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02 Dec 2015
by David Walker

5 top tips to make Christmas better for staff

The Christmas season can be a stressful time so what can employees do through their rewards and benefits schemes, as well as their general business, to make life a little easier and more festive for their staff.

  1. Shop smart with voluntary benefits

The average British family spends nearly £900 a year on Christmas, including £350 spent on gifts, the Christmas dinner and more. So make sure you remind staff of their voluntary benefits platform. It can save them anything from 5% up to 20%. If staff can shop smart for Christmas they can save with the retailers on their voluntary benefits platform.

Top tip: don't forget that you can get a discount on groceries so even a Christmas lunch might be less than you expect!

   2. Give staff a small Christmas gift

According to research from Red Letter Days, 55% of staff do not receive a gift from their employer. So even if it is small, use something memorable that an employee will acknowledge. But make sure it is not cash. Link a gift to something. When I worked in America we gave our employees a voucher for a turkey for Thanksgiving. If you are going to give your staff a gift link it to Christmas so they know it is over and above the normal remuneration, like a voucher to the local Christmas tree farm or a local butcher!

Office worker in Santa hat

   

   3. Give your staff the gift of time.

There are a lot of things that happen around the holidays that put a large draw on people’s time:- Christmas present shopping, the kids nativity and more. So encourage staff to create time for themselves. Maybe they can take 30 minutes for lunch Monday to Thursday, so on Friday they can take the afternoon off. Encourage more flexible working for the month to allow people to attend all those fun and nice things that happen around Christmas.

   4. Have fun!

Don’t forget to actually have fun! Here at Personal Group, Father Christmas always arrives on the last afternoon before everyone breaks up for the holidays. And he will often bring a small gift and a mince pie. So create an event out of nothing. Appoint someone to dress up. Run a Secret Santa. It is not going to cost much, but it actually creates a huge amount of fun. A coffee and a mince pie can go a long way.

   5. Think about how to spread the cheer

The final tip, which I think draws it all together is: no matter what you do, think about how you do it. This is all about things being personal. If you are going to send a card make sure it is hand written. Get your SMT to hand out cards in person. If you are aware that an employee is travelling or leaving work early to go home for Christmas make a point of seeking them out and wishing them a very merry Christmas. Acknowledgement can feel a lot, especially at that time of year.

From all at Personal Group, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a peaceful and prosperous 2016.

 

This article was supplied by Personal Group.

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