Christmas Party Tips
Many of you will be well underway with planning your Christmas parties! If you haven’t started and plan to have one you better get moving quickly!...
Christmas parties and functions are a great opportunity to socialise with your colleagues and build team morale. However like weddings and funerals, Christmas parties can tend to bring out the best or worst in people. The worst sees inappropriate behaviour such as consumption of excess alcohol, bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment. Employers have the responsibility to protect employees from potentially harmful or threatening behaviour of other employees (and/or partners).
We’ve compiled our 5 top tips to help you through the festive season:
Think about your people; what sort of event is appropriate for everyone and when the most appropriate timing is
Midweek parties can end up with sluggish, unproductive employees and if it’s late in the evening parents might struggle to find childcare
If you are providing alcohol, make sure you provide a good range of non-alcoholic beverages, substantial food
ensure attendees avoid mind altering substances that could land your business in big trouble
You should ensure you have updated policies surrounding work functions and clearly communicate these with all employees
The policies should clearly identify unacceptable behaviours, where it applies and the consequences of a breach of policy
Social media!! Remind employees what is acceptable to share
Employees must remember, this is a work function and a few hours of ‘fun’ could result in serious and ongoing negative consequences for themselves, colleagues and the business so they need to be sensible
If you have employee issues at your function remember to be consistent and apply the same rules as you would at any other time of the year. Christmas parties and functions still count as being part of your employment.
Most importantly do enjoy yourselves and if you need any help give our People Guru's a ring on 09 299 2525.
Melissa | People Guru