It’s that time of year again when companies ‘invest’ in their end of year Christmas bash.
In a poll of more than 1,600 CEO’s and Senior Exec’s I discovered the main reasons for end of year employee events ....
‘It’s expected’, ‘We’ve always done it’, ‘To socialise’, ‘To have fun’, ‘To say thank you’. So is the event held for a business purpose or simply pleasure, or in fact obligation?
Amazingly, very few companies really spend time thinking about the real opportunity an end of year function provides to help achieve the company objectives.
Often the responsibility is given to the ‘Social Committee’, without any guidelines or recipe for success. As any event planning professional will know, it takes serious effort to make an event look effortless.
I will argue that an end of year employee function is ‘more important’ than a client presentation. I can already sense the ‘roll of the eyes’ on this one.
Consider a few serious issues at stake:
- The CEO and Senior Leadership seen to be ‘walking the talk’.
- Key stakeholders engagement opportunities.
- The internal brand promise is ‘up in lights’.
- Business relationships can be changed ‘positively’, or ‘negatively influenced’ over a beer or wine.
Here are 10 ways to improve the effectiveness of your end of year company function:
- Planning – Spend more time thinking about ‘What message do you want to give to employees?’
- Values – Consider if the event or activity aligns with your ‘company values’?
- Roles – Give each of the Senior Team a role to play?
- Recognition – Identify a small number of ‘authentic’ recognition acknowledgements to individuals or teams
- Speeches – Leverage the opportunity for the Leader to engage with the team: (short and meaningfully)
- Identification – Most people even in small companies don’t really know each other ... provide easy to read name badges
- Introductions – Ensure people who don’t usually work together are introduced
- Socialise – Ask all Managers to mix with other than their own teams
- Brand image – Reinforce or publish appropriate behaviour guidelines (Twitter or Youtube can work against you)
- Fun – If people leave with a smile on their faces, they will cope better with the ‘hang over’ and still make work the next day
People look forward to ‘their event’. They talk about it for months afterwards ... so you may as well utilise the positive energy and have people reflecting on the ‘good experience’.
Enjoy the lead up to the festive season.
Warm regards
Colin
Colin Chodos is the founder of Corporate Connection Strategies (CCS), a consulting group that helps businesses connect with their stakeholders to deliver increased profits and growth.
His lead practice areas include Stakeholder Engagement, Change Management and Business Strategy Development. "I have assisted companies over the last 20 years to successfully achieve significant business outcomes".
Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter or the CCS website for tips and advice for executive leaders of today.