Management
14 Ways to De-Stress Employee Vacations
Employees truly deserve paid vacations. They
struggle through stressful jobs most of the year,
and productivity goes down if they don't get a
break. From a corporate perspective, investment in
good vacation programs reduces workplace stress
absenteeism, health care costs, and accidents.
Many employees, however, come back from vacation
with the half-joking remark about having to return
to work to rest up. Far too many people find
vacations just as stressful as the jobs they do
every day.
Following are fourteen ways company managers can
de-stress vacations, increase productivity, improve
quality, boost profits, and get the most from the
corporate investment.
1. Develop vacation savings plans so employees
will be financially prepared for this big expense
2. Provide continuous counseling for personal
finances, budgeting, and credit issues
3. Double check for payroll errors to make sure
employees are not affected by discrepancies while
they are on vacation
4. Distribute job responsibilities to prevent
employees' returning to overflowing in-boxes
5. Announce job changes after vacations, not
before
6. Provide in-house workshops on vacation
planning
7. Negotiate corporate discounts with travel
agencies
8. Show employees how to research travel plans
on internet
9. On the last day before vacation, give
employees an extra half-day off for last minute
preparations. This strategy brings value to the
company through motivation, esprit, and quality
control.
10. Coach employees to get major projects out of
the way two weeks before vacations to prevent
stressful, sometimes inadequate, last-minute
efforts
12. Ask for destination contact information for
purpose of emergency notification and then use the
info to send a special note or small gift that
will be waiting for them upon arrival.
11. Demonstrate your interest by scheduling time
to visit with employees about their great
adventure - before and after vacation
13. Get employee input on vacation schedules to
make sure dates work out with spouse's schedule
14. Encourage a more restful week-long vacation
instead of a less rewarding one or two day absence
There you have it - fourteen ways to de-stress
vacations. Your company gets its money's worth
out of these vacations when employees are rested
and ready to get back to work.
For more info on controlling workplace stress send
an email to: 3sessionstress@sendfree.com
Dale Collie - professional speaker, former US Army Ranger, CEO, and a Fast Company top 50 innovative leader. Author of "Winning Under Fire." (McGraw-Hill) collie@couragebuilders.com
Dale Collie
Tags: vacation, workplace, stressSimilar articles
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