“New Year, new me” isn’t just for individual New Year’s resolutions. Sure, it’s a traditional motto for personal goals (and for gyms or X-books-to-be-read lists that finally see you again). Yet it is likewise for teams. But let’s face it—the first week, in particular, may feel as if the majority are still hibernating, with only a few sluggishly and drowsily waking up from winter sleep…
Your job?
Help your workers make a smoother, clearer, and more connected transition from one year to another, from Q4 to Q1, with refreshing team building. January is a great reset button, not only another month on your corporate calendar.
So, how can you kickstart the first quarter all aligned and spurred to reach greater heights as a team (and not get mentally stuck in December for weeks, if not months)?
Follow this guide and start rebooting with your team united and targets clarified.
Table of Contents
- Why Your Employees Need to Unite and Clear Everything Up to Begin a New Year Successfully
- Top 5 Start-of-Year Team-Building Activities
- Step Into the New Year with Strategic Clarity and Better Team Cohesion
Why Your Employees Need to Unite and Clear Everything Up to Begin a New Year Successfully
“Holiday Brain” is a Real Thing (Not to Mention Holiday-Driven Burnout).
No wonder your team members are disconnected and disengaged at the beginning of the year. They may still be mentally doing different things far away from each other, even though all are present in the office (or in your virtual chat):
- Someone is still introspectively recalling their winter vacation.
- Someone is still drawing a mental picture of your virtual or in-office holiday party.
- Someone is still in gift-wrapping mode.
Overall, people are also less productive in January. That’s a fact. As many as 41% of employees report productivity losses due to winter holidays. Let alone that over half (57%) consider the holiday season the most emotionally exhausting time of year. That’s why it’s crucial to place a priority tick near employees’ mental health to ease them into work as the year starts.
Goal Misalignments and Unresolved Conflicts Tend to Snowball.
Even a tiny goal misalignment can eventually grow into something huge and terrifying for the whole team, resulting in a project collapse.
Especially if you still have several pending (in-progress) tasks or projects on your to-do list. This particularly concerns digital clarity in a hybrid or remote team. You should re-clarify the goals and put everyone on the same virtual page (if they aren’t yet there).
But then, there might be disagreements (dragging on from the previous year) between employees who don’t get along. And your task is to resolve workplace conflicts before they escalate and dent your team’s success in the coming months.
Motivation Needs a Regular Spark.
You wouldn’t agree to a sluggish, drowsy reboot that would take days, would you? You’d want to see everyone starting work with energy and enthusiasm, committed to effective communication and collaboration.
But here’s the thing. You can’t rely on the droplets of motivation left from last year. This “cup” of excitement has to be refilled regularly and collaboratively. You need to re-motivate your employees all the time—and especially now, when they need to replenish their energy reserves after the draining holiday season.
Connections Should Always Precede Any Team’s Actions.
People collaborate much better when they build strong relationship bonds and feel connected.
This can be:
- Purpose connection (when everyone understands the “whys”)
- Emotional connection (when your workers feel emotionally safe in the workplace)
- Strengths/skills connection (when everyone knows who’s got a knack for what)
- Cultural connection (when you celebrate an annual ritual or tradition)
- Doing-good-together connection (when you volunteer or engage in charitable team-building activities together)
A bit of bonding now → better teamwork later.
Top 5 Start-of-Year Team-Building Activities
- Reflection and Gratitude Circle
Congrats! You’ve survived the four quarters full of hard work. Reflect on the past 12 months and appreciate each other while sharing:
- One thing you are proud of
- One thing you are grateful for
- One thing you have learned
- One thing you would like to leave behind (bye, a long-lasting workplace disagreement)
- One thing you’ll never forget
Maybe someone would recall your unforgettable (and laughable!) end-of-year celebration. That’s okay! Laugh together as you share this moment of true emotional connection.
- Kick-Off Meeting
How about literally kicking things off with a kick-off meeting?
Oh, we get it: your team members may hate those. That’s quite understandable. Yet, it’s possible to reimagine corporate gatherings like kick-offs and pour more meaning into them. Your kick-off meeting agenda shouldn’t just abruptly stop at the “New Year, New Goals” statement. It should additionally get supercharged with meaningful employee connections and fun team-building activities.
For example:
The sales kick-off at GOTO Group involved a reward ceremony to recognize and celebrate employees’ past-year achievements in sales training.
- “Re-Introduce Yourself Like It’s Day One” Round
Yes, you may still need to break the ice— metaphorically, of course— after the winter holiday season. This may sound weird at first, but this ice-breaking team-building activity fosters new bonds between your workers.
Just let them play the “new hire” versions of themselves by telling their:
- Name
- Role
- And one personal detail they have never told before.
New information shared = new bond forged.
- “One Motivational Word for the Coming Year”
Here, everyone must pick only one word that motivates them to perform even better in the following year. It can be anything:
- Authenticity
- Resiliency
- Balance
- Growth
- Snacks (no judging)
This start-of-year team building is a great reframing practice for employees. It “paraphrazes” the future into a more positive perspective and gives everyone (individually and as a team) an inspirational boost.
- Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative (That Will Eventually Grow into a Tradition)
Why not start a new year by making a difference together with good societal deeds?
CSR initiatives can help you tie meaningful employee bonds, especially if you turn them into annual traditions, like these:
- Volunteering at a non-profit organization
- Organizing the Winter Olympics outdoors as a fundraiser campaign in the community
- Supporting a local shelter
- Hosting a charitable start-of-year event with giveaways for people in need
- Spending a day of random acts of kindness or Do-Good challenges
The Best Tips from Experts on Beginning the New Year in a Clear-Cut and Bonded Way
New Year, New Vision: Refocus if Needed
For Ken Chartrand, CEO at Encore Business Solutions, “There’s no better time for vision recalibration than the beginning of the year. It’s a perfect moment for your team to rethink your business’s strategic direction and, if needed, refocus. It can be a small twist in workplace policies, such as ‘no-meeting’ days or even weeks, or a more radical change—thinking of a full return-to-office strategy after years of remote or hybrid work.”
For example:
That’s what Amazon did starting January 2025. The company mandated the full-office comeback for five workdays, up from three days/week previously.
Yet, mind: Whether it’s drastic or not, you should introduce the new organizational vision to the team and discuss/clarify the “whys” and the “hows” together.
For example:
For this purpose, Klystron Global held a “Vision 2025” event for the entire international crew to plan, strategize, and align new corporate goals for the forthcoming year.
New Year, New Workspace (and Tools!): De-clutter and Gear Up with AI
De-cluttering
According to Julia Rueschemeyer, Divorce Mediation Attorney, “A cluttered workspace leads to a cluttered mind. In turn, a cluttered mind leads to missed deadlines or even failed projects. What’s worse, for in-office teams, it can further result in workplace accidents and personal injuries with work accident claims or other legal consequences for both the employer and the employee.”
So, she advises teams to spring-clean their work areas (physical or virtual spaces) and start working in a clean workspace—and with a clear mind.
Gearing Up with AI Tools
What if your workers aren’t at all enthusiastic about another 365 (or 366) days of spreadsheets? Isn’t it time to automate at least some business processes with artificial intelligence (AI) tools?
To name a few:
- Leena AI (for onboarding automation)
- Nimble AI (for project management)
- Fireflies AI (for meeting automation)
- HubSpot AI (for CRM)
That’s what Tom Rockwell, CEO at Concrete Tools Direct, recommends for piloting a new year. Tom’s principle is as follows: “If a machine can perform the task, let it do it. Your team won’t have to lift heavy things if you’ve got the right tools. In a remote workplace, these are specifically AI-powered ones. They aren’t here to totally replace employees; they are reshaping how the jobs are done—simpler, faster, and smarter.”
New Year, New Learning Opportunities: Get Skilled and Prepared for Anything
So, you have refocused. You have tidied up your workspace. You have also automated workflows with AI. What now?
Now, it’s time to grow—and do it via well-planned corporate training for L&D.
As Ryan Hammill, Executive Director at Ancient Language Institute, puts it, “When your employees still have the ‘New Year, new me’ energy, they have more confidence and dedication to start mastering something new. Let it be a new soft skill like a foreign language or a future-ready hard skill like AI.”
Speaking of soft skills, you can select one or several professional development programs at Outback:
- For communication → Emotional Intelligence, Clear Communication
- For productivity → Practical Time Management, Productive Practices of Peak Performing People, Accelerated Selling (for sales teams)
- For DEI → Unconscious Bias in the Workplace
- For leadership → Advanced Coaching, Situational Leadership Styles, Authentic Leadership, and more.
Alternatively, design a custom training program per your unique corporate needs with the help of Outback specialists.
Consider L&D as a protective kit against any situation the future brings. Sometimes even literally!
New Year, New Employee Engagement Strategies: Listen to Your Workers and Engage Them More
“Cast a retrospective look back and analyze your employees’ feedback, and then listen to the current voice of your team members. What are they expecting from you as a leader? How can you make it an even better work year for them? Answering these questions matters greatly for job satisfaction and loyalty. Not only today but also in the future,” says Morgan Taylor, Co-Founder of Jolly SEO.
For example:
With this in mind, the Jolly SEO managers ran an employee engagement survey to hear the SEO specialists’ opinions on the latest workplace developments/changes, the old activities they used to engage in (but no longer do) that they miss, and other suggestions/ideas to implement.
Based on the results, they developed a new employee engagement action plan for the next year, including team-building activities.
Step Into the New Year with Strategic Clarity and Better Team Cohesion
New year, new… You decide. And whatever you opt for, be certain that Outback will support you on your chosen path to the team’s success.
Say an excited “hello” to the year ahead, packed with clearer goals and stronger connections with Outback’s training programs or team-building activities.
