HR Experts Tips on How to Recharge Your Batteries

Strong levels of employee engagement help improve revenue, deliver better levels of customer service and lead to a better profit margin.

However, according to a recent Gallup poll carried out in the USA, 45% of employees described themselves as ‘not engaged’ while a further 26% said they were ‘actively disengaged.’ This is an overwhelming majority of employees and has serious consequences as businesses strive to improve productivity, performance and efficiency.

One of the biggest factors in these figures is employee burnout. Employees who burn out very quickly become disengaged, demotivated and their performance levels plummet. Employers and employees both have responsibility to avoid this and there are a number of ways this can, and should, be done in the workplace.

But nothing beats a great vacation for recharging the batteries. Some people will happily spend a week on the beach armed with a collection of books and sun tan lotion, others will want to explore new horizons and tackle new adventures. The most important thing we can all do is to enjoy a vacation where we come back motivated, engaged and fully recharged.

We asked a selection of HR experts their advice for making the most of a vacation. Here’s what they told us:

1. Ensure an adequate period of time is taken for the 'break' - at least two weeks is necessary to properly wind down.

2. 'Trail' your vacation; including forthcoming vacation dates as an email footer is a useful way of preparing your customers and partners for your time off as well as building anticipation and excitement in your own mind.

3. Plan the handover with your upline prior to your break also ensuring that those to whom you're delegating tasks in your absence are fully briefed as to what may come up.

4. Managers should not, as a rule, contact someone on leave unless an absolute emergency and employees similarly should be actively discouraged from contacting the office during their time off.

5. Possibly not for everyone, but I prefer to take some time to reflect on what's been going on in my life in the run up to a holiday and, with that distance and perspective, make some resolutions (a bit like at new year) from a positive place. - Gerard Murtagh, HR Director Sales, Capita

Go away and forget about work until the night you’re due to start back. Focus, and then be excited about the coming months. - David Partridge, Head of Digital Enterprise Talent Acquisition, Fullstream Consulting

The best thing I can suggest is to not take the work phone, iPad or computer on your holiday. Better still, if you have to take a personal device, lock it in the hotel safe and restrict use to 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. This means if you absolutely need to, you can still check on work emails.

I’ve seen too many families buried in technology in bars and restaurants while on holiday. Holidays are time to reconnect with the family or to simply enjoy yourself. - Mark Sadler, Senior Vice President at Capgemini

Other insights we were given included practising mindfulness, preparing thoroughly before leaving, not trying to achieve too much on the first days back and, most importantly, to enjoy it.