhere and do what you asked of them?
Have you ever met your idol?
What did you want to be when you grew up?
Would you rather live 100 years in the past or 100 years in the future?
What is your hobby?
When you are alone in the car, what volume is the music at?
Imagine you no longer have to work. How would you spend a Tuesday?
What is your favorite type of sandwich?

When the holiday season comes around, it's not uncommon for employees to start mentally checking out work early. However, it can be challenging to concentrate on looking forward to all the fun times ahead and the personal tasks they need to do.

But it's possible to maintain productivity even during the holiday season. Here, we'll give you ten tips that you can use to boost your employees' productivity during the holidays.

10 Strategies To Boost Employee Productivity Over The Holidays
1. Offer Flexible Work Schedules

Despite all the magic in the air, the holidays can be stressful, and that stress can interfere with work. 

To help your employees manage the season, you can offer flexible work schedules. For example, you could consider implementing rotating shifts to help distribute the brunt of undesirable shifts, or you could introduce split shifts to give your employees a chance to get some holiday shopping and planning done in between their work shifts. 

You can use employee scheduling software to make scheduling your employees more manageable and streamlined during the holiday season. 

2. Set Clear Goals and Expectations

It can be challenging for employees to stay productive when they don't have a good way of measuring their productivity in the first place. By setting clear goals and expectations, you provide your employees with benchmarks that they can check themselves against to see how efficient they're more easily.

For example, you could set new holiday quotas for your sales team or set a goal to hit a certain number of page views for your content team. This way, your team members will be able to easily see whether their work is where it's supposed to be or not.

3. Provide Better Training

The holiday season can introduce unique situations for managers and employees. For example, between increased order volume and potentially longer hours, your team members can benefit from being trained to meet these new challenges.

In short, employees can often use some extra help to cope with the busiest time of the year. Employee training can include stress management exercises, instructions on handling angry customers, and techniques to deal with the massive amount of orders that may be coming in.

4. Have a Plan in Place for Understaffing

As business picks up over the holiday season, understaffing is always a concern. But this year, as the Great Resignation leaves many small businesses severely understaffed even in the slower parts of the year, having enough staff on hand to brave the season is perhaps more of an issue than ever.

Unfortunately, there's no easy solution to understaffing (if there were, the current labor shortage would not be a problem). However, you can do your best to mitigate adverse outcomes by having a solid hiring plan in place and building a solid team. Moreover, you can also offer bonuses and higher wages, hire contractors, and allow employees to work overtime.

5. Provide Regular Feedback and Recognition

Employee productivity often comes down to how engaged in their work they are. If employees find their work exciting and rewarding, they'll be more productive. If they find it boring and meaningless, they'll mentally check out.

Offering regular feedback and recognition can help keep your employees engaged. When they get feedback, they will see new ways to improve their work, becoming an exciting challenge for them.

When they receive recognition, they may feel a sense of encouragement and feel that their work is valuable. One way to show your appreciation is to start an employee of the month program. It can help boost morale, increase productivity and get them engaged more with their job. 

6. Minimize Distractions

The holiday season brings a lot of distractions to the table. In addition to work, employees are likely thinking about holiday travel, what gifts to buy, party planning, and more. This can lead to a very divided mind that has trouble focusing on work.

To combat this, employers can provide action-oriented tasks that require the full attention of their employees, which will keep them motivated. Ideally, these should be complex or involved enough that employees can't help but give them their all. Examples could include debugging the latest version of your code, making a certain number of sales, or reorganizing the showroom. Of course, these tasks should be genuinely helpful, not just busywork. 

7. Accommodate Remote Working

After COVID-19 hit, remote working has been on employees' minds everywhere. At least 55% of employees surveyed in PwC's US Remote Work Survey said they'd prefer to work remotely at least three days per week. If your company can offer remote work options, doing so is a great way to help your employees navigate the tricky work-life balance during the holidays. For example, remote working options will let employees travel to their families for extended trips without taking off work, reducing understaffing issues. 

8. Give a Holiday Bonus

Few things say "thank you" as cash does. If you want your employees to stay engaged and productive over the holiday season, consider building a strong culture where you reward them by giving them a holiday bonus to thank them for their continued work and loyalty. 

This gesture can go a long way as employees are more likely to work hard to support a company they feel values them. 

9. Throw a Holiday Party

The holidays can be a very stressful time. Hosting a holiday party can give your employees a chance to blow off steam and form deeper connections with their coworkers.

Overall, a holiday party can help employees form more positive associations with their workplace (so long as it isn't mandatory). Plus, it can help them recharge their batteries and give them something to look forward to as they weather the storm that is the holidays.

