Productivity plummets as majority of staff now concentrate on Christmas

Over half of the workforce (57 percent) of employees admit to officially downing tools today (Monday 18 December) as the festive period gets well and truly underway, claims new research by Peakon. The HR analytics firm’s survey of more than 2,000 people reveals that, as Christmas creeps ever closer, employees admit to a whole raft of distractions from their everyday work duties. Two in five people (42 percent) confess to clocking off to Christmas shop online, a third (35 percent) say they’re planning Christmas day and almost one in three (30 percent) are planning their Christmas break instead. One in six (16 percent) confess to indulging in the odd Christmas tipple on the job – with men twice as likely to take advantage of a festive drink than women (22 percent and 11 percent respectively). 17 percent of those surveyed leave work earlier than usual, and one in 10 (12 percent) take longer lunches. A small percentage (4 percent) confess to calling in sick. But offering staff more flexible hours for shopping and Christmas prep would help maintain performance.

When asked why they’d slacked off, one in five (21 percent) respondents said they were simply ‘too excited’ to focus. A third (32 percent) said they had too much to plan ahead of Christmas day, 21 percent admitted to feeling ‘burnt-out’ and a fifth (19 percent) said workplace festivities such as Secret Santa or the office party were to blame. One in three (32 percent) said it was simply the case that business has slowed down and there’s less work to do at this time of year.

Dan Rogers, co-founder of Peakon says: “I think it’s fair to say that the great Christmas ‘click-off’ is well and truly a thing, with a silent agreement in most workplaces that productivity takes a hit at this time of year. As a business, the worst thing you can do is bury your head in the sand; it pays to try to understand what is going on.

“Acknowledge that this dip is inevitable and plan around it. Think of it as good time to regroup as a team, gather feedback on the progress you have made during the year, and plan how you will continue in January. Most businesses, with the exception of retail, experience a slow down around this time of year anyway, so trust your team and let them relax a little. Many employees are unlikely to have taken a break since summer, and will be more prone to burnout. If you look after the wellbeing of your team, you’ll ultimately get the best out of them.”

Some employers are tackling this head on. Online marketing agency Distilled has offered employees Christmas shopping hours, whereby workers can take Friday afternoon off if they make up the time during the week.

Distilled’s CEO, Will Critchlow, says: “A bit of distraction is inevitable at this time of year. We’re all human. So at Distilled, we don’t try to fight it too much – with flexibility for shopping, the odd long lunch, and generally trusting the team to plan their time. We might take a bit of a hit at this time of the year, but we trust our team and we know it balances out over time.”

For more detailed results, data visualisations and tips for employers visit https://peakon.com/blog/post/the-great-christmas-click-off-2017/