How to Support Your Marketing Team During the Holiday Season

Are the holidays truly the most wonderful time of the year? Studies have shown that people often feel more stressed and anxious during the holiday season. Many tend to feel exhausted and irritable due to an increased workload and financial stress.

Unfortunately, this can put a massive strain on your marketing team's mental health. So before you start planning for the new year ahead, be more supportive of your marketers with these tips below.

8 Tips for Supporting Your Marketing Team

Be Open to Offering Additional Help.

Ask your marketers how you can help them. As a leader, you want to ensure that your marketing team works efficiently during the holiday season. On the other hand, you need to make sure they have everything they need to get the job done.

If you ask your employees, "How can I help?", this straightforward question shows your team can be open to discussing their pain points. Plus, you can better understand what's going on. If you avoid asking this question, you probably would never have guessed their issues on your own.

Additionally, this shows that you're open to assisting your team with any challenges. As a result, your marketers feel supported, and you build a trusting relationship.

Ask for Feedback.

As a business owner, it's your duty to be supportive and inspirational. Good leaders are aware of whether their current tasks are stealing their abilities to be supportive.

Of course, your tasks can feel endless, especially when it's during the holidays. However, you can make sure to avoid neglect with your marketers. Check in with yourself, be sure to put your priorities on hold, and ask for feedback.

Ask your employees, "How am I doing at supporting you?" This question gives your employees a chance to share their feelings. Also, it allows you to understand what you need to do to provide them with more support.

While you know the areas you lack, you also strengthen your relationship with your team. At the same time, you're boosting their morale and making everyone feel like a team.

Recognize Their Achievements.

When it gets closer to the end of the year, you have many deadlines to wrap up. Getting projects done on a whim can make your marketers feel a ton of pressure. To keep the holiday season full of cheer during work hours, celebrate your team's wins.

It's the time of year when building your team up and congratulating them is essential. No matter how big or small a success is, your marketers will appreciate the sentiment of recognition.

When you recognize their achievements, you create a positive work environment. Overall, recognition can increase their motivation, job satisfaction, and employee engagement.

Know Your Marketers’ Goals for Next Year.

While supporting your team during a stressful season is beneficial, you must also think of the future. Have a one-on-one chat with your marketers about their long-term career goals before the holidays begin.

When you understand employee goals for the future, you can navigate structures in leadership and organizational strategy more effectively. Above all, asking questions about their goals gives your team a chance to:

• Think beyond daily tasks
• Plan for the future at your company

This way, your company manages to set more concrete goals and an exciting outlook for the new year.

Implement Health and Wellness During the Holidays.

When work becomes stressful during the holidays, balance should be a high priority. Workplace stress, along with home life activities, can easily cause burnout and fatigue. As a result, your team's productivity and effectiveness go down the drain.

To prevent your team from reaching this point, this is where flexible scheduling can come into play. The holidays can be stressful for everyone.

So, consider adding a few mental health days. This option gives your marketers some time to feel more relaxed during the season. Or you could create a rule where no one sends emails after 5 p.m. during the holiday months.

Another way to keep your marketers productive is to give them a thoughtful note at the end of the year. Create acknowledgments surrounding struggles of new policies and transitions.

A study by Harvard Business Review shows that workers who received a letter felt more valued and supported than their colleagues. Even if you place a handwritten note on their desk, this can mean everything to them.

Overall, you're making your marketers feel special, and they know you're thinking of them.

Encourage Relaxation.

If you're thinking of ways to support your team during the holidays, gifts that encourage relaxation can help them feel recharged. For instance, a gift card to the local spa is an excellent way to alleviate stress.

Your marketers can have the opportunity to get a massage or get their nails done. This way, your team can feel much-needed rejuvenation when they come back to work.

Another way you can reduce stress for your team is to set up a meditative/exercise session. You can make these sessions available virtually, especially if you have a remote team. Your team's energy levels can dip when they're working at home. So, exercise is critical to drastically improving their energy.

However, if your team is in-office only, you could hire a therapist to lead a session. A therapist can also come in to discuss topics on managing wellness during stressful times.

Making wellness a priority for your team sets them up for business success. If you encourage your team adequately, you increase their productivity and commitment to you.

Be Protective of Time and Energy.

Research shows that 80 percent of U.S. workers will walk away from a job if flexibility is not available. More businesses are opting for a hybrid solution where employees can work in-office or at home. Your company can adapt to these new methods by:

• Preparing teams for an open line of communication.
• Reducing the stigma around working from home by having conversations about what flexible work-life looks like.

When you hear the concerns of your marketing team, you can solve more problems. In addition, this allows you to focus on what is working for the future.

Provide Tools for Your Team to Be Successful.

If you already have an excellent team of virtual marketers, now is the time to support their home office. Ask your team if they have the proper tools to work from home. You can support their daily work environments by offering a stipend for things including:

• Faster internet speeds.
• Office supplies.
• Office furniture, i.e., desk or lumbar support chairs.

For in-office workers, many people can tend to lose focus during the holidays. So it's imperative you provide the tools they need to be productive at work.

Great Work Requires Great Support

Your marketers work extra hard during the holiday season. So it's only fair that you give back to them with anything they need. When you make your employees feel supported, you create more opportunities for success.