The holiday season is upon us. People and businesses are already making holiday celebration plans. Now is the time to begin your corporate holiday party planning. Planning an event that will show your employees and coworkers how much you appreciate them is important. There are many factors that go into the holiday party planning process.
Choose a date and time
Before you begin to look at venues or choose a catering company, you will want to choose a date and time for the holiday party. Will the party occur during work hours? Will it take place on the weekend? If you are planning a weekend or evening event, you don?t want it to be too close to the holidays. Most people have busy holiday seasons with family and you don?t want to get in the way of that. If possible, many corporations choose to throw their event during the workday. It gives employees a nice break from their daily work tasks. It can also cut down on catering costs by serving lighter meals and avoiding alcoholic drinks.
Book a corporate venue
Once you have chosen a date and time, you want to find a local corporate venue that has availability. There are usually many corporate venues nearby. Choose one that has a good menu, fits within your party planning budget, and that is local. You don?t want to make employees drive too far to attend the holiday party. You can even utilize local wedding venues or team building venues. The average number of wedding guests is 165, meaning a wedding venue should be large enough to hold all of your corporate employees.
Send out the invitations
You now have a date, a time, and a venue. It is time to send out the invitations. It is best to give employees as much of a notice as possible. Again, the holiday season is very busy for many people. If you are extending an invitation to guests of workers, you will need even more notice. Additionally, when you let employees know ahead of time of the event, you can get a head count earlier. This helps you with menu creation and notifying the catering companies, so they can purchase enough food for the celebration.
Consider any special events
Some corporate events contain more than food and drinks. Consider adding in some gaming or a photo booth opportunity. You can also use this event to encourage team building, which is great for business morale. Team building exercises can help an employee feel connected to their employer. A Gallup study revealed that engaged employees could boost a company?s productivity performance as much as 200% over a similar corporation with disengaged employees. Even hosting a holiday party can increase employee engagement. According to a survey of 3,600 job seekers from career network Beyond, approximately 74% of respondents said that company holiday parties boost employee morale.
Don?t forget company holiday gifts
Holiday gifts are often an unknown subject. Can you count the holiday party as the gift? In most cases, you shouldn?t. Not every employee will attend the holiday party and that leaves those employees with no gift. Depending on the budget of the company, holiday gifts also work wonders for employee morale. Even if you are on a strict budget, you can gift something. Those companies with significant business success should consider business bonuses. However, if you are on a tight budget, consider smaller gift bags or the ability to win a gift card to local restaurants.
The holiday party season is upon us. It is time to begin planning for the corporate holiday party. You will find that many catering and events companies book up very quickly. If you want the best catering and venue, it is important to plan early. There are many important parts of planning the perfect holiday party including the date, time, venue, menu, holiday party events, and even the employee gifts.