10. Create a Festive Atmosphere

Hardly anyone wants their workplace to be a place where the holiday spirit goes to die — unless they're Ebenezer Scrooge, that is. When holiday decorations are all around, it's a good idea to make sure that holiday magic comes into your workplace too. It's a worthwhile investment to buy some lights and other decorations to make your business a bit more festive — make sure you're not entirely focused on one culture and are inclusive of all.

Key Takeaways

The holidays are one of the busiest and most stressful times of the year, both from a business and personal. As a result, employees can quickly become scatterbrained, and productivity can diminish. 

By implementing the strategies above, you can improve your employee's productivity even over the holiday season. 


Browse our Free Employee Recognition Guide

Get the foundational knowledge on creating an employee recognition program that boosts employee engagement and helps them feel valued.

Explore Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Assembly SOC 2 compliant?

Yes, at Assembly, security is a top priority. Each quarter, we have ongoing security work that is everyone’s responsibility. While we maintain a strong security posture, it was important for us to prove to our customers that we do everything we claim to do. This led us to pursue a SOC 2 Type II report that would provide evidence of our compliance with industry gold-standard security practice.

What's the ROI for employee recognition?

There is study after study showing that employee recognition leads to increased engagement. This in return creates an environment where employees are happier and more motivated which increase productivity and reduces voluntary turnover significantly. In order to filled critical roles, companies tend to spend nearly twice the value of an annual salary. Assembly is an investment in your employees that supports your bottom line.

Does Assembly offer longer-term contracts?

Yes, we will offer contracts for companies with longer-term agreements to help larger customers have more certainty around future costs.

The minimum agreement term is a 12-month subscription.

Does Assembly offer onboarding support?

We do and for FREE! Any new customer needing further support to get started with Assembly to ensure you're set up for success can request custom onboarding support. Improving your employee experience is about much more than just using our amazing software; it’s about transforming your business to create a workplace that people love. That’s much easier to do with the personal support and advice from our passionate people experts.

How much do rewards cost?

At the time of redemption (when your employees exchange their points for a paid reward) you'll pay face value. If a reward is a $10 Amazon gift card, your cost will be $10. All paid rewards are billed for on a monthly basis.

The good news is that you don't have to pay for rewards upfront because we only charge you when points are redeemed, not when they're earned.

Does Assembly offer discounts?

We offer discounts or educational or charitable organizations. In order to secure a discount, you'll first need to book a demo with a customer support specialist.

For all other organizations, we are willing to consider longer-term agreements in exchange for discounts. To set up annual plans or longer, you will need to book a demo with a customer support specialist.

How do I cancel my plan if needed?

If you're on a month to month plan, you can go here and cancel anytime. If you're having concerns or need help setting up your account for success, you can always book a demo with a customer support specialist.

If you're on a longer-term custom plan, you'll need to reach out to your customer support specialist to cancel your account or email us at support@joinassembly.com.

What customizations are available?

Great question! You can customize your core values to match your organization's to boost and track alignment. You can change your currency from the 🏆 emoji (our default) to any emoji of your choice. You can swap our logo for your own. You can also set up company culture rewards such as, "Lunch with the CEO," "Buy a book on us," and so much more!

Who can give or receive recognition?

While we recommend a peer to peer set up where anyone in your organization can give or receive recognition, you can set up Assembly however you want. If you need to limit the people who can give or receive recognition, that's perfectly fine and can be done from your Admin, here.

What integrations are available?

Assembly connects to the tools your employees use every day to offer an easy, seamless experience with minimal change management.  

Assembly has integrations with HCM/HRIS systems like ADP, Google, Office 365, and Slack. We also integrate with communication tools like Slack and Teams so you and your employees can access Assembly wherever they work now.

What's your average adoption rate?

That depends on the company's permissions set up. That said, over 90% of the employees on Assembly's platform are recognized on a monthly basis. That means nearly every employee across all of our customers are receiving regular recognition from their peers, managers, or leadership. We're extremely proud of this.

Must rewards be set up to use Assembly?

They are not required. You can use Assembly without having rewards set up. However, we don't recommend it if you intend to have a high adoption and usage rate. You can always keep the costs down by offering internal culture rewards that are fulfilled by you internally.

Are points required to use Assembly?

No, you can remove allowances from anyone or everyone. It's up to you but we do recommend using points whether they're worth a real dollar value or not. Companies that use points have a much higher engagement rate even if those points don't exchange for real dollars.

Could find the answer you are looking for?

Please schedule time with an expert and we will help you to get all your questions answered