Member Article

Why Christmas should be 365 days a year

Co-Founders CEO Paul Tooth and CMO Paul Harris from BrightHR discuss swapping the annual office Christmas party for fun every day at work. The pair debate whether dress-down Fridays, flexitime and play in the office could boost results and productivity for your company all year round.

For most companies the work Christmas party is the annual calendar-marked office treat, where staff gather to toast the festivities, have one too many mulled wines and is pegged as the one night of the year the whole team can let their hair down. But is this a culture we should have for our work force? It may be the norm but ‘The Pauls’, disagree.

‘I’ve always wanted to have an office with a slide or a fireman’s pole right in the centre, but perhaps that’s just me? How fun would it be to come to work everyday via a fireman’s pole?’ smiles Paul Harris. ‘I want work to be fun - I don’t want to work all year to play once and rock around the Christmas tree.’

If how you socialise with your team is to take them for drinks once in a blue moon - or even worse you take them on a one off festive adventure day where you force them to have fun, argues Paul Tooth, then it will inevitably be staged… and ceremoniously not fun. The challenge he says is making sure the fun you have with colleagues isn’t a one off and isn’t therefore disconnected from your business. Many Christmas parties are good fun, but often this fun it is completely separate to the business - it’s somewhere else. If you have an annual ‘Christmas party,’ at least start off in the office so that fun is engaged with the work place, those enjoyments and those relationships are connected to the business.

For fun to work effectively to boost productivity among employees then it has to be consistent. Work can’t be a place you want to be sometimes if you want success, argues Paul Harris, ‘You can’t just take the team out once a year, or even for an occasional drink, and expect your whole team to be engaged for the rest of the year.’

Believing there is too much emphasis on swanky parties and the one off ‘night-dos’ that workers ‘wait all year for’, Paul Harris questions why we don’t scrap the staff party for fun every single day at in the office, he asks why we wait 365 days to finally have fun with our colleagues? Here he believes, there should be a focus on this all year around for strong play engagement, such as office NERF gun fights or team karaoke, to claim better results for your company. ‘Don’t put the focus on being rewarded at the end of the year for doing a job’, he adds, ‘Actually the reward should be in being able to come to work and jump around on a space hopper, play board games, use game consoles if you want or simply be recognised and thanked for your contribution.’

One of the big things implemented at BrightHR, Paul Tooth discusses, was to change the simple things to hone a wider gain for the company. The adjustment of strict working hours - allowing employees the freedom to work hours reflective of themselves. Some people will start at 8am and some people may start at 10am - having a daily freedom for work to be a healthy and balanced part of your employee’s lifestyle means long term they are potentially happier. ‘At Bright HR, we recently ran a survey that showed nearly a quarter of workers in the UK valued a dress down day on a weekly basis more than an office party. Offering your staff a cool break out room, office perks like a pet in the office or office yoga.’ Encourage your team to organise charity events or fancy dress days. If we give your employees the room to have play at work and they will be happier in the office. By having this trust in their play, in their fun, the results will be far greater than the annual perk of a big Christmas party. ’Our report showed more than 50 percent of the people we survey said they liked fun at work as it reduced stress.“ Added Paul Tooth, ’When we look at the younger work force 79 per cent of the new millennial work force rated regular fun at work as very important and something they desired all year round.

‘For some companies this wont be a big an all thrills party to wrap up the calendar year but would you rather be in a work environment where fun and happiness is a continuity or a one off?’

People should be rewarded for being dedicated to your company every single day. Paul Harris adds, ‘We have people who work for us who say I’ve never worked in a job where I want to spend my Birthday at my desk before, because they are so engaged. The principle is the same for Christmas time. If people have fun at work then work engagement, a happy work life balance is a simple product born out of this culture and it is a better reward than a one off gimmick or a Christmas party - and therefore fun at work has the potential to a Christmas party which lasts 365 days a year.’

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