Celebrating the Holidays in Your Business

Time is becoming ever more precious in our household with just 11 days to go before Christmas. We have done most of the shopping but still have presents to wrap and ship and decorations to put up.

For anyone shipping presents this year, I will pass on a shipping lesson I learned the hard way a few years back. Each of the major carriers (UPS, FedEx, U.S. Post Office) has a deadline in their fine print after which they will no longer guarantee that your package will arrive on time for Christmas. Sure, they will still take your package and will still let you pay the expedited shipping price but there is no guarantee that your package will make it by Christmas and, more importantly, no refund if it does not. You would think that this information would be printed somewhere in big, bold letters not the fine print. For reference, here is my summary of this year’s fine print.

Bottom line: Get any packages in the mail in the next few days or tell your recipients that they are arriving after Christmas or send online gift certificates.

If you are employed or a business owner, in addition to your personal holiday errands you have the added burden of business holiday errands. What are businesses expected to do for the holidays?

While most of the year, businesses generally ignore the holidays, the December holidays (and Thanksgiving) are usually an exception. Many successful businesses use the December holidays as an opportunity to reconnect with their best clients and employees and thank them for their business and hard work over the past year. This can be done in a number of ways.

1.  Cards – Most businesses do send a holiday card to their clients and business partners. The message is typically a generic “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays” or “Wishing you a prosperous New Year.” Last year, many businesses stopped sending paper cards and began sending electronic cards, both to save printing and postage expenses and as an eco-friendly initiative.

Do you have to send business holiday cards? There is certainly no requirement but if you are in the sales department or in any type of position where cultivating a good personal relationship with your contact is an asset, the answer is probably yes. With holiday cards, you don’t tend to get a lot of business goodwill if you send them, but you certainly can generate “bad will” if you don’t send them or if you don’t send them in the right way. The “scoring” for corporate holiday cards tends to go as follows:

Negative points – You don’t send a holiday card when someone expects one. Some people view their holiday card collection as a popularity contest. If you don’t send a card, it is almost as though you sent a card saying, “You’re not that important.” You can also score negative points if you send a card to someone’s boss but forget the lower-level contact you were dealing with directly.

Zero points – You send a generic card pre-printed with your name or a mass e-mail. A good effort (and sometimes, given work time pressures, all that can be managed) but nothing spectacular.

Positive points – You write a short personal note with your card thanking the person for their business or mentioning something specific you appreciated. Your corporate card reflects something unique about your business and reminds the recipient of why they chose to work with you in the first place.

2.  Gifts – Corporate gifts are becoming more and more difficult to give and receive. Before you send a gift to a corporate client, make sure that it is not going to trigger some sort of conflict of interest problem for them (or for your own business!). In today’s economic climate, modesty is the preferred course so any gifts should be small tokens rather than outrageous displays of expense. Food is the most common business gift, from fruit baskets to chocolates and popcorn tins. Generally, these gifts are put out in a common space for the entire staff to share, along with your card. I have to say that when a gift basket works, it generally works very well and does generate tremendous goodwill for a business.

3. Decorations – This is a tough one if you have a diverse workforce representing many different cultural backgrounds. It is one thing to give a holiday card that says “Season’s Greetings” but designing your decorations to be generic is tough. Most corporate decorations look quite Christmas-y with trees or wreaths or presents. To be really elegant, you might need the help of a professional designer to come up with something that is more generic and appropriate for your workspace. You could also solicit suggestions from your employees.

There are a few don’ts with decorations. Candles are not recommended due to the fire hazard they pose. Plants can also be difficult as they trigger allergies in some people and can be breeding grounds for gnats and other bugs. Also, if your plants need watering or tending, make sure to hire a company to do this or assign someone in the office or the plants will look terrible within a few days and your money is wasted. Finally, if your company is struggling or has had to reduce employee pay recently, be very careful with your decorating budget. Instead of cheering your employees, the employees will only be reminded that when given a choice whether to give a raise to employees or decorate the office, the office decorations took priority.

4. Parties and Gatherings – The office holiday party is both loved and loathed by employees. It can be extravagant or simple. Ruly Ruth is going to give us some advice on this on Wednesday. Some businesses elect to forgo the office holiday party altogether. Unfortunately, since the office holiday party often coincides with end of the year budgeting considerations, it can be a difficult time of year to make merry. One company laid off half its staff in early December one year only to realize that the holiday party scheduled a week later was inappropriate. The party was canceled a few days later.

5.  Bonuses – The holiday bonus has become an endangered species in recent years. Few companies offer them and typically they are only awarded to executives. Most employees would agree that the best way to say “thank you for your hard work” is in dollars. If that is economically impossible, then the next best “bonus” would be a sincere expression of gratitude and perhaps a small token gift. One employer sent a $20 grocery gift card each Thanksgiving along with a brief note of thanks to its employees. It was a meaningful and thoughtful present.

What steps is your business taking to recognize the holidays this year? Please share in the comments.