Many small businesses in US are foregoing Christmas parties for their employees this year not as much because of hard-pressed budgets, as to avoid sending the wrong message, shows a recent survey by headhunting company Battalia Winston Amrop.
The company makes annual polls about the holiday plans of companies is the US.
In 22 years of surveys, the company said that this year shows the highest drop in Christmas events planned by US small businesses. The survey, which made inquiries at 103 companies, shows that only 78 percent of the firms will be holding Christmas celebrations, while last year and two years ago, during the peak of the crisis, 81 percent organized parties for their employees.
Some 25 percent of the queried companies that still plan to have Christmas parties said that they will be downgraded, while others simply cancelled because a downgrade would be having close to nothing anyway. Most firms, however, said they would have holiday season expenses similar to previous years.
An example is Indoor Quality Solutions from Philadelphia. In 2009 the company staff was reduced from 90 to 14, and the mood of the party was grim, following layoffs and a major downgrade from fancy hotels and rich menus to a modest restaurant. This year, despite a better budget, the owner decided not to risk a fiasco and canceled altogether.
The firms that will have Christmas parties for their employees are organizing moderate events. According to party organizer Bravo Partner Productions, many business owners take into account the message a lavish party would send in a context where employees are asked to renounce yearly bonuses and make other sacrifices for the sake of company’s bottom line. They say that even the appearance of such a party would send the wrong message.
As a result, menus for the parties have been trimmed down in quantity and quality. Representatives of catering companies say that they expect slides in cost per person between 10-20 percent compared to the better years.
Some of the companies that sacrifice fancy venues and food have thought of a compromise solution, which is activity-based gatherings of company personnel, aimed at team bonding and boosting morale. Some firms even include their employees’ families.
