Seasonal rewards – don't cancel Christmas
The credit crunch may be biting hard, but this is no reason to ignore the opportunity to reward your staff. In fact, Christmas – the season of goodwill – is exactly the right time to acknowledge the hard work, commitment and performance of your people and demonstrate their true value to the organisation.
In the current economic climate, you may not be able to put on a lavish Christmas party or offer a huge end-of-year bonus. But staff – who may already be struggling under the pressure – may become even more de-motivated if they feel their employer doesn’t appreciate their efforts.
Cutting back investment in employees is just the same as cutting back investment in customers and shareholders. All organisations want engaged employees and a well communicated thank-you at Christmas can play a part in achieving this.
The key is to get creative and find new and different ways to use benefits and incentives to show your team how much they are appreciated:
- Do some informal research among employees to find out what they would most appreciate. It is impossible to select a single reward or benefit that will suit everyone, so find out what people are most likely to value and tailor your offering accordingly.
- Multi-store vouchers or prepaid cards are a great way to give employees a choice and in doing so convey some thought from their employer. As an example, Capital Incentives & Motivation, part of Accor Services provide Capital Bonds Vouchers which are redeemable at over 140 high street stores. The Compliments Card available as a disposable or reloadable version can be used to shop at over 100 online and high street retailers, with options to brand and personalise for your employees.
- If a Christmas celebration has been a traditional feature in the business, don’t automatically pull the plug. Explain to staff that you may not be able to put on the usual big bash, but that you still want to provide an opportunity for them to celebrate together. There are numerous ways you can put together a scaled down event. Why not allocate a small budget to each team or department to spend as they see fit? Or offer a prize to the team who comes up with the most original idea for a low-budget party? Don’t forget that local venues and caterers will be feeling the pinch themselves and will be keen to get your business – so you can probably negotiate and get a really good deal.
- Show some flexibility about working hours in general around the festive season. Staff may want to take a morning off to see their children’s Christmas play, for example, or they may need to leave early in the immediate run-up to Christmas in order to travel to their families. If you help people when they need it, they are more likely to go the extra mile for the business in difficult times.
Ending the year on a high creates good momentum that will carry on into the New Year – and will help to boost morale, loyalty and staff retention at a time when many employees may be feeling insecure about their jobs
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