Partner Article

Advice for making the most of Christmas incentives

With such diverse workforces, modern businesses may find that not all staff celebrate Christmas - yet many companies still use this time of year to say thank you to their staff. As such, businesses need to ensure they know their staff very well in order to give them a reward they will appreciate and enjoy, whilst being careful not to cause offence.

Iain McMath, managing director of Sodexo Motivation Solutions, a leading provider of employee benefits and rewards services, gives his advice on what employers should consider when looking at their year-end incentive strategies:

The diversity of a workforce

Christmas is a great time to reward employees for their hard work but, when looking at Christmas incentive strategies, it’s crucial that employers consider how diverse their workforce is, and consequently, what each employee would - or would not - appreciate as a gift. In short, Christmas should really be seen as an opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to staff, rather than just ‘Happy Christmas’.

The thought behind a gift

Many employees report receiving cheap, ‘gimmicky’ gifts from employers, whilst others receive gifts they find insulting or perhaps receive nothing at all – all of which can result in a demotivated workforce. As such, Christmas gifting needs to be well thought out by businesses in order to achieve a positive outcome. Traditional gifts often include food hampers, bottles of wine, or a simple cash bonus – but each of these has the potential to fall flat. For example, a non-drinker may not appreciate a bottle of wine or Champagne, whilst a vegetarian is unlikely to appreciate a selection of cooked meats in a food hamper.

The gift of choice

Multi-choice gift vouchers can be an easy and effective way of rewarding a diverse workforce as they allow the employee to choose the gift they really want. SayShopping Pass is a multi-store gift voucher that can be spent in a wide variety of well-known high street stores and food outlets, including John Lewis, Boots, Boux Avenue, and Restaurant Choice. These vouchers have proved extremely popular as a Christmas gift for employees over recent years as they provide ‘the gift of choice’, and thus can be used to cater to all tastes.

Iain McMath managing director of Sodexo Motivation Solutions explains: “It’s vital that employers take time to personally thank their staff. Whilst gifts and rewards can be an effective tool for motivating a workforce, employers really need to put some thought into this process in order to prevent the gesture looking like a tick-box exercise. Those employers that regularly communicate with their staff and get to know what motivates them will benefit from having a happy and productive workforce – not just at Christmas, but throughout the whole year.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rostrum .