How To Reward Your Employees Over Christmas

The festive season is truly upon us. Businesses will be starting the countdown to engage with their customers while employees will be counting down to spend some quality time with their families. It’s an exciting time for everyone, so why not make it that little better for your employees and give them some rewards for their hard work throughout the year?

When deciding on what to give your employers there are a whole plethora of ways you can reward them at Christmas. You could go down the classic Christmas route and buy them all some presents. Alternatively, you could opt to give them something a little different and give them a financial bonus, or a pay rise. Some companies like to increase their employees' holiday allowance for the next year as a way to say thank you - The possibilities are endless. Below we look at five ways you can reward your employees over Christmas. 

Christmas Presents 

The traditional method which everyone is used to is giving your employees a present. Presents can be great fun to pick as you can choose things that you think each of your employees will like. As employees are starting to work from home more, you could buy some of them felt slippers, or you could opt for something food-related like hot chocolate or a bottle of something nice. Depending on how many staff members you have, it may be easier to buy everyone the same thing. Before buying gifts, it’s important to set your budget beforehand and to stick to it. We all know that when buying gifts, it’s easy to go over when you get excited. If you are unsure on what to buy them as a present, you could always ask them to put a Pinterest board together with some suggestions that you can then pick from. 

Christmas Bonus 

Instead of buying a Christmas gift for all your staff members, you could opt to give everyone a Christmas bonus! Depending on how well your year has been will decide on how much you give but even a small gesture of £50 to each staff member can go a long way. By giving them some money, they can then choose to spend it on something they like, instead of you guessing what they will like as a present. If you are a small business and trying to take your business to the next level, a bonus could be an effective way of motivating your staff, ready to take on the new year. Plus, chances are as a small business you won’t have a huge amount of employees, meaning the cost to you won’t be too much. 

Extra Time Off Next Year 

For some, the most valuable gift you can give them is time, and giving your employees an extra day off next year can mean a lot to them. A day off won’t cost you much initially, but you will need to factor in the fact you won’t have each of your employees for one extra day next year. That said, if you have planned this and your company is doing better, you may not even notice that they are all having an extra day off. If you wanted to you could combine this with a small Christmas bonus, or with a Christmas present. 

Pay Rise 

This one is for the employees who have exceeded expectations and you think deserves a reward that goes the extra mile. A pay rise is the perfect Christmas present as it shows you value them and it’s a financial reward that they will benefit from for the months that follow. Why not ask them to have a special meeting with you and then tell them how great they have been for the company over the past twelve months. Have a letter of your appreciation ready to give to them which confirms the pay rise as well. 

As you can see from the four suggestions above, there are many different ways in which you can show your employee you appreciate them. Depending on how you are doing you can combine the above methods to give them the ultimate gift if you are feeling generous. Before deciding it’s always important to set a budget and remember it’s not all about the value. Sometimes the smallest and most thoughtful gift can mean the most. 

What rewards do you like to give your employees at Christmas? Is there anything that you would like to add to the points above? Will you be doing any of the points above? Let us know in the comment box below.