Declare Your Independence From the Office!

At the end of this month, Sage will host Sage Summit 2015, a conference for small and medium-sized business owners, and I’m really looking forward to making the trip to New Orleans.

Of course, it’s possible I’ll experience the typical travel annoyances that occur during any business or personal trips— flight delays, forgetting to pack something essential, or a minor case of jet lag. But I’m certain those annoyances, if they occur, will pale in comparison to how invigorating it will be to break away from a normal week’s routine. And science proves that I’m not alone.

From a personal well-being standpoint, there are a number of studies that find taking a vacation can help you improve your health. For example, the Framingham Heart Study, an ongoing cardiovascular study that began in 1948 to analyze adult subjects at risk of heart disease, found that vacations actually reduce the risk of heart disease. Men who didn’t take a vacation for several years were 30 percent more likely to have heart attacks.

Of course a business trip or company retreat cannot match a vacation in terms of relaxation, but even one day out of the office can help prevent the daily routine from becoming the daily grind. A company off-site doesn’t have to be an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii to be effective. The change of scenery matters more than the scenery itself. A nice resort, a museum, a sporting event, or the hot new restaurant—they can all serve to bring everyone together and instill a sense of camaraderie that encourages employees to freely express their creativity and personalities.

Moving out of the office forces everyone to abandon their desks, day planners, phones, the conference room, and other workday distractions. The focus is solely on the day’s agenda and team building.

Another advantage that an off-site meeting offers is giving employees who don’t regularly work together the opportunity to get to know one another, share ideas, and bond. The lines between team leaders and their direct reports can tend to blur a bit during offsite events, too, which can help everyone feel like part of a cohesive team, working together to achieve the company’s goals.

Rebirth of the Trade Show

In the middle of the Great Recession, trade shows were on life support as companies slashed their travel budgets. The economic recovery has brought new life to the trade show industry, which recorded moderate growth in 2014 for the fourth straight year, according to the Center for Exhibition Industry Research (CEIR).

Conference organizers are creating agendas that prioritize networking and educational sessions and workshops over the one-way speeches of years’ past. Trade shows are an excellent avenue for business development and professional development.

Sending employees to a trade show will help them build their experience and exposure, as well as offer them an escape from the day-to-day work environment. The same holds true for you, too, of course.

Also, selecting an employee or employees to attend a certain trade show or conference, and charging them with specific objectives, can be an excellent motivator and confidence-builder. You can show your trust in them to represent the entire company, and make demonstrable progress to broader company goals, such as securing new customers and partners. Ask the employees to deliver a summary presentation of what they learned to the entire company.d

Use Your Vacation Days!

The typical American private sector worker has two weeks of paid time off (PTO) every year, yet nearly three-quarters don’t use all of that time, and 15 percent use not of it. That’s more than 150 million unused vacation days every year!

This isn’t news. We’ve heard for years how Americans take far fewer vacation and personal days than most of our European counterparts. What’s new is that companies are increasingly doing more than offering paid time off; they’re also incentivizing employees to actually go on vacation. Employees at workplace app and product developer Evernote earn a $1,000 bonus if they take at least one full week off. HubSpot, the developer of the leading inbound marketing and sales platform, is a bit stricter: taking at least two weeks off is mandatory.

Studies show workers come back from time off happier and more productive, and the same goes for business owners. The 2015 Sage State of the Startup Survey noted that the most successful founders work just as hard at maintaining a personal life as they do on growing their businesses, with 58 percent reporting a “great” work/life balance. This is a clear indication they’re working smarter, not harder.

So encourage your employees to use their vacation days, and create a role model for them to follow by taking a vacation yourself.

There are real business advantages to getting out of the office. In addition to improving employee morale, building a sense of camaraderie and spurring creativity, consider the effects on recruiting. Potential employees who hear about a company culture that encourages, and even facilitates, these activities will be more inclined to accept your offer.

So, make July the month you celebrate both our nation’s Declaration of Independence, and your own declaration of independence from the office.