The beginning of the year is often associated with a heavy workload for fiduciary companies. In this blog post, there are tips for managers of fiduciary companies on how they can increase the motivation of their employees and promote team spirit before the busy season.
During the Busy Season at the beginning of the year, many fiduciary companies sink into work. Given the heavy workload, it is even more important that your team works well together. Teams with a strong cohesion reach their goals faster, achieve better results and are more stress-resistant. Below you will find ways to motivate your staff and promote team spirit.
Create a constructive corporate culture
According to the Gabler Business Dictionary the “set of shared values, norms and attitudes that shape the decisions, actions and behaviour of organisational members” The culture of a company reflects fundamental norms and values, which can be seen, among other things, in the motivation of the employees. You may not be able to completely change the culture of your company in the short term before the busy season, but now is a good time to critically examine the culture of your fiduciary. Do you have to rethink values, norms or attitudes you have lived by so far? Are there actions and behaviours you want to see more of? In which areas do you see potential for optimisation? Actively work throughout the year to create an open and productive company culture. Be responsive to your employees and support them as much as possible in their daily work. Even in hectic times like the upcoming Busy Season, proactively offer help in case of problems. Communicate openly and be transparent when it comes to the company’s goals and development. Express appreciation towards your employees.
Allow your employees enough freedom
Many Swiss fiduciary companies still have a strong hierarchical structure. Important decisions are almost exclusively in the hands of the partners. Managers give their staff little freedom and impulses for change usually come from the top. As a result, young fiduciary talents often lack the framework to profitably contribute their strengths. This can be particularly frustrating for Generation Y and Z fiduciaries. But you can counteract this. Create suitable structures in your fiduciary company so that your team members can contribute and develop. Be open to suggestions from young and digital-savvy employees. This promotes the motivation of your employees in a sustainable way and provides them with valuable new perspectives.
Reading Tip: In this blog post, you will learn why fiduciary companies should move away from steep hierarchies.
Reduce the workload and take the pressure off
Be careful – even outside the busy season – not to put too much on your team. Check on the well-being of your employees regularly throughout the year and make sure that no one is overworking for a long period of time. If you recognise the first signs of excessive stress in your employees or yourself, such as physical discomfort, fatigue and exhaustion, irritability, mood swings or nervousness, you should find a medium-term solution to reduce the workload in your team. The outsourcing of routine activities to fiduciary software and a stronger focus on the core business significantly relieves fiduciary companies.
Provide an attractive workplace for fiduciary talent
The use of innovative software solutions and tools has become an important factor in workplace design for fiduciary companies. The fiduciaries of today and tomorrow no longer want to deal with partially digitalised solutions and time-consuming software breaks. Work processes should function seamlessly and run via a single platform that is intuitive to use. As an employer, demonstrate that your fiduciary company is exploiting the opportunities of digitalisation and provide your employees with a modern and functional working environment. Only in this way can fiduciary talents live up to their potential, which is an important motivating factor for employees of generations Y and Z.
Distribute tasks fairly
During the busy season, overtime and even night shifts are not uncommon in many fiduciary companies. If individual team members feel they are more stretched than others, this will cause dissatisfaction in your busy team. Therefore, make sure that the distribution of tasks is fair. Get an overview of how busy individual team members will be with financial statements, tax optimisation and analysis before the busy season. Allow a buffer for last-minute requests. Who needs support and who might have capacity for additional tasks? Reward good performance and helpfulness. However, also show understanding if individual employees cannot or do not want to take on additional tasks.
Extra Tip: Digital collaboration tools help with time management and the fair distribution of tasks. With Accounto, you and your team members have an up-to-date overview of work progress at all times. Now Discover Accounto and simplify collaboration in your team!
Promote team cohesion with targeted events
As described above, a constructive corporate culture, development opportunities for your employees, the right working environment and fair distribution of tasks form the basis for team cohesion. You can further promote team spirit with team-building events. Escape room, cooking or brewing course, painting workshops, go-karting, mystery dinner or lectures by an external expert with an aperitif: As a manager, you know your team best and know what you can do to give your employees pleasure and where the team members can get to know each other better in a relaxed setting. Make sure that team events take place during working hours if possible, or at least start during working hours. Also, avoid activities that require above-average physical fitness so as not to exclude anyone.
