Well, the weather (in the main – after all, this is the unpredictable UK) has been rather lovely this week and, given the date, may herald the approaching summer…or it might just be a cruel joke before we are, once again, plunged into the high winds and torrential rain so common on our lovely island. However, being pessimistic is an unattractive trait with a tendency toward self-fulfilment so we’re sticking to our guns and declaring the beginning of summer.
With summer comes a wholesale change to people’s behaviour patterns – not entirely unexpectedly. The longer sunlight hours and warmer conditions seem to have a galvanising effect on us both physically and mentally making us more energetic and keen to get out and about as well as more prone to engaging in social activities (amongst other things). It’s a surprise then that more companies don’t take advantage of summer both for internal team building activity as well as external promotional drives. We’re all about seasonal initiative at Christmas but never during the summer.
In a bid to rectify this glaring error we’ve been sitting round the office paddling pool drinking cocktails and talking over a few ideas designed to help companies strengthen internally and externally in the summer months…read on.
We’re going to come at this from an internal angle first and so will start off by stating the obvious – you’d be surprised how many times that can be missed. Summer is, without a doubt, the best time to organise staff away days and team building activities. One of the major reasons for a drop in staff morale during the summer months (and it can happen) is when their – perfectly natural – belief that they should be outside during such lovely weather, not stuck inside, clashes with their inability to do anything about it as they’re trapped at their desks.
Taking the initiative yourself as an employer can reap massive benefits. The route you choose to take can also be significant. Do you make your staff day public knowledge or do you spring it on them as a surprise on the very morning of the trip? On the one hand, pre-announced trips serve to get your staff talking about the coming event and building up the excitement for some time prior to it – making the workplace a happy place to be. On the other hand, springing the surprise portrays your company as fun-loving, spontaneous and exciting – granting you some long-term benefits relating to employee loyalty and industry perception. Admittedly, most company bosses won’t be thinking of this kind of thing when they’re planning staff events, but they should be!
In many cases the idea of a company away day is simply not practicable for whatever reason. When this happens employers should start thinking about the possibility of bringing the away day into the office, or at the very least arranging on site activities for staff so that the gloom of being indoors during a heatwave doesn’t adversely affect morale. Simple ideas can often have a disproportionately impressive effect – hiring an ice-cream salesman and sending him round the office (having paid for all the staff ice cream obviously!) will create a great talking point. Similarly, turning one of your office’s outdoor sunspots into a beach overnight – complete with deckchairs, inflatable palm trees and paddling pools – so that staff are greeted by it on their way into work will induce reactions of giddy delight…believe us, we’ve seen it happen!
If competition is your thing, then summon everyone to a staff meeting where they’ll arrive to find themselves being prepped for an inter-departmental -or similar – softball tournament, or an office Olympics (although be careful here…health and safety can easily become involved!).
The most important thing you, as an employer, can do during the summer months is recognise the fact that on beautiful days your staff will, on the whole, rather be somewhere else than at work. It’s perfectly natural. In order to stop them getting glum (and therefore less productive) about this fact, it’s up to you to create some kind of buzz and feeling of excitement.
Outwith employee satisfaction during summer is the idea of product or brand promotion. The simple summer sale will no longer do if you want to make an impact on the market so start getting creative about summer plans!
Shops in on summer days are markedly darker – and consequently less inviting – than the streets and parks outside. As a result, you should think about moving your product outside and bringing it to people instead of expecting them to come and look for it in such uninviting circumstances. Dress your staff for summer and send them out and about to evangelise your brand and provide free samples (if free samples are appropriate…if you’re a producer of wardrobes for instance this idea will not fly so well). Search out parks and other sunny areas where people congregate and engage them.
You can set this as a basic standard and go however many steps further on you desire – set up stalls for your brand for instance. Attract more people by holding free lunchtime picnics (nicely branded of course) or take it in a different direction and hold open air after-hours drinks timed to hit the home time traffic or later to catch the evening crowd…there’s not much better than a cool drink on a balmy summer evening and your customers will remember you and your brand even if they don’t purchase.
It’s possible to think a tad more laterally and realise that making people aware of your brand is, perhaps, more important than getting them to try or buy at this stage – so think about sending staff out and about in branded clothing to provide a Summer Rescue Service on hot days – giving hot and tired people the chance to have a cool drink and sit down whilst receiving a brief but excellent relaxing massage to wipe the day’s cares away.
Think about holding a minor outdoor film festival – a different classic film each week, complete with refreshments and comfy chairs on a summer evening is an enormous pull and, once again, will do wonders for your branding.
The organising and sponsoring of a five-a-side football tournament for adults and kids is another certain winner…just make sure you’re putting yourselves about at a time when people are really looking for fun, summery things to do.
If you can’t take your product out and about then you must think about how you’ll make your showroom (if you’re in retail) or office more appealing. Get as much greenery in as possible, try putting together some kind of summer theme with regards to decoration, pack the pavement outside your premises with deckchairs so that weary passers by can rest their feet and enjoy a bit of sunlight. The most important thing is to make sure that you’re innovative and ahead of your direct and indirect competitors.
In short, seize summer!