5 Tips To Reduce Staff Stress During Busy Season

Accounting professionals everywhere are experiencing their busiest time of the year – tax season. This means longer hours, increased stress, and tight deadlines. While deadlines and client satisfaction are key to a successful tax season, another important factor is ensuring that your tax team has the support they need to maintain a mental high ground and avoid burnout.

Offer a Flexible Work Environment

Many organizations have learned that remote work can be highly effective. With the rise in popularity of remote work, it’s important to take this into consideration when structuring your in-office requirements for your team. While in-person collaboration can be beneficial during tax season, offering a hybrid schedule. Hybrid schedules can greatly impact stress levels.

Promote Staff Camaraderie

Keep your team’s chemistry strong. Consider offering team building opportunities throughout the season. There are two great reasons to do this at your workplace. One, it gives team members an opportunity to step away from the screen. Two, and more importantly, these activities allow them to have fun with their coworkers.
For example, we launch a busy season theme which includes weekly challenges or events for our team to participate in. This year’s theme is the BGBC Busy Season Olympics. the team is competing weekly through in-house and remote focused events such as corn hole or virtual trivia. If you’d like to see what our team has been up to during busy season, follow us on Facebook

Provide Outlets to Decompress

Offering your staff the opportunity to decompress can help decrease stress for your team. It is important to focus on the wellness of your team and you can do so by offering different perks such as chair massages, virtual chair yoga sessions, or fresh fruit deliveries.

Show Appreciation

While hosting an end of season event or offering bonus opportunities at the end of the season is a great way to celebrate your success, it is also important to provide your team with smaller acts of appreciation throughout the season. Some opportunities may include company sponsored dinners for the late hours or having snacks available throughout the week. For remote employees, consider sending a care package at the start of busy season with snacks or gift certificates.

Relieve Your Team

It is easy to fall into the work but it is important to stop and recognize the dedication your team puts forth. Rather than max out each employee, plan accordingly for the excess workflow. Onboard additional interns when needed to avoid burnout company-wide and offer opportunities for your team to fluctuate the workload when needed .

At BGBC, we are proud to offer our team with these resources and support during busy season. They approach each day with resilience and determination and their dedication does not go unnoticed. If you are interested in learning more about our culture and day-to-day benefits, visit www.BGBC.com/careers.