How To Fight Holiday Productivity Drop *hint* Use Internal Marketing

It happens every year. From the week before Thanksgiving all the way thru to January. Yup, it’s holiday slump time at work. Does that mean there’s a lack of passion? Probably not. Your employees are wasting more time than ever and productivity is plummeting. What to do! It's inevitable this time of year. This can be a tricky issue for managers and executives, as it is after all, the holidays and you'd hate to fire people. But, it’s also tough to just let go of 1/12th of the year and tack it up in the loss column due to holiday malaise. So what can you do? People are people and business must continue to generate income?

Included In This Article:

Statistics On Employees Wasting Time At Work
Statistics for Employees Online Shopping At Work
3 Ways to Overcome Productivity Loss

Let’s look at some stats:

Employee Productivity In Workplace chart

According to a salary.com study 89% of people admitted to wasting at least some time at work. Up from 69% the year earlier. It's no secret if you work anywhere that the day is riddled with distractions and random thoughts that creep into your day. It happens, we're people. It's impossible to stay focued 100% of the time on work! But, there's occassional distraction and there's just plain wasting time.

Employees are spending longer periods than ever before “wasting time.” Owners and executives, take a seat as you review the newest statistical breakdown:

64% of employees visit non-work related websites during the day
31% waste roughly 30 minutes daily
31% waste roughly 1 hour daily
16% waste roughly 2 hours daily
6% waste roughly 3 hours daily
2% waste roughly 4 hours daily
2% waste 5 or more hours daily

You can make a bet that these numbers get worse over the holiday season. Here are some stats from CareerBuilder about employee shopping during the end of the year.

1/2 of employees are using time at work to shop online, yes half!
42% of employees are shopping on a mobile device

This means not only company computers but also personal devices are being used to shop, browse, and spend time on non-work activity.

3 Ways To Fight Productivity Loss

1. Tighten up HR

You can look at the usual tactics companies use to deter this activity. When productivity starts to waiver the knee-jerk reaction is always to call HR and have them look at the policies.

Things like:

- better workplace policies

- tightening internet security

- limiting personal device use

2. Boost your Internal Marketing

Boost what? In line with boosting HR but more focused on education and training is what is considered Internal Marketing. Deploy an Internal Marketing Strategy that consistently relays the values of the company and business ethos you want to reflect.

How Does Internal Marketing Work?

Turning inbound marketing designed to capture and engage potential customers and turning it inward. Businesses can use the same techniques and software to engage their employees, engage partners, engage affiliates, and drive productivity. Build awareness and help your team focus on what’s important, and automate all the other monotonous tasks and need to-dos.

Things like:

- automated emails reminding employees about best practices and what the company cares about

- creating surveys asking for feedback and inclusion on initiatives or ideas

3. Employ Marketing Automation Software

Pun intended! People may start to slack off but your marketing doesn’t have to. Hire a marketing automation software, like HubSpot. Not only can autmation software pay huge returns during the holiday slump, it can boost productivity during the other 11 months of the year!

A marketing automation software

can keep your customers in the loop
can keep sending customers targeted and meaningful emails
can keep posting to social media
can keep track of leads
can keep nurturing new opportunities.

Conclusion:

There's no denying that people are distracted throughout the day and costs productivity. The holidays, specifically from Thanksgiving to New Year's shows a dramatic increase in wasted time at work. People are shopping online and focused on the holidays versus helping the company. Executives and Owners face a decision to combat the trend or possibly lose out on one twelth of the year! Be aware of the issue and take appropriate steps to stay competitive and stay productive.

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