Summer Fridays

Summer is fast approaching, and your employees’ motivation and productivity are decreasing. What can you do about it? You could consider instituting summer Fridays.

Summer Fridays are any policy that gives your employees all or part of a Friday off during the summer. Your employees can get an early start to their weekend and enjoy the summer weather. Examples of a Summer Friday policy include

• letting your employees leave at noon every Friday,
• letting your employees leave at noon the Friday before a holiday,
• only working half-a-day every other Friday,
• giving your employees every other Friday off (you can even stagger the Fridays, so you’re still staffed every Friday),
• allowing your employees to work 10 hours a day Monday-Thursday and take Fridays off (if it doesn’t violate overtime rules), or
• closing the office every Friday at 3PM.

You might not be able to give your employees a lot of time off on Fridays. But, depending on your business’s needs and your staffing requirements, you might be able to make Summer Fridays work.

What are the Benefits of Implementing Summer Fridays?

Offering Summer Fridays is an easy and cheap perk that can help you compete with larger companies when trying to attract top talent. By offering Summer Fridays, you’ll be much more appealing than companies who allow their employees to wear shorts and flipflops during the summer or host an annual office picnic.

Summer Fridays can greatly increase your employees’ engagement, which naturally leads to increased productivity. Your employees might be working fewer hours, but they’ll be getting a lot more done, instead of daydreaming about going to the beach.

A Summer Friday policy can also help prevent burn out, so your top performing employees will stick around longer.

Because your employees can pretty much be reached at any time of day (through cell phones, email, etc.), a healthy work-life balance is more important now that ever. By giving your employees a few extra hours off during the summer, they’ll be able to spend more time with their families or make time for trips with friends.

How Do I Make Summer Fridays Work?

To make Summer Fridays effective, you have to make sure that you’re not shaming people for taking advantage of them. That means that you and your managers should also take advantage of Summer Fridays. If you’re not taking time off, your employees won’t think it’s acceptable to actually take Fridays off.

You also need to set up clear guidelines and expectations. You’ll have to choose a beginning and end date (like from the Friday before Memorial Day to the Friday before Labor Day). You should also remind your employees that deadlines need to be met and encourage them to wrap up any projects before they leave for the weekend.

If your Summer Friday policy will affect your business’s hours, let your customers know. That way they’re not surprised if you can’t fix an issue until Monday. Consumers today like to know that businesses really care about people, so letting your customers know that you’re giving your employees some much needed time off will show that you’re taking care of your employees.