ZoEnews Fall 2011 Edition

"You Can Run, But You Can't Hide"

Halloween is over, but an even scarier time of year is sneaking up on your employees... the end of year "crunch" time.

Paperwork and documentation to close out 2011, budgeting and planning for 2012, project wrap-ups, and other work-related items will compete with vacations, holiday shopping, and inclement weather in a perfect storm of stress.

These combined factors affect workplace productivity at both an individual and organizational level. What can organizations implement on the training and professional development front to raise resiliency and help employees make it through the year-end minefield?

• STRESS MANAGEMENT: Too much stress can lead to burnout, but in today's fast-paced work environment it's a fact of life. Consider fun workshops - for example, using actual juggling as a metaphor - that impart real-world lessons such as "plan on dropping the ball" and "you can't juggle for somebody else."

• TIME MANAGEMENT: The important, the urgent, the urgent-and-important, the my-boss-needs-this-by-5pm-yesterday...sometimes it seems like ALL our tasks are high priority. Identifying specific, practical ways to manage multiple priorities and eliminate ineffective time-wasters is a must.

• ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS: How much time have you spent this week looking for that document or email you filed in "a safe place" where you'd be sure to remember it? Too much! Improving paper, electronic, and e-mail organization and turning those piles into files can help employees realize literally hours of additional time each week.

• WORK-LIFE BALANCE: Don't buy into the notion that "you can have it all!" The truth is, "you can have what is most important to you – and you have to choose and make trade-offs." Helping employees get clear on work/career and personal priorities can eliminate the guilt and indecision that sometimes plague those necessary choices.

• HARASSMENT PREVENTION & AWARENESS: When personal and stress levels are high, workplace harassment and other non-inclusive behavior can be a side effect. These types of matters can be particularly critical due to the legal implications and residual employee relations issues. You can help raise awareness and build capacity for creating an inclusive, respectful work environment.

Workshops like these, along with related topics such as Emotional Intelligence, Communication Skills, Change Resilience, and Team Building, can increase an individual's ability to contribute most effectively to the team and the organization while maintaining the personal reserve necessary to prevent burnout.

CONTACT US TODAY to discuss how you can best give your employees the tools and the map they need to make it through these high stress times. Let's leave the scary stuff where it belongs - on October 31st.