The Spirit Of Christmas Present

This time of year, we start to get numerous party invites. It's a time that I still find exciting - lots of new people to meet, some of whom might well be potential clients or future employees.

Working the room is an art, the real "Rainmakers" excel at this. If you want to turn social gatherings into opportunities to generate business, in an ethical, professional manner, then you'd better get used to attending parties and learn to mix and mingle.

On the other side of the coin, there is, of course, your own Christmas party.

In recent years you may well have heard about the companies who were sued by their staff after they were involved in an accident, driving under the influence after their firm’s Christmas party. Not the ideal outcome to say the least!

It’s also a popular time for the younger members of staff to drink more than they are capable of dealing with and the resulting drunken rowdiness of a young employee can often spoil a corporate event for everyone else.

That can often be forgiven, but it’s more serious if you have clients and contacts attending.

Then, there’s the ‘urban legends’ of office romances blossoming in the filing room during a Christmas party.

It really is a very difficult predicament for any employer.

The Christmas party should be used as a way to build team spirit in the business, helping people within your company to get to know each other.

Firms where their people see each other as friends as well as colleagues tend to be more productive than those who don’t.

I have even seen some employers use their Christmas party as a recruiting tool. Here, the interviewer quickly looks left and right, then leaning forward and in a low voice says: ‘You know our Christmas parties are legendary, don’t you?’

Some guidance then, as we approach this time of year, seems a good use of my column this issue.

Celebrations - Setting your objectives

Obviously, for those who hold any kind of celebratory gathering – a meal at a fancy restaurant, a party in the office boardroom or a trip to the theatre – there are inherent risks. Setting some objectives at the planning stage would seem the best place to start.

What is the event going to be? When and where will it be held? Will there be alcohol available? Have you made arrangements for your people to stay overnight in a hotel or are you looking at providing taxis for everyone to get home safely?

Providing copious amounts of free alcohol and expecting nobody to get drunk and everyone to drive home safely is simply foolish.

So what are you going to do to safeguard your company yet still allow everyone to have a good time? Well, it usually depends on the type of event you decide to hold and what your budget is going to be.

The best way to stage a really successful event would be to survey your people as to what they would like to do to celebrate.

It might be that they’d like for everyone to get together for a couple of hours over lunch, have a nice meal and have a ‘lazy’ afternoon back at the office after.

Others like to start at lunch and party on through to the small hours of the following morning.

But, for most, it is usually somewhere in-between.

Budget

The accountant in me tells me it makes sense, once the type of event has been decided, to set a budget for the event and try to stick to it.

As with any budget, the first thing you know about it the moment it is completed, is that it is going to be wrong. It’s just a question of how far from budget you wander.

Timing

Then you need to decide if the event will take place on a Friday or Saturday night, or an evening when there will be business as usual the next day. If so, watch out for a huge number of people booking the following day off. These will also be the people who intend to drink to excess or party all night – so forewarned is forearmed.

Location

Try to make it somewhere that is easy for everyone to get to. A central point makes the cost of taxis home less frightening!

Dress Code

Are you looking at a black tie affair, business suits, or casual? This is often determined by the venue. If it’s an almighty ‘drinking session’ in a sports bar, then few are going to opt for black tie!

Carriages

Determine the time that you expect the event to wrap up, and include this in the circular to your people.

They can then make their own plans to go on to a nightclub or other venue (often in smaller groups) if they so wish.

Spouses/Partners

If you are inviting staff to bring along a guest, suggest to your people that one of their group must be a designated driver if they are not taking a taxi for the home journey. Otherwise see if people will agree to surrender their car keys if they have clearly exceeded the limit for driving.

Money, Money, Money

For many, this is also bonus time. Using a bonus scheme is a great way to motivate your team during the year. The trick is, to make sure that your bonuses are a true reflection of the individual’s contribution to the bottom line results.

If bonuses are fixed at a certain percentage irrespective of individual and corporate performance, then it isn’t really a bonus at all. Your people will expect ‘X’ percent and it totally devalues the scheme.

Better to create a pool of money to be divided up among the team on a points system, with the points being allocated based on each individual’s performance at quarterly review meetings, then allocate the pool in accordance with the points scored.

This way, your team will be constantly reminded that they do have some control over the size of their annual bonus and be constantly motivated to excel throughout the year.

However you decide to celebrate this season, you’ve worked hard this year, so please, enjoy yourself, have fun and be safe, so that you can return to work in the new year and continue reading ‘The Bottom Line’.

PS – Does anybody have any parties they’d like to invite me to? ;-0)

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