It’s common for productivity to drop as the temperature rises. In fact, workplace data suggests that productivity drops 20% during the summer months, with 45% of employees admitting that they’re more distracted. With the official start of summer just a few days away, there’s no better time for you to start thinking of ways to keep your workforce engaged and motivated during the warm weather season than right now. We all know that it can be challenging for employees to stay focused on work, emails and projects when there are so many distractions outside. Here are three tips to keep employees motivated and focused on their work, while the call of the outdoors beckons them.

Give your employees extra appreciation

This is one of the most crucial times for your managers to recognize and reward exceptional performance. Recognizing employees during this season is effective in keeping positive momentum, as well as setting expectations throughout the summer months. By recognizing employees at this time, you’re acknowledging their accomplishments and contributions, while at the same time motivating them to keep their performance high throughout the year, specifically as they enter those summer months. 

Set Summertime Goals

Setting summertime goals is another effective way to ensure your workforce is captivated and focused. By establishing goals for your teams or departments, you can change the commonly held perception that summer is a time to slack off or relax. These goals can include a reduction in absences, an increase in sales, or a boost in productivity to name a few. Whatever the goal is, however, the most important component is offering a reward for achievement of the goal. This contributes to employee loyalty to your organization and increased performance in the long run.

Encourage Vacation Time

This might seem like an obvious point, but we’ve all worked alongside that employee who never takes a vacation or personal time off. Even the most committed and dedicated employee needs to take a break, and the summer is the best time, for both the employee and the company, to do so. Remind your managers to keep track of their employees’ PTO so they can recommend vacation time to those who don’t take it. Remember, time off give employees the opportunity recharge and return more motivated, energized and productive.