What Do Employees Really Want this Holiday Season? Let’s find out….

Human Resource experts around the world are scratching their heads about the things your employees want for the holidays. In today’s industry scenario, where attrition rates for different companies are reaching all time highs, its critical for organizations to study in detail on this topic.

Must Read: Why Holidays May Be the Best Time to Look for a Job

This article discusses the major expectation of employees from their organizations during holidays. It need not be cash always. There are other things too which are equally important for employees in today’s job scenario.

It’s wrong to assume that employees are in your company only for money. Apart from increments and cash bonuses, allocate funds towards their training and career development as well, building loyalty and commitment among employees towards company is very much important.

Holiday Wish List: What Your Employees Really Want

Let’s start with the money things first.

1. Cash Bonus

Holiday bonuses are not something new in Organizations. Every employee expects something from companies during festivals.

• Bonus in terms of cash is always appreciated by employees.
• The best practice is to match the bonuses with respective employee performances using a transparent system, so that everyone is happy.
• Also, the employee would find the bonuses as a token of appreciation for their hard work and not just as freebies.

2. Increments

• Regular increments are among the basic expectations of every employees.
• Just as I mentioned about bonuses, increments also could be matched with employee performances so that this could serve as a motivation for employees to give their best.

Now we have seen the cash expectations of employees during holidays. Let’s how else can employees be made happy other than providing cash directly. Shelling about plain cash is quite straight forward. But a better HR strategy is to ensure that the funds used are making some real difference for employees. Let’s see that in detail in the coming sections.

3. More Off-Days

Employees may not be always looking for a better pay always. The idea of providing a better work life balance is an important area being explored by top human resource managers around the world.

• Work life balance is an important factor that is helping Organizations around the world in attracting and retaining valuable employees.
• Many workers these days prefer a better work life balance over a better pay.
• Apart from the regular set of holidays and leaves, companies used to provide surprise off-days as a recognition of the efforts put by employees.
• Resource management strategies could be framed to provide such off-days on a rotation basis to different employees, one at a time, so that the regular functioning of company is not affected.

Read: Holiday Gorging: Ways to Avoid Overeating During the Holidays

4. Complete Disconnect from Office

Read this as an extension of the previous point.

• When your employees are on holidays, it would not be a good practice to trouble them with office calls/emails. Imagine you getting a defect call from your office when you are out on a family vacation. Not so great right?
• Allow them a complete disconnect from office, by arranging proper back up resources in their places to handle any unexpected situations.

5. Work from Home Options

• Everyone likes a change from their regular schedule. But sometimes the companies would not be in a position to grant enough holidays, as critical works might be pending.
• To make up for this, employees could be granted work from options, so that they could manage work along with holidays. Organizations are keen to provide work from opportunities to their employees more often than ever before.

We are in a transition from that cubicle work culture to an open space work culture. Experienced employees who can work independently could be granted more work from home opportunities which in turn could make them more productive.

• Ensure there is a proper system to monitor the work from home days and respective productivity of employees.

6. Involve Clients

“Employees are a company’s greatest asset – They are your competitive advantage. You want to attract and retain the best; Provide them with encouragement, stimulus and make them feel they are integral part of the company’s mission”

These are the words of Anne M Mulcahy, Former chairperson and CEO of Xerox Corporation.

Your employees should not feel disconnected from the business of your Organization. Involve your clients also in various holiday activities, so that there is a good working environment in your organization where your employees feel more involved.

7. Holiday Activities

Human resource department in every Organization should develop a high standard strategy for managing the holidays and work from home options for employees working with them.

Holiday activities are quite cliché with human resource management strategies. But still they are integral to employee satisfaction.

• Human Resource department should actively organize various competitions- sports, cultural and others, celebrate major festivals, organize holiday parties.
• It’s important to make the workplace a brighter and happening place.
• Annual company parties and occasional dinners are helpful in building synergy among employees and management.

HR departments in many organizations make the mistake of being ignorant of the real needs and grievances of employees. So, it’s very important to gather feedback from employees regarding all HR initiatives.

8. Gifts and Appreciations

• Holiday gifts as a token of appreciation for efforts could be an attractive motivational factor for employees.
• Holiday gifts can be anything from vouchers/coupons, passes to luxury places to a company sponsored holiday trip.
• It’s wise to have an option for employees to trade certain gifts for cash, as the needs and preferences of employees may not be always same.

Also See: 10 Clever Ways to Keep the Kids Busy When You Work from Home

Summing it Up

In the current job scenario, where the levels of stress and responsibilities are more for employees, its of utmost importance that Organizations should ensure that their employees get their due time for relaxation.

This article runs through some of the most common expectations of employees during holidays. Understanding the above and practicing this in Organizations is critical to a company’s success.

Companies also should encourage employees to go on vacations as occasional breaks from the regular office schedules could avoid frustration and stress among employees and they would come back after vacations rejuvenated with high levels of productivity.