With summer drawing to an end and the autumnal winds blowing from the north, bringing with them a constant barrage of fleecing downfalls and bitter cold, the positivity which has driven your summer projects to glorious success, and ultimately your sales, now finds itself at an all time new low.

It is not your fault and nor is it your staff’s. Who can blame you for feeling slightly apathetic when the prospect of Christmas is on the horizon, but distantly so? With such a seemingly long stretch between the present and presents it is no wonder the soul feels dampened!

But, if you’re the boss and your colleagues help drive your business forward, this coming winter will ensure it’s never been more important to keep their spirits high. With a tough 2013 winter expected for businesses, our staff will mean more to us than ever before.

Take a look at a few of our tips for perking up your office this winter…

Make your business a home

We’re not suggesting installing a couple of couches and leaving daytime TV on repeat all day. We’re talking about making a few little changes. Perk up your staff with their very own personalised pen, including a special message which recognises their place in your business, or make them feel secure and part of the team with their own custom company business cards. Making your business a home means going that extra mile when trying to make your staff feel appreciated by (and appreciate) the business they work for.

It’s charity time!

Now I hear you groaning at this idea already… it’s the same groans we hear when the dress down Friday collection-bucket comes around the office. But, taking part in one of many local and national upcoming charity events is always a fun way to raise spirits in the workplace, spread laughter around the office and help contribute towards a great cause.

Imagine the giggles when planning a Children in Need event; are you brave enough to sit in a bathtub of beans all day? Let your colleagues decide your fate, and make sure you deliver! It’s great for bringing people together and takes an edge off the serious business that your average work day delivers.

You don’t need to have a ton of spare time or even sacrifice precious work time either; for example events such as Macmillan’s Coffee morning is a great chance to offset the pressure of the average work day at minimum time expense and you get to spend half an hour drinking coffee!

Plus, Charity events are great for spreading a bit of goodwill for colleagues, current and potential clients; maybe include pictures in your business newsletter or share timeline updates on your social sites.

Office treats

We spend around 16 hours of the day awake, and at least 8 of those will be spent in the office. With this in mind, maybe it’s time to give your staff a bit of freedom with the tools they work with? Let them go ahead and order their own notebooks, pens, diaries, calendars etc. If every colleague personalised their own stationery, we think you’d find work a much happier work place with everyone using their own stationery!

The Company Christmas Card and New Year Calendars

We can’t think of a better way to inject a bit of fun and team spirit into the months running up to Christmas than with a picture competition for your branded company Christmas cards and company new year calendars! We’ve seen different departments competing for the coveted Christmas card design and the designs can get really ‘heated’ as each department goes one step further to outwit each other.

Or if you feel that perhaps a competition may just distract people too much or the marketing department may have more artistic flair and thus too big an advantage over the accountancy department etc, you could settle by asking for 12 different pictures within a personalised calendar, so each colleague/department could be asked to add a picture which they feel represents the business best. Just make sure you add a few rules!

Have any of your own ideas? Make sure to share below or on our Facebook page!

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