How to Ensure Your Employees Love Staying Late At the Office
It’s only natural that employees want to leave the office at a reasonable time to go home and rest for the day. There may be times when work calls for employees to stay late to complete a big project or host a party for a client, but how do you ensure that your staff won’t hate you afterward?
Employees can be devoted to their job and love what they do, but they can’t be expected to stay late at the office unless there is either a good reason or an incentive. Making the work environment more fun is just one way that you can get your employees dedicated to working longer hours.
Compensate with Incentives
There may be a situation where you need staff to stay late unexpectedly. This is a standard in many employment contracts yet, when working late becomes the norm, you need to compensate your staff with a reasonable financial incentive.
Some staff may be happy with intangible incentives such as time off during the weekday or the chance to be promoted, but money talks. Consider opening a channel of communication with your employees to establish what types of incentives would make them happy to work overtime.
Make It Less Work
No one likes to stay late at the office, and this is even more true when it’s all about the grunt work. Try to incorporate some fun in the form of take-out dinners for everyone, or an office casino night with spincasino.com after the work is finished. Everyone loves to play games and your employees can split into groups and play against each other. You could also try taking your staff out for a few drinks after a good night of work.
The point is to give them something to look forward to that is not during normal working hours so that they are willing to stay late in the future. Couple a fun work night with an added overtime incentive and your employees may just be begging you to work late.
Don’t Create a Habit
An employee can be expected to stay late under special circumstances, but making it a habit will only create disgruntled staff. If you want to encourage your employees to put in the extra time and be happy about it, don’t make it a regular occurrence. Many employees are happy to assist the company they work for, as long as they don’t feel as though they are being taken advantage of.
A major downside to a burnt-out employee is that they will be tired, their attention span may suffer and their job performance could diminish.
Staying late at the office isn’t fun for anyone even the boss, but there are ways that you can separate the workday from the worknight. To ensure your employees are happy to stay late at the office, make the company’s priorities clear and inform them that working late will be compensated properly. Employees need to feel valued and by offering incentives, overtime, or a fun after-hours working environment you can make staying late at the office a bonus and not a chore.