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The holiday season is upon us, and while there is a rush to get as many sales rung and deals closed as possible before the New Year, don’t forget to make sure that you also spread holiday cheer to your valued employees. You can make cards for your staff, plan an open house for employees and customers, or organize a Pollyanna or secret Santa gift giveaway for your team. There’s a lot you can do; here are eight more ideas to consider this holiday season.
Create a Holiday Contest: Invite your staff to decorate mini Christmas trees or snowflakes at their desks or workstations and offer a prize to the winner.
Show Your Holiday Spirit: Decorate the office for the holiday season. Remember that not everyone is Christian, so make sure you are inclusive of all holiday beliefs and traditions. Dress in holiday colors to let your team know you are into the season. Pull out your old Santa hat and let people know its okay to be festive this holiday season.
Give Your Staff Bonuses: If you’ve had a good year, share the wealth with your team. Your business is only as good as your front line employees. Don’t just send your clients holiday cards and thank you gifts; start with your staff.
Throw a Holiday Party: Take your team and their partners out to dinner or invite them to your home for a holiday get together. It will build a closeness that will benefit your business. If you have a specialty, cook for them. It’s a great way to show them another side of you. My specialty is Turkey Chili with homemade cornbread and my staff loves it when I cook for them.
Organize a Holiday Charity Drive: Build rapport with your employees by inviting them to support a local food drive or a toy giveaway. Sponsor an angel tree or adopt a family in need this holiday season.
Create a Holiday Calendar: Collect candid pictures of your staff with their kids, pets or best friends and create a staff calendar for the coming year. FedEx Office has great services to create custom calendars.
Play Holiday Music in the Office: Play holiday music in the office to help your staff loosen up and enjoy the holiday season. My favorite holiday song is Silent Night by the Temptations!
Provide Paid Leave for the Holidays: If you close your office over the holidays, consider giving your staff one or two weeks off with pay during the holidays. In my first career, I worked every Christmas for five years, and when I started my company I always took good care of my staff over the holidays.
Investing in your employees can never be bad for business. Sharing your holiday spirit with your team and customers will let them know that you appreciate them and everyone can let their hair down at least once a year.
Do you have any other tips for sharing the holiday spirit with your employees?
Join me Thursday Dec. 6th at 8pm ET for a live QA Sponsored by @FedExOffice on Twitter on How to Share Your Holiday Spirit with Your Employees. Use the hashtag #smbholidaycheer and sign in to www.tweetchat.com to join in the conversation.
Disclosure: FedEx Office compensated me to write this post and participate as a small business expert during their Tweet Chat program. The ideas in this blog post are mine and not ideas or advice from FedEx Office.
About FedEx Office: FedEx Office, an operating company of FedEx Corp., has more than 1,800 stores and locations primarily in the U.S. and Canada, providing convenient access to printing and shipping expertise with reliable service. The company’s network features retail stores, centralized production centers, corporate on-site print centers, and on-site business centers at hotels, convention centers and universities. Services include copying and digital printing, professional finishing, document creation, direct mail, signs and graphics, computer rental, free Wi-Fi and corporate print solutions. In addition, the company offers FedEx Express and FedEx Ground shipping, Hold at FedEx Location, and packing services backed by the FedEx® Packing Pledge. InformationWeek 500 recognized FedEx Office® Print Online and FedEx Office® Print & Go solutions with the 2011 Most Innovative Products award. Products, services and hours vary by location. For more information, please visit www.fedex.com/office.
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Melinda F. Emerson, known to many as SmallBizLady is America’s #1 small business expert. As CEO of Quintessence Multimedia, Melinda educates entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 companies on subjects including small business start-up, business development and social media marketing to fulfill her mission to end small business failure. She writes a weekly column on social media for The New York Times. Forbes Magazine named her #1 woman for entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. She hosts #SmallBizChat Wednesdays on Twitter 8-9pm ET for emerging entrepreneurs. She also publishes a resource blog http://www.succeedasyourownboss.com Melinda is also the bestselling author of Become Your Own Boss in 12 months; A Month-by-Month Guide to a Business That Works. Her latest ebook, How To Become a Social Media Ninja; 101 Ways to Dominate Your Competition Online was released in 2012.