Beat the Summer Heat – How to Energize Your Employees in the Summer
Recognition & Motivation Ideas
The hot and sultry summer has a strange way of making people feel lazy, but your employees don’t have to fall prey. You can energize employees and motivate them to keep up the great work they’ve been doing all year long with a few helpful hints.
Make summer work fun work. Hold your daily business meetings outside and your weekly meetings at a nearby park. Encourage employees to enjoy the season by offering each employee a personal day or flex hours they can arrange to fit around activities.
You may even want to consider keeping special summer business hours. Closing the office a tad early on Fridays can go a long way toward keeping employees refreshed and ready for business on Monday.
Keep it comfy. A comfortable summer work environment is a must, starting with an indoor temperature than neither bakes nor freezes your workers. Add a bit of summer flair to the workplace with fresh flowers, ice-cold lemonade and other seasonal perks that can help energize 
employees and keep them at their best.
Reward and surprise them. Rewarding work well done is a great way to ensure you’ll keep getting more of it. Surprising employees with a certificate or award can boost morale as well as the overall workflow.
You could even go for a weekly summer award for the employee that best beat the heat with the top job performance over the past five days. Baseball tickets are an inexpensive gift ideas that everyone enjoys!
Give them incentives. Setting specific summer goals can keepemployees on track, as can serving up a number of incentives for them to meet those goals.
Certificates and awards can again work, as can summer-oriented, motivational gifts, such as a personalized water bottle.
Get the company into the summer swing. Hold an employee barbecue or picnic one Saturday by the lake. Or meet up after work one day at the coolest outdoor café.
Schedule at least one, just-for-fun company event that helps generate camaraderie and lets workers enjoy each other’s company without a deadline or overstuffed in-box looming in the background.
Mix, match and combine the tips as needed to continue a summer-long stretch of energized employees.
Check out PaperDirect.com for more ideas on incentives, rewards and certificates, although the fresh flowers and lemonade are all up to you.