Four ways you can get your staff into the Christmas spirit

Getting the team into the Christmas spirit can help to ensure levels of productivity, within the business, do not decrease and remain high going into the New Year.

It is also important to ensure that your staff are happy in the workplace. Investing time and capital in them at this time of year can contribute to the longevity of their service.

It will also have a positive effect on their willingness to perform, to high standards, for a company that appreciates them.

Here are four examples of how you can ensure that you and your staff ready for the festive season and spread the Christmas spirit.

The corporate Christmas party

The first and obvious choice, as we head towards the holidays, is to boost morale by planning a Christmas party.

If you are struggling to find the time to organise a Christmas party for your employees, or if you want to pull out all the stops, why not consider researching corporate hospitality packages.

Using a hospitality package in this way can relieve you of any stress at this time of year. All you have to do is book it and show up. The possibilities, for corporate events at Christmas, are endless. You could include your staff to collate ideas on what they might like to do.

Whether it be a team building day followed by drinks, or a full evening of dinner and social activities somewhere special, the annual staff Christmas party is an event that almost guarantees a positive atmosphere and Christmas spirit in the workplace.

The morale will be instantly boosted as your staff begin to look forward to letting their hair down at the end of the year.

The Christmas Spirit will emanate from the walls within your workspace before and after the event has actually taken place. Inevitably, where social outings are concerned, there are always stories to tell afterwards, not just in the immediate weeks but potentially for years to come.

Secret Santa

Secret Santa is an ideal, and inexpensive, way to include everyone in the Christmas tradition of giving and receiving gifts. This guessing game is ideal for creating a buzz in the workplace, because your staff become obsessed with trying to discover who their Santa is.

For those that have never heard of it, Secret Santa, is an ongoing guessing game involving Christmas presents. A low budget is usually set, and the names of those that are involved get put into a hat. Everyone then draws a name from the hat and must purchase a gift for that person.

The gift must not cost any more than the budget that is given, while the giver of the gift usually remains a secret right up until the gift has been received – hence the reason for the name “Secret Santa”.

This idea includes everyone in gift giving whilst also easing any pressure employees may feel to buy all of their colleagues a gift.

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Office decorations

Who doesn’t love a few fairy lights? Decorating the workplace will almost certainly entice everyone to get into the Christmas spirit. Even the Grinch himself would find it hard not to be in high spirits, working in surroundings that resemble Santa’s grotto.

Include every member of your staff by asking them to bring in any decorations that they aren’t using at home, the exercise is then fun but also cost effective. You could even have a competition and take a vote on the best decorated desk space.

Remember, your employees see the same four walls every working day, so spicing up the office environment with some festive touches will only boost their spirits and even their morale.

No matter how little, a change in the surroundings will always adjust the atmosphere in the workplace for the better.

Discuss annual leave in advance

Most business professionals like to plan well in advance, as do employees. Discussing annual leave well before the end of the year is possibly the one of the best ways to ensure that your team are looking forward to the festivities of the Christmas season.

There’s nothing worse than a last minute panic because you haven’t had time to look over holiday requests, leaving disgruntled employees unable to secure their plans. No one wants to be in the kind of situation where they are having to buy whatever is left on the shelf on Christmas Eve, due to not being able plan ahead.

If your staff know when they are expected at work and when the office is closed over the Christmas and New Year period, they can book any additional days off that they may require accordingly around these dates. As a result, this will leave the festive period relatively stress-free in the workplace.

Lucy Abrahams is operations director at VIP Event Butler

Image: Shutterstock

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