Dilemma
The Christmas holidays start this week for many workers. Employers want to send their staff into the holidays with a thank you. A slip is easily made. You don’t make a vegetarian happy with pasties, nor a rehabbed alcoholic with a beer package. As an employer, how do you give a Christmas package that all your employees are satisfied with?
Everything is better than no Christmas package
Many companies still opt for the traditional Christmas gift: a cardboard box with snacks. Julie Poierrié, co-owner of Kerstpakket.nl, sees how these packages have become increasingly expensive and more luxurious in recent years. With her company she provides hundreds of thousands of the more than eight million Christmas packages that are distributed to employees and volunteers these days.
The most expensive package from Poierrié’s company cost 150 euros this year – with various items in it, from chocolates to a frying set – while a few years ago it was still a hundred euros. “That’s not just because of inflation. The packages are just getting fuller,” says Poierrié. “People really want to have something to unpack at the Christmas tree, and not have to finish after two bottles of wine.”
The importance of a ritual thank you for the holidays cannot be underestimated, says Fiza Ahmed, organizational scientist at the Vrije Universiteit. “It is a way in which an employer can express his appreciation.” In a tight labor market, this is extra important, because if employees do not feel appreciated, they can often easily go somewhere else where they do feel that appreciation.
With a standard Christmas package, one size often fits no one
“Of course, a Christmas package will not be the decisive reason for leaving an employer, but it is part of many small things that ensure that employees are in their place or not,” says Ahmed. “Just like, for example, a manager who occasionally walks around the workplace and asks how you are doing.”
The importance of a package is especially evident if the recipient does not like it, or even worse: if it is abolished. “That is really a mortal sin,” says Poierrié. During corona times, rail carrier NS, for example, decided to replace the traditional end-of-year gift for their employees with a box of Merci chocolates and two first-class day returns for off-peak hours. It occurred to the management a good dose of criticism and some employees even returned their cards as a protest.
Take the diversity in your organization into account
A package, and preferably one that does justice to the diversity of the workforce. “It is often the case with a standard package one size fits no one,” says organizational scientist Ahmed. “Then you get the packages with sausages and pasta, half of which you don’t like.” If employers show that they have thought about the wishes of their staff, they have already won half the battle. The choice is therefore increasingly a voucher, where employees can choose gifts from a pre-selected range at an ‘online Christmas market’ for an X number of points, or give away the points (the money) to a good cause.
Ahmed’s employer also did this, who selected a power bank himself this year. “I think that is a very nice solution, because you show that you pay attention to the diversity of your organization.” Moreover, it feels more personal than an “impersonal” voucher that you have to redeem yourself at an online store. Ahmed: “If you give all your friends the same gift voucher on their birthday, they will also wonder how much thought you put into it.”
A nice bonus: such a search option protects employers from the well-known slip-ups. “If someone who does not drink due to religious beliefs, but does receive a package with alcohol, that does not come across well,” says Ahmed, who sees how younger workers in particular are demanding that employment conditions be increasingly individually tailored. “Job satisfaction and whether they feel at home somewhere is often much more important to them than the salary.”
Julie Poierrié of Kerstpakket.nl sees how employers have become more sensitive under the influence of this increasingly diverse, young generation. “Some companies say: we have a few employees who eat halal, so we all want halal packages,” says Poierrié. “But sometimes it is also too difficult: if a handful of employees eat gluten-free, companies usually say: I won’t start that.”
The sorting job remains a “minefield” for employers. Because buyers of Christmas packages have become increasingly demanding in recent years, says Poierrié. “Sometimes I have people on the phone who have received a broken mug, who say that we have ruined their Christmas.” Patience is also often hard to find. “If something is delivered late, we have to tell them that it is December and therefore very busy. Sphere[.com] has made us all lazy and impatient.”
So
You can never get it exactly right when choosing a Christmas package, but if you take the diversity of your organization into account, you have come a long way. The online Christmas market, where everyone can put together their own package, is a solution in these individualized times. There is something for everyone, which makes it a great way to prevent slip-ups.