The Summer Slowdoooown ???
"Slowing down isn’t about protesting work. It’s instead about finding a better way to do it.”
Cal Newport,?’Slow Productivity’
Summer has finally hit the UK - and it feels gooood! Festival season is well and truly under way (half of the PF team are at Glastonbury as we speak... not jealous at all), Euros are on, OOO’s are everywhere, school’s have broken up for summer. Life is good.
Whilst this is for many people the best part of the year, it’s an incredibly challenging period for businesses as we enter the summer slowdown. In our current financial climate, no business can afford to fully slowdown over this period.
So how can we beat the slow down? I’ll take a look at:
Let’s go ??????
What it means and why it happens
As mentioned above the summer slowdown is something businesses grapple with every year. The most shocking stat I saw in relation to this was that in the UK, 45% of FTEs say there are less productive in the summer months (linked below)!
Imagine the impact of almost half of your team not meeting targets, how much would that cost you in the long run? For startups in particular, you cannot afford to have this productivity crisis.
Before we can find solutions though we need to look at why this might be happening. To me there are 3 main areas that are at the centre of the issue:
Now we know what the main reasons are, let’s dive into what solutions are linked.
Tips to tackle it
School holidays
With kids being around more than usual during the day, work becomes especially challenging for parents as they juggle the responsibilities of childcare. Reviewing how you can support your employees that are parents (especially of young dependants) is vital for giving them a fair shot at productivity.
This could be working the 8 hour day at intervals - eg. 6-8am, 10-1pm, 2-4pm
It could be just starting earlier and finishing earlier in general, or equally starting later and finishing later
It might be more difficult for parents to make it into the office as much so making room for additional remote time is great
Some companies have a ‘nanny allowance’ whereby they credit parents with a set amount per month for them to use with someone like Koru Kids if they need to have them in the office specifically, or to let them come to the summer party etc. A really nice perk to have especially throughout the summer months.
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Annual leave causes delays in projects
First of all I should prefix this by saying - no company should get to the summer and find all of their team are off at the same time. Yes summer is more appealing for holiday bookings but a successful team is one that takes regular breaks. If you find your team are booking the majority of their holiday throughout the summer months this is a major red flag ?? beware!!
Of course it goes without saying that sales cycles slow down during summer due to holidays and decision makers being off - so the best thing you can do is ensure every communication is documented internally so if it picks back up whilst someone is on holiday then it’s clear what needs to happen.
Hotter weather and seasonal allergies lead to sleepiness at work
This feels like a very British point where we like to complain about the weather no matter if it’s too hot or too cold ???but hotter weather genuinely does impact productivity so instead of fighting it let’s embrace it and react accordingly.
Is there more ‘slow-speed’ work to be done? eg retrospective sessions, workshopping, in person collaboration sessions. All good ways to encourage high performance thinking whilst leaning into a slower speed.
Could be a good time to encourage learning courses or passion projects. Perhaps setting up dedicated learning hours per week for the team, or setting a monthly 'dream team' project for a bit of a refresher from the day to day.
Why not take a meeting outside if you don’t 100% need a screen? Your thighs are the 3rd most important body part because they allow you to move! So put them to work to drive both creativity and productivity.
???Company Spotlight ??
Whilst for many of us the concept of summer Fridays is very modern and state of the art - Kellogg Company have been banging this drum for over 20 years!!
Every year from May to September all employees automatically get a half day on Friday. It all started from a study which found that 66% of respondents would be interested in working harder during the week in exchange for the half day off on Friday. It is not mandated but voluntary if you’d like to take it - but if you do the expectation is you work the same amount of hours roughly throughout the week so that no work is negatively impacted.
Kellogg’s ex UKI HR Director, Melanie Bowes, praised the effect of the initiative:
“By giving our people half a day for themselves each week it allows them to recharge and unwind. Not only is this great for people’s mental and physical wellbeing but it also leads to increased productivity and motivation. When implementing summer hours, we ask our people managers to work with their teams to ensure they’re making the most of the benefit’’.
Things to note:
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
Mahatma Gandhi
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