How New Year’s Resolutions Can Improve Your Organization’s Productivity

Looking for a good way to get your staff engaged after the holidays?

Well, it’s that time of year again and New Year’s Resolutions abound! Traditionally, the new year is seen as an opportunity to make positive lifestyle changes, to rid ourselves of bad habits and to improve our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. A time for a fresh start – out with old, in with the new, out with the bad and in with the good.

Since we spend a good portion of our waking hours every week at work, why not switch it up this year and get your entire staff involved in the resolution making process?

Using the workplace as the basis for setting new year’s resolutions can have significant benefits beyond achieving the personal goals that are intended. Allowing staff to work as a whole or in smaller groups with shared interests can create stronger social bonds, promote team building, improve productivity and ultimately achieve a happier, healthier and safer work environment.

There is a strength in numbers that helps to keep and maintain the resolutions that are made by the group. The more people that are vested in the outcome, the better the chances of success. There is a greater support network to acknowledge progress, provide encouragement and offer understanding, especially during the inevitable setbacks and struggles.

Here are a 5 simple ideas that you and your staff can have fun with this week that may help create a healthier and safer work environment for 2018:

1. Clean up – a clean and clutter-free workspace makes everyone feel better, more organized and in control. Set a designated time and get everyone involved to do the initial clean up. After that, establish a time each week to maintain it. Remember to include lunch rooms, meeting rooms and work vehicles.
2. Get physical – physical activity not only improves physical well-being it also has an impact on mental and emotional wellness. Start the new year off with walking meetings. Offer yoga, meditation or exercise classes during or outside of work hours.
3. Live better – whether the goal is to quit smoking, lose weight, exercise more or eat better, allowing coworkers to support each other, monitor progress and discuss struggles promotes success. If a designated time is established for meetings, less time will be lost during work hours at the water cooler.
4. Take notice – posting client comments, staff accolades, team successes and individual achievements makes everyone feel good and reinforces a positive atmosphere. Greet coworkers with a smile or kind word – it’s infectious and hard to resist responding in kind.
5. Improve mental health – offering mindfulness seminars, grievance meetings or creating a safe and constructive forum to air workplace frustrations. It can’t all be good all the time but acknowledging that things aren’t perfect, allowing issues to be aired and having open to constructive discussions on how to address these issues  can turn a negative into a positive.

The key is to set goals that are realistic, relatively easy to achieve and focus on the positive rather than the negative. Successful workers are happy workers, happy workers create a healthy workplace, a healthy workplace is a safer workplace and ultimately, a successful, happy, healthy, safe workplace is a productive workplace. Sounds like a win-win!

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