The office Christmas party is a unique event full of cliché - dry turkey, flirtatious bosses, and unusual photocopies... but despite these it's an important time. All staff want one, though they don't all want the same thing.
I am a massive fan of office Christmas parties. Over the course of a year you can form various impressions of your colleagues, so it's a nice opportunity to forget about work, and socialize with everybody. Many characters come out, and it can improve working relationships for the year to come - but it's a tough challenge to organise.
The big challenge is that you're trying to please a large group of people, who are all very different, so it's quite difficult to plan a great party that will please everybody, and which meets your budget.
This quick guide covers a few points to help you organise a great Christmas office party.
Date
The date can be the hardest thing to plan, because you're going to eat into people's social time, which at around Christmas is very limited. It's going to be a tough call to have the party on a Friday night or a weekend, the drop-out rate will be high. As an employer you'll have to sacrifice working hours, possibly starting the party at lunch on a weekday, mid week - and expecting staff to be possibly late and not very productive on the following working day.
When you have a rough date in mind, make sure everybody knows, that way people will have enough notice to plan everything else they need to do both at work and at home.
Partners?
Should you allow partners to come to the office Christmas party? Most probably not, it's firstly hard on those without partners, it can make staff withdraw from the group to socialize with their partner, and also it increases the numbers and therefore the complexity of organising. Do though, remember people have partners, particularly when issuing Christmas cards to staff.
Location
The location of the party is important as your staff might commute a long way to work with you. The further you go from the office, the more likely you are to upset some of your group. If everybody lives in one area, then that area would be straightforward to have a party in, or if you are willing to organise and pay for all travel, then people may not mind where the party is. On a final note, it is often fun to keep the location top secret.
Make sure the location can accommodation all of your group, and if you're planning an overnight - ensure all staff get their own room.
Transport
Ensuring you transport staff to the party and back to the office should be a minimum requirement. Organising for them to get home (if unable to drive) and maybe back to work the next day, would be a much appreciated gesture. For instance, organising a car pool or shared taxi. One solution could be to group staff by where they live and organise a minibus taxi to drop them all off, that way you can be sure the staff get home safe and it will cost less.
Gifts / secret Santa
If you plan to have an office secret Santa, remember to plan this well in advance. Put names into a hat to allow the allocation to be truly random and set a spending limit that means people won't find present values unfair.
Food
Tradition Christmas fair is fun and appreciated, though consider that your group may have varied dietary requirements so ensure alternatives are available. It's worth considering paying for the food if you're splitting the overall costs with the staff.
Alcohol
Provide too much alcohol and you're encouraging unhealthy behaviour, provide too little and you're a Scrooge. Half a bottle of wine, or 2 beers per person is a reasonable amount to provide, after that have more available at the employees cost.
Entertainment
It's fun to involve entertainment that involves the staff like karaoke, or games. This is often more fun and also less expensive than paying for a show.
Accommodation
It's worth considering accommodation as an alternative to taxis'. This can mean you can a venue further from work and raise no complaints. Hotels can be expensive so renting a house for your staff can work very well - in fact the house itself can be the venue.
Ideas for a brilliant office Christmas party.
With all this in mind, a good idea for an office Christmas party would be to rent a large house with lots of open space and plenty of rooms to sleep staff. (This may not be feasible if you're a large company!!)
This provides great value location and accommodation and cuts down on transportation costs. Food can be cooked on location and the environment will be relaxed and homely.
Sean Thompson write many articles, be sure to check them out!
I am a massive fan of office Christmas parties. Over the course of a year you can form various impressions of your colleagues, so it's a nice opportunity to forget about work, and socialize with everybody. Many characters come out, and it can improve working relationships for the year to come - but it's a tough challenge to organise.
The big challenge is that you're trying to please a large group of people, who are all very different, so it's quite difficult to plan a great party that will please everybody, and which meets your budget.
This quick guide covers a few points to help you organise a great Christmas office party.
Date
The date can be the hardest thing to plan, because you're going to eat into people's social time, which at around Christmas is very limited. It's going to be a tough call to have the party on a Friday night or a weekend, the drop-out rate will be high. As an employer you'll have to sacrifice working hours, possibly starting the party at lunch on a weekday, mid week - and expecting staff to be possibly late and not very productive on the following working day.
When you have a rough date in mind, make sure everybody knows, that way people will have enough notice to plan everything else they need to do both at work and at home.
Partners?
Should you allow partners to come to the office Christmas party? Most probably not, it's firstly hard on those without partners, it can make staff withdraw from the group to socialize with their partner, and also it increases the numbers and therefore the complexity of organising. Do though, remember people have partners, particularly when issuing Christmas cards to staff.
Location
The location of the party is important as your staff might commute a long way to work with you. The further you go from the office, the more likely you are to upset some of your group. If everybody lives in one area, then that area would be straightforward to have a party in, or if you are willing to organise and pay for all travel, then people may not mind where the party is. On a final note, it is often fun to keep the location top secret.
Make sure the location can accommodation all of your group, and if you're planning an overnight - ensure all staff get their own room.
Transport
Ensuring you transport staff to the party and back to the office should be a minimum requirement. Organising for them to get home (if unable to drive) and maybe back to work the next day, would be a much appreciated gesture. For instance, organising a car pool or shared taxi. One solution could be to group staff by where they live and organise a minibus taxi to drop them all off, that way you can be sure the staff get home safe and it will cost less.
Gifts / secret Santa
If you plan to have an office secret Santa, remember to plan this well in advance. Put names into a hat to allow the allocation to be truly random and set a spending limit that means people won't find present values unfair.
Food
Tradition Christmas fair is fun and appreciated, though consider that your group may have varied dietary requirements so ensure alternatives are available. It's worth considering paying for the food if you're splitting the overall costs with the staff.
Alcohol
Provide too much alcohol and you're encouraging unhealthy behaviour, provide too little and you're a Scrooge. Half a bottle of wine, or 2 beers per person is a reasonable amount to provide, after that have more available at the employees cost.
Entertainment
It's fun to involve entertainment that involves the staff like karaoke, or games. This is often more fun and also less expensive than paying for a show.
Accommodation
It's worth considering accommodation as an alternative to taxis'. This can mean you can a venue further from work and raise no complaints. Hotels can be expensive so renting a house for your staff can work very well - in fact the house itself can be the venue.
Ideas for a brilliant office Christmas party.
With all this in mind, a good idea for an office Christmas party would be to rent a large house with lots of open space and plenty of rooms to sleep staff. (This may not be feasible if you're a large company!!)
This provides great value location and accommodation and cuts down on transportation costs. Food can be cooked on location and the environment will be relaxed and homely.
Sean Thompson write many articles, be sure to check them out!