I love the holidays. Celebrating with family and friends is very important to me and my husband, Phil. And we strongly believe in sharing that holiday spirit with our employees and contractors. Unfortunately, last year, like many of you, we couldn’t celebrate in person, but we still made sure our employees knew they were appreciated and valued.
This year, we’re back to hosting a holiday party. Our company has employees and freelancers located all over the country, and we’re going to bring them here to Westlake Village to get to know one another and celebrate a great year.
While it’s essential to treat your employees well all year long, after the challenging time we’ve all been through, it’s more important than ever to get in the holiday spirit and start spreading the joy.
Here are some ways to do that.
If your company is still operating virtually, that doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate. Host a party via video chat. Arrange a gift exchange ahead of time and unwrap the presents online. Hold some contests and give out prizes. Ideas include an ugliest holiday sweater contest or trivia competition. If your staff isn’t shy, you could even host a virtual karaoke holiday song competition.
For companies that have returned to work in person, be sure to decorate your offices. Just seeing the festive décor will be a morale booster. If you’re nervous about hosting a holiday party indoors, take advantage of the fact we live in southern California and hold a holiday picnic at a local park or even head to the beach. Or you can stay on-premises and hire a food truck to come by feed your team.
More important than parties, however, is sharing with your team how key they were to all you achieved this year and how much you’re counting on them to take your company into the future. Salute employees who went above and beyond. Verbal recognition in front of their peers makes people feel valued.
If you can afford cash bonuses, by all means, distribute them. If you can’t, that’s OK; perhaps you can give your team the gift of time—two or three extra days off—with pay. Thoughtful gifts work wonders too. Everyone appreciates a cozy blanket, throw, or holiday food basket.
Ideally, you should try to maintain that generous holiday spirit all year. That’s what we do at CorpNet—and I believe it’s what helped catapult our business this year.
While the holidays may seem like they are months away, this is not the case. They’re right around the corner. Now is the time to plan your celebration!
