Beat the New Year Blues

The Christmas and New Year break tends to be a time when we take stock of our lives – and employers can find that staff have spent the holidays brooding over problems at work or even dusting off the cv and looking for a new job. So what can organisations do to make sure everyone’s on board for 2018?

Getting the New Year blues at work?

1. Get motivated: With summer a long way off and our bank balances feeling the strain, January can put everyone on a bit of a downer giving us the New Year Blues at work. It’s never too early to start discussing plans for the next staff social or away day – and even just setting a date for a few after-work drinks gives everyone something to look forward to.

2. Take a ‘temperature test’: Get a good idea of how everyone’s feeling with some well-crafted questions designed to get people thinking and proactively making suggestions about improving things around the office. Make sure you listen and take on board good ideas – you’ll find people are far more engaged when they have a say over things that affect them.

3. Think healthy: A lot of us feel we’ve piled on the pounds over the festive season, so think about introducing group fitness activities or setting up some health challenges– or even just bringing in fresh fruit and healthy snacks for January.

4. Give back. Giving something back is a great way of beating the blues and appreciating what’s good in our lives – and it’ll enhance your organisation’s’ reputation too. So consider planning a charity fundraising event or getting involved in a community volunteering scheme.

5. Prepare for change. Periods of change and uncertainty can be stressful for employees, so make sure you’re aware of any coming changes in the law that will affect your staff in 2018 and think about what kind of support and information you can provide to guide people through them.

Happy staff are better motivated, more engaged and more productive. Discover the importance of supporting good mental health at work with Mental health in the workplace training from VinciWorks. These online films include subject matter experts from MIND – the mental health charity.

How are you managing your GDPR compliance requirements?

GDPR added a significant compliance burden on DPOs and data processors. Data breaches must be reported to the authorities within 72 hours, each new data processing activity needs to be documented and Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) must be carried out for processing that is likely to result in a high risk to individuals. Penalties for breaching GDPR can reach into the tens of millions of Euros.

“In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.”