Battling The Holiday Productivity Slump

Here’s what you can do to keep employee spirits and productivity high

According to research compiled by the Automobile Club of America, a record-breaking 107 million people took vacations around the winter holidays in 2017. That number has increased every year since 2005. And since AAA defines a vacation as traveling more than 50 miles, this number doesn’t even take into account the thousands and thousands of “staycations” that resulted in worker absences. In short, a lot of workers take time off during the winter holidays.

 

What of the workers who don’t take any time off in November or December? It’s simply not realistic to expect those employees to keep productivity at peak levels. Office holiday parties, gift exchanges and even plain, old vacation envy all take their toll on employee productivity.
 
What can you do to keep employee spirits and productivity high when some employees are off and the rest have their minds on shopping, family get-togethers, and religious traditions? Here are three ways to help keep productivity high during the holiday season:
 

 
These types of tasks are, of course, mission-critical, but for obvious reasons, they’re not ones that employees look forward to undertaking. Add in the holiday season and a handful of employee vacations, and it’s not surprising that the employees who are left at the office can be less than enthusiastic.
 
While RPA has the potential to make someone’s job better, many express concerns about its potential to eliminate jobs.
 
I’ve spoken with business leaders around the world who have deployed RPA software in every imaginable industry. They all share one common thread: While they wisely use RPA to manage staff growth, they don’t view it is a tool for eliminating jobs. Instead, they take advantage of the time their employees are saving by allowing them to focus on more strategic, engaging initiatives.
 
It only stands to reason then that an employee who feels engaged with an interesting job is much more likely to stay focused and busy than someone who spends eight hours per day repetitively tapping a keyboard. And when someone does decide to take Thanksgiving week off, it’s much easier to move the automated portion of their responsibilities to someone else on a temporary basis. An employee will be much more agreeable to verifying that an RPA job has run than they would to actually having to do the work on behalf of their vacationing co-worker.
 
Is RPA software right for your organization? Start by answering these three questions about each process in your business:
 

 
If you can answer yes to all three questions, the process is probably a good candidate for RPA. You’ll likely find that a lot of processes in a lot of different departments meet these criteria, regardless of your particular industry.
 
Of course, there will always be a holiday productivity slump. However, the more processes you automate, the less your business will be affected by the slump. Then everyone – including you – can have a happy holiday season.