The holidays bring with them an energy and excitement that can help enliven the office throughout the month of December. But once January hits, sometimes a new atmosphere can emerge - and it’s not nearly as pleasant as the earlier one.

Enter the post-holiday blues. Known for showing up once Christmas, New Year’s, and all their attendant festivities have passed, the post-holiday blues can be a minor annoyance or a real drain on productivity. They can be even worse for employees who have Seasonal Affective Disorder, a kind of seasonal depression aptly abbreviated as SAD.

So what can you do to help pull your employees out of the dumps, and make the office a vibrant, buzzing place once again? Here are a few ideas.

Give your team something to look forward to.

The post-holiday blues have a lot to do with the sudden lack of events and festivities. December is filled with parties, get-togethers, shopping, baking - the list goes on. Then suddenly, you’re staring down January’s empty weeks wondering when you’re going to have fun again.

To jump-start the recovery process, try scheduling some kind of small event - a catered breakfast, calling in food trucks to park in your parking lot during lunch time, an ice cream social. Putting it on the office calendar will give your team something fun to anticipate and help ease them back into the post-holiday routine.

Bring the outside in - or better yet, go outside.

Sunlight and fresh air have been proven to lift spirits and refresh the mind. The next time you’re in the office, look around and see if there are ways you can introduce more of the outdoors into your employees’ workspace. Are there windows you could open now and then? Could you bring in a few live plants?

And if possible, encourage your employees to take their breaks outside. Getting in just a few minutes of sunlight and breathing the outdoor air can work wonders for even your most unmotivated employees. You could even try walking meetings, which will give you not only fresh air and sunshine, but exercise, too.

Initiate an employee wellness program.

We all know that eating better and getting in shape are two of the top New Year’s resolutions people make each year, which is why employee wellness programs are often introduced at the start of the year.

Try one out with your contact center agents. Introduce challenges and set goals - you can even have your agents split up into teams to compete against each other.

You could challenge employees to engage in healthy habits like drinking a certain amount of water each day, giving up sodas, or taking the stairs. Set a budget for rewards and incentives for those who continually meet their goals. Healthier habits invariably increase energy and improve mood, so you’ll be doing yourself and your employees a favor - especially if you participate, too.

Give them more tools to succeed at their jobs.

There’s nothing to frustrate an employee like not having the tools he needs to perform his job well. Unfortunately, a lot of contact centers haven’t yet embraced the available technology that can make their employees’ workloads more intuitive and give them the information they need to serve your customers in the best way they can.

2016 could be a great year to invest in workforce optimization software, like the Verint Media Recorder Workforce Optimization suite.

Or perhaps your needs are more narrow. Maybe you only need Enterprise Feedback Management software, which can help you make sense of the feedback you get from various channels (including from your employees, as well as your customers).

Whatever your needs, KOVA would love to help you meet them. If you think a workforce optimization solution might benefit your company - and keep those post-holiday blues from turning into year-long blues - contact us!