The winter months mean less sunlight, colder temperatures and often, dampened moods. It’s common for people to feel more tired and less motivated in the winter, which can negatively impact work performance. However, a winter slump is not inevitable—it may require a bit of extra effort, but you and your teams can stay just as motivated during those colder months.
To help you out this winter, we asked members of Young Entrepreneur Council to share how they raise spirits in the workplace throughout the season. Follow their recommendations to keep your team feeling productive until spring arrives again.
Young Entrepreneur Council members offer tips on how employers can encourage motivation.
1. Scheduled Special Events
We ramp up our smaller special events in the winter to break up the days. Whether it’s an in-house barista for a day or a massage station, small pick-me-ups can boost the office mood without taking up a lot of time or resources. – Josh Payne, StackCommerce
2. Team-Building Activities
One good way to keep teams feeling productive and motivated during winter is to do indoor team-building activities. This will bring employees closer to their co-workers and closer to the values and purpose of the brand. – Alfredo Atanacio, Uassist.ME
3. Health-Conscious Initiatives
A major contributor to seasonal depression is poor diet and limited exposure to sunlight. To combat this, I always try and emphasize healthy living around the colder months. I put fresh fruit in the break room, which can provide Vitamins C and D, and organize fun runs or other active team-building events. – Bryce Welker, Accounting Institute of Success
4. Remote Work Days
New York City winters can be brutal between the subzero temperatures and snow. I find the best way to keep my team motivated is by allowing them to work from home on Fridays as long as they get all work done on time. – Kristin Kimberly Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC
5. Holiday Bonuses
We like to offer our employees holiday bonuses. This time of the year is important for everyone, and we think that a bonus can go a long way towards helping our employees have a fun and festive holiday season. When you’re financially stable, cold and dark months seem a lot less depressing. – John Turner, SeedProd LLC
6. Positivity
Darker skies and colder weather aren’t entirely bad. Winter comes with its own magic and it can be easy to forget that. Sharing gorgeous winter pictures and great news related to the season can help boost your employees mood. It’s important to lead by example and stay positive. You’ll be able to share that positive spirit with the people you work with. – Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner
7. Exercise And Fresh Air
It’s difficult to muster up enough energy during the darker, colder months to work out and take care of our bodies. If you instill this importance at work, you’re sure to reap the benefits from your team. If it isn’t too cold, encourage employees to take a walk for lunch and get some fresh air. It’ll do them good to step out of the office and put their health first. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable Forms
8. Hygge
One perk about the darker, colder months is that they lead to a cozier feel that can be brought into the office. Create a warm and welcoming office environment that makes employees feel happy despite the weather! There is a lot of positive learning from creating a “hygge” or cozy atmosphere for your business to encourage your team to remain productive and motivated. – Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors
9. Gamification
Who doesn’t love playing games? To spice things up during the colder months, try gamifying some of the office processes to break the monotony and start something new for your team. It’ll get them out of a rut and encourage them to think positively about working rather than feeling depressed and not looking forward to it. – Jared Atchison, WPForms
10. Guest Speakers
For most of the country, winter can be a motivational killer. On days I know it will be extra cold or gloomy, I like to bring in guest speakers. Invite people from within and outside the industry to come and talk about their journey and what they have learned from their experiences. I have found that this gives the team a nice break and motivates them at the same time. – Rana Gujral, Behavioral Signals
11. Fun Internal Challenges
Having light-hearted and fun challenges or games within your organization can add spice to the season. You can create laughter by setting up a simple meme generation contest. Maybe create a space for employees to share artwork. This will give you the chance to learn more about your employees and create team building in a subtle way. – Blair Williams, MemberPress
12. Natural Light And Warmth
Our office is designed with multiple windows to always let sunlight flow in during the fall and winter months. This helps maintain morale immensely after daylight savings time kicks in and it gets dark around 6 p.m. If you live in northern states, we recommend buying heat lamps at bulk discounts and storing them until winter hits. By design, heat lamps will raise spirits within the office. – Duran Inci, Optimum7
13. KPI Measurements
Like all the other months of the year, there is a reason teams are productive: pride. They are proud of the work they complete and that is where KPIs come in. We use KPIs for each and every position to help keep people productive. People can work towards beating their previous records. – Dishan Jayasinha, DG Studio
14. Curiosity Creation
Motivation is fleeting; lasting action transforms companies. As an NLP and hypnosis practitioner, I’ve found that there’s one surefire way to always create lasting change for sales-heavy organizations: curiosity. Curiosity is a powerful emotion. When elicited, it creates motivation to find the solution and connects to a bigger purpose than simply the task at hand. – Klyn Elsbury, Shark School
*This article first appeared on the Forbes website