‘Tis the season…for holiday parties. The US will celebrate Thanksgiving this week. Then, just one month later will be Christmas. And within the month’s time between those two major holidays are Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. And don’t forget New Year’s. So many employers will sponsor celebrations to show appreciation to their staff for a productive year of work. Unfortunately, this well-meant gesture often brings numerous opportunities for employees to make missteps during their office holiday parties that could place their employment and/or safety, in jeopardy.
Today’s post, which is Part I of a two-part series on holiday parties, offers six recommendations of ways employers can help their employees celebrate the holidays happily, joyously, memorably, merrily, prayerfully, reverently, and safely:
- Establish policies – The best way to establish behavior expectations is to establish policies to govern employees’ behavior. As much as we in Human Resources may think that common sense dictates our actions, that is just not always reality. Employers should also be aware that some case law has established, in certain scenarios, that the lack of an established policy that clearly identifies behaviors that are unacceptable, on and off duty, could negatively impact the employer’s right to take corrective action against the offending employee(s).
- Educate employees on established policies – It is imperative that employers make their employees aware of the policies that exist. Managers should be encouraged to remind and inform employees of these policies during team meetings. This information can also be shared in via newsletters, email blasts, or on employee portals and/or intranet sites. Employers should also update their employee handbook with new or revised policies and require employees to sign a new acknowledgment form. This can be achieved relatively easily by collaborating with their IT team to digitize the handbook and to set up electronic acknowledgment forms and regular email reminders to nudge employees to complete the form by a deadline date.
- Enforce the policies – I think we all can agree that it does absolutely no good to have policies and not enforce them. If, as employers, we fail to follow through on addressing unacceptable behavior, we will lose credibility with employees and human nature will cause them to think that if they got away with
- Limit or do not allow alcohol – We all have a different personality that surfaces whenever we drink too many alcoholic beverages. We also all heard of nightmarish stories of employees, from entry-level to executives, who unfortunately indulged too many much libations; their alter personality raised its ugly head; behaved in a manner that was less than representative of organizational expectations, and the employee ended up losing his/her job. A few ways that employers can combat this possibility are to 1) Host a non-alcoholic event; 2) Prohibit outside alcohol at the event; or, 3) Limit attendees to no more than a certain number of drinks. Two drinks appear to be a safe number. This can typically be achieved by giving each attending employee a ticket with his/her name printed on it and require that they present a picture ID when they redeem drink tickets. Also, the bartender will punch a hole in, or stamp the ticket when redeemed. This will avoid employees attempting to pass non-drinking colleagues’ beverage tickets as their own to redeem additional drinks.
- End functions at a definitive time – It seems that the later we stay up at night, the more special our behavior tends to become. This makes sense considering healthcare and wellness experts are always telling us that our bodies require a certain amount of rest…and when it does not get it, we get irritable and/or alcohol intake affects our behavior. With that in mind, I recommend that employer-sponsored functions not go far past 12 midnight. I certainly realize that each situation is different, so each employer
- Designate drivers – If anyone drinks more than they should, they should not be allowed to drive themselves. One of the last things an employer wants to happen is for a celebration to be dampened by a tragedy involving their event attendees. If neither the employee nor their guest is deemed able to drive safely, the employer can ask before the event for volunteer designated drivers who will not consume alcohol and arrange to have the designated drivers to be reimbursed for their mileage as a business expense if their organization allows this, or if it is not in conflict with IRS regulations. If they have no volunteer designated drivers they can also pay for a ride share for them. The employee can then make arrangements to pick up their vehicle the next day.
A little thoughtful, intuitive, advanced planning will go a long way to ensuring a safe, happy celebration that can be a great kick-off to a momentous new year of employee engagement. So let’s get the holiday parties started.
