Christmas is almost here, and the holiday season is a great time to tell your employees you care about them. Use this opportunity to boost employee morale and appreciate employee contributions. Here are six amazing ways to reward your employees this season and cement lasting relationships with your workforce.
Extra Time off
Now before you start ranting about how the pandemic has already wreaked havoc on your bottom line, we are not asking you to let your team have the entire December off. However, an extra day off to spend some quality time with their family or treat themselves isn’t something to be sniffed at.
As a leader, you need to understand the importance of work-life balance and allow your employees some extra time off to truly revel in the festivities of the season and recharge their batteries for the New Year. After all, this year has been hard on everyone, and your employees deserve to let loose and have a little fun.
Purchase Gifts for Employees
A great way to show your employees how much they are valued is to purchase holiday gifts for them. While you may not be able to string together bonuses or incentives this year, a small but thoughtful gift, wouldn’t go amiss. Even better, accompany the gift with a hand-written thank you note to make them feel cherished.
A gift can be anything related to the holiday season, for instance you can get gourmet treats, luxury chocolates, wine, cookie assortments or holiday pies delivered to them at home, or you can even send them sweaters, weather radios, lunch kits, briefcases, or pens emblazoned with the company logo. Also, gift cards, cinema vouchers, bath products, Amazon cards, personalized gift baskets, or even cash would be really appreciated by your employees.
Holiday Celebration at work
The leading up to the holiday season should be fun and exciting. In fact, you can organize a couple of inexpensive, engagement building activities, such as an ugly sweater day, where employees have to wear vibrant, Christmas sweaters for the entire day and pose for group pictures.
How about a holiday snacks day where employees have to bring home-made snacks to work and sample each other’s treats. Sponsor a holiday lunch with all the appropriate Christmas fare. Host a Secret Santa swap where participating employees can trade gifts up to a limit and you foot the bill. Have your employees deck out their workstations and then give gift cards to employees who do the best work.
SAY “THANK YOU”
It’s great that you are handing out Christmas gifts, giving extra time off, and organizing holiday luncheons for your employees, but don’t forget to actually say thank you. Employees will appreciate the feeling of being valued far more than any financial gains. In fact, almost 80% of employees feel discontent at their jobs because they don’t feel valued. As an employer, a simple thank you can go a long way towards making your employers feel treasured.
Provide Flexible Working
Flexible working may not be your cup of tea or might not sound too practical all year round, but holidays are a time of indulgence, and it wouldn’t hurt to allow your employees a bit of flexible working around the holiday season. This small act of kindness will impact your organization in the long term.
Perhaps your employees want to finish early to take their kids shopping, perhaps they need to work from home to collect gift deliveries, and perhaps someone wants a longer lunch break to get some holiday preparation done, and so on; cut your employees some slack this month. Just think about it, if they are meeting their deadlines and commitments, does it matter where they are working from or if they start early to finish early?
Some of your employees may even feel more comfortable working irregular hours in the week preceding the holiday season, so it could be a win-win for both parties.
Host A virtual Christmas Party
Usually, at this time of year, you would have been putting the final touches on your plans for a fun office Christmas party. After all, a Christmas party is a great opportunity to bring your employees together and share in the successes of the year and show your appreciation for all their efforts and hard work. However, don’t let the pandemic sap your spirits. Why not take your Christmas celebration virtual this year? You can send out gifts to all your employees and organize a festive Zoom party where all your employees open their presents together. You can even host an online bingo game or organize other team-building events; the possibilities are endless.
Have fun this Christmas.
