Tax Season 2018 Blog Series [8/10] – 5 Ways To Have More Fun At Work

It is tax season – busy and stressful. Isn’t it?

As we know that stress is a huge factor during tax season that not only reduces productivity at work, turns tax work into chaos (that ought to be fun) but also increases costs and time needed to complete a task.

With Tax Season 2018 blog series, we aim to help CPA, accountants, and businesses to have an easy, accurate and a relaxed tax filing season.

Continuing the series, in this post, we’ve shared a few tips that can make tax-work fun and help you engage with your team efficiently during this busy tax season.

Having fun at work not only helps in engaging your employees, improve their work satisfaction, reduce work-related stress, but also helps them collaborate better, which in turn, enables your accounting firm to file more taxes, retain more clients and earn more profits.

Follow these five tips to have more fun at work in this tax season.

A) Fun Games and Activities

Playing games and having fun activities such as pranks at work is a great way to make people laugh, facilitate bonding with your team members, and distress employees.

This also gives your employees break from their work, apply their mind with a creative and problem-solving approach while playing games, which, in turn, results in employees returning to work in a happier, fresher and more energized mind.

Workplace pranks can also contribute to a positive and healthy work culture by keeping everyone close and share the deepest laugh. Make sure that games and fun activities should boost the morale of employees and not discourage them professionally and personally.

B) Celebrate Employee Birthdays and Anniversaries

You might probably have many occasions, be it your business growth or a big project, to celebrate as a team or as a business. Of course, those celebrations are essential, but they lack the dedicated focus on an employee or person.

An employee birthday or anniversary is a great way to show you value their contribution and allow them to embrace the limelight. Even if for a day, this makes them feel positive, appreciated and inspired for the whole day.

The employee should be presented with souvenirs and gifts to mark the occasion.

C) Host a Communal Lunch or Dinner

Those who eat together stay together. Family style lunch or dinner lets you come close to your team, facilitate open communication and unify everyone on the same desk even when the employees are working on different projects or tax-related work.

This also helps the employees know each other better, talk about new and interesting things and even discover new foods. Order pizza, sandwiches or throw little parties to bring people together to open the door for the social element at work.

Eating together creates a friendly environment that connects people more than working together on an excel sheet or tax software. This feeling goes back into the work, thus more engagement, fun, and productivity. Make sure you have a tax season after party planned for your teammates and employees.

D) Be Appreciative

Everyone loves being appreciated. This makes them feel valued, motivated, and good about what they do.

Start small and make sure you appreciate each employee personally. You can use certain ways to demonstrate your appreciation. For instance, if you want to appreciate your accountant William for his hard work and dedication to work, it can be done in the following ways –

• Thank you! William.
• You do such a great job! Keep it up.
• Great job! William.
• Not everyone is a creative thinker… but you are.
• You’ve got a winner’s attitude. Of course!
• You took the time – and that has made all the difference!
• What a great idea, William! Thank you for sharing it with us!
• I appreciate your dedication, William. Keep it up!
• You have no idea how much this has helped me.

Praise for their good work is one of the things you can do very effectively to motivate your accountants or employees and recognize their efforts in this tax season. You can also send them a handwritten note, do a heartfelt handshake or a simple pat on their back would also do.

Tell someone how much you value their work and appreciate them today.

E) Create a Workspace You Enjoy

An unorganized and a boring work environment can dramatically reduce interest in work, productivity, and feel-good vibes. No one likes white wall, unorganized files, junk crowding the space and poor lighting in the office.

It’s about how you add a ‘wow’ factor to your workspace which would reflect on your company culture, highlight people and feel like home to your employees. Here is how:

• Designate a wall of office as the “Employee Picture Wall” where they can stick a picture of their vacation, kids, family or even team engagement events.
• Have an “Announcement Board” to announce a piece of news, employee appreciation, job openings or events and celebrations.
• Allow employees to personalize their desk – add photos of family and loved ones, inspiring quotes or images, or a checklist of priority things for their tax season work.
• Having plants, proper lighting and a calm and pleasant wall color can psychologically engage your employees, which results in a happier work.

These are just a few ideas – use your imagination and take employee suggestions on how you can create an office space that will make them relaxed and want to come to work.

Bonus

Take a laugh break with this video where CPAs tell their favorite accounting jokes.

Conclusion

Tax season work doesn’t have to be stressful, painful and all about business, all the time. Of course! It’s what you do, but professionalism never says you can’t have fun at work. Don’t let stress and pressures of tax-filing bring down your employees. Have some fun and laugh to make your company’s culture a happier place to be.

So, what do you do to have fun at work? How are you going to reduce your stress and maintain the positive energy in this filing season? We’d love to hear you in comments.

In the next post of the blog series, we’ll discuss what you should do after the tax season is over. Follow Ace Cloud Hosting on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn and subscribe to the email newsletter to receive updates when the article goes live.