How to Care for Your Employees this Holiday Season
The holiday season is upon us, and with all things 2020, it looks different. While employers find that many of their traditional celebrations are out this year, there are numerous ways that they are creatively caring for their employees.
Everyone at Rhudy & Co. received this clever wooden ornament to remember 2020 along with a holiday check.
The holiday party
Who knew Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams could be so fun? With most company parties on hold due to COVID-19, many employers are creating virtual get-togethers to express their gratitude.
The Society for Human Resource Management highlighted ways companies are elevating the traditional office party:
Use a party-based platform such as Preciate Social, which allows multiple conversations at one time
Create fun holiday background themes
Offer icebreakers that allow everyone to participate
Hire performers to give a mini-concert or show
Order dinner or a box of treats to be delivered ahead of time to party-goers
Send a special invitation
Give away prizes for fun contests and trivia (you can still have an ugly sweater contest online!)
At Rhudy & Co., we held our virtual holiday team party on Dec. 4 with a special by a delicious delivered dinner with a surprise gift. We had a White Elephant gift exchange and a Kahoot trivia contest with funny questions submitted by team members about themselves. Our team shared hopes for 2021, and we all expressed how good it was to all be together, at least online. We haven’t been together much in person in 2020, but we’ve stayed connected with intention and technology!
Gift giving
If a virtual party isn’t the right fit, some employers are instead spending their money on more high-end gifts. Consider these creative and thoughtful ideas:
Self-cleaning water bottles
Yeti coolers
Apple AirPods
Home entertainment packages
Gourmet dinner kits
Cookie-decorating boxes
At the same time, the best gift may be a cash bonus. A Harris Poll surveysurvey revealed that the majority (70%) of hourly working Americans are having trouble making ends meet. A generous holiday bonus can help employees breathe a little easier.
Meeting employee and community needs
Some of our Rhudy clients are pouring their resources into less tangible, but often more needed gifts. One offered 2:1 matching gifts to employees in order to triple their donations to community nonprofits, in a season of great need.
Another has increased employee benefits around dependent care, understanding that caregivers have been stretched thin between caring for elderly parents and home-schooling young children during the pandemic. One has sponsored an employee resource group for parents of children with disabilities.
Communicating more
All company leaders have been challenged to communicate more in 2020. The Harvard Business Review states that these communications needed to be overlaid with empathy, transparency and urgency, always providing the “why” behind company decisions. Sending a holiday or end-of-year message is an important way to express gratitude and cast a vision for 2021.
While executives may be weary of saying the same messages again and again, it is important because not everyone is listening at the same time. And even when they are, vision leaks. Keeping everyone on mission is essential, especially as so much of the workforce is scattered.
Rhudy & Co. and other communication agencies have become masters of helping leaders share their messages through video, print, and social media. Even when leaders were quarantined at home, we pivoted to offer, easy, remote video options.
Unusual times call for creative solutions. Maybe we won’t miss that holiday turkey so much after all. Let’s keep the good things we’ve found in 2020 and move forward to 2021.
Best wishes and Happy New Year!