18 Smart Ways To Stay Productive When Business Is Slow

Getty

For service companies that experience a summer slowdown every year, finding ways to keep staff members productive during this time is crucial for maintaining momentum and utilizing resources effectively. While customer or client work may decrease, there are many valuable activities that employees can engage in to make the most of their and the company’s time.

Here, 18 Forbes Coaches Council members highlight strategies companies can use to ensure teams remain productive during the summertime. From professional development and skills training to brainstorming sessions to make process improvements and enhance internal operations, check out the various avenues service companies can take to help team members focus their efforts in the most beneficial ways when business is slow below.

1. Focus On Free Professional Development

During a summer slowdown, service companies can keep staff productive by focusing on free professional development, process improvement, research, team building, creative projects, networking and free employee well-being initiatives. These activities maximize employee engagement and contribute to long-term growth. – Foluso Gbadamosi, FolusoGbadamosi.com

2. Evaluate What Can Be Improved

I love saying, “Go slow to go fast,” and summer slowdowns are a great time to invest in personal leadership development. Leadership starts with the person. Slow seasons are also great for evaluating which systems, tools or processes need to be revamped. Lastly, the gift of “free” vacation time for employees (whether it is a day or more) from the company goes a long way to rejuvenate staff members for busy times. – Melissa DeLuca, DeLuca & Willow

3. Reflect On What Has Gone Well And Not So Well

During a summer slowdown, I would focus on three specific things: Take time to reflect on what has gone well, what hasn’t gone so well and what we can take forward. There is energy that can be taken from reminding ourselves of our success, and learning is invaluable for growth. Second, sharpen the saw and focus on personal development. Finally, I would look at high-impact, short-burst projects to set us up for success. – Ricky Muddimer, Thinking Focus

4. Maximize Employees’ Talent

Ask employees what they want to contribute in specific areas of the business that will further a certain strategic goal, and then agree on the parameters. This will keep them engaged and excited to be contributing to a valuable, possibly new function for when the business will be back in the swing of things! – Cellene Hoogenkamp, KokuaHub Inc

5. Prepare To Cope With Future Challenges

A popular saying advises that “you have to redo your roof when the weather is nice!” A business slowdown is a very good time to step back from the daily routines and do a strategic review of activities. Here are some questions to answer: “Are we prepared for the next challenges? Are we investing enough in people, technologies and innovation to cope with future challenges, both ecological and social?” – Catherine Tanneau, Activision Coaching Institute

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?

6. Get Strategic And Build New, Faster Systems

When business is slow, get strategic! Any slowdown is a perfect time to invest in building new systems to handle scale and speed. When you have space in the calendar is the time to build templates, processes and business continuity systems, as well as purge inventory and document libraries. Slow times are when you lay the foundation to make the faster times smooth! – David Taylor-Klaus, MCC, CPCC, CTPC, DTK Coaching, LLC

7. Brainstorm Future Services

During slowdowns, companies get an incredible opportunity to work on building their team, planning forward, brainstorming future services, reviewing their current processes, testing services for validation and training on new skills that the team may need. This opportunity allows for great growth inside a company if used wisely. – Bobbie Goheen, Synthesis Management Group

8. Tie Up Loose Ends, Then Rest And Recharge

There is an ebb and flow in life and in business. The key here is to understand that everything is cyclical and change is always around the corner. I encourage my clients to take advantage of the slower times and work on the business by tying up loose ends, getting organized in-house, strategizing on business development and doing some fun team-building activities. Rest and recharge for the busy season—it’s coming! – Cheryl Keates, PCC, Cheryl Keates

9. Conduct Team-Building Activities

A slow period is the perfect time to evaluate the efficiency of the business. Looking at department policies, processes and service offerings to determine if any changes are necessary will allow the company to help more customers during the busy season. This is also a great time for team building through volunteer days, cleaning the space, and training and development. – Lindsay Miller, Reverie Organizational Development Specialists

10. Focus On Meeting Training Goals

Focusing on meeting training goals for personal and professional development can effectively fill the time during a summer slowdown for service-based companies. This reminds employees they have the power to move the needle in their career trajectories and builds their growth mindset. – Ariel McGrew, Tactful Disruption®

11. Cross-Train Employees

One of the strategies that companies can use to keep their staff members productive during the summertime is to cross-train employees. By teaching staff members new skills or having them work in different areas of the business, you can help them stay motivated and prevent boredom or burnout. It is also a great way to keep them engaged and productive when facing a summer slowdown. – Paula Vidal Castelli, Paula Vidal Castelli Intl., LLC

12. Hire A Development Trainer Or Facilitator

A summer slowdown is the best period to use spare time for learning and development so that staff members can sharpen their skills and knowledge or learn new skills to be ready for the peak season. Hiring a trainer or facilitator can be a great way to ensure learning and development will not only benefit personal growth, but also business growth. – Senem Anataca, 180UTC

13. Work On Improving Internal Operations

One of my favorite quotes is, “You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems,” by James Clear. If there is downtime, businesses should always be working on improving internal operations, such as processes, IT systems and so forth. This will not only likely save the business money, but it also will increase the engagement of your team. – Wendy Fong, Chief Gigs

14. Conduct Market And User Research

Here are three ways companies can take advantage of slow times during the summer: 1. Hire a training company to train staff on new systems, such as AI technologies. 2. Carry out business process improvement initiatives by mapping out, analyzing and improving existing processes. 3. Conduct market and user research—review all customer databases as well as competitors’ data, and create an improvement action plan for the busy periods. – Eno Eka, The Business Analysis School

15. Innovate And Collaborate

A summer slowdown allows for space to create. Task your staff with working on projects that set their hearts on fire and are of high service to your clients. Test out a new offering. Connect with your best customers. If you can do this as a team, even better! – Amy Pocsik, Bold Moves

16. Reflect On Where You Are And Start A Passion Project

A common frustration I hear from successful people is that they struggle to make time for strategic thinking. A natural slow point is perfect for reflecting on your direction of travel and on the balance you’re striking. How do you really feel about the life you are creating? Where do you want to course-correct? Then use passion projects as a vehicle for indulging and expanding your capabilities. – Duncan Skelton, Duncan Skelton Coaching Ltd

17. Create New Products And Better Services

Use the benefit of downtime to create new products and better services and to provide opportunities for your team to develop new skills. When the clients are ready, your team will also be ready to provide new and better services for your clients! – Cindy Lamir, Impact Business Coaches

18. Encourage And Allow Employees To Take More PTO

Companies should be encouraging teams to take paid time off with family and friends during the summer months. Research shows that offering sabbaticals is the best way to get people to return to the office refreshed, more grateful and more productive than they were before they left. So, organizations should allow more time off in the summer so that employees come back refreshed and do their best work. – Carmelina Piedra, CareerCoachingPro