Yes, the topic for this month’s Talk segment is the question to give holiday gifts to your staff or not? Before you start screaming Bah Humbug and conjuring visions of the Ghost of Christmas Past, please hear me out.
First, this is a topic that has habitually come up this time of year. Second, though the question comes up often it never comes up in formalized business seminars, meetings, training sessions or webinars. This is the kind of conundrum that is quietly whispered from one exec to another. Anyone that has a supervisory or management position has it on their mind. Anyone that owns a business must live with it either way because there is no “upper management” to lay it off on as an excuse.
So, here are the pros and cons of giving holiday gifts to those that are either your direct reports or that you employ. The “cons” are:
1. Is each individual in the organization or your department treated equally? Do some deserve a “special gift” and others just “the gift”? You can see a bad dynamic beginning already.
2. How much do you spend? Should the spend be tied to the profitability of the company? Is it a gift, a thank you, or is it like a bonus or profit sharing? Again, a bad dynamic for future years.
3. If it is a “holiday gift” then whose holiday is it? You may have individuals who do not recognize the same holidays as you. Just because you are the boss does that really mean that you can make this call?
4. If you start this gift giving tradition, what happens when you have a bad year and can not afford to give gifts of the same value as past years, or you can not give gifts at all?
5. If you had to cut expenses by laying people off, how do you then justify spending for gifts?
Ok, now I will give you the “pros” before start calling me Ebenezer Scrooge.
1. Holiday or no holiday saying “Thank You” is never a bad thing, especially to the people that make you look good.
2. Creative gifting can be a great tool to inspire creativity from the whole organization. Make your gift giving unique and memorable. Something your staff would never think of themselves.
3. Giving everyone the same gift and then giving an additional, more personalized gift to an individual(s) that have done an exemplary job during the year is a powerful statement.
4. People talk. When your direct reports or employees sit around the living room with friends and family watching bowl games they talk about gifts received, including the gift you gave. This is an opportunity to show that you are a good company or great supervisor to work for.
5. Company culture is very important. A culture of giving can be a positive attribute that pays dividends.
There are certainly more reasons to give or not to give than what I have listed here. The question is what do you do? Let me hear from you on this topic.
Happy Holidays!
