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Time To Celebrate! – Christmas Newsletter, 2018

December 13, 2018

 

Time To Celebrate!

Well, it’s almost time to celebrate as Christmas is almost upon us, which means the “Silly Season” is starting to swing into gear. We all celebrate the Christmas period differently, some of us may even choose not to celebrate at all; however, there are some ways in which we can unite in our celebrations and ensure we’re all-inclusive and respectful of others’ choices, whether that be to celebrate, or not to celebrate, and the reasons why. This forms part of our newsletter this month – “How to Celebrate”.

 

We’re also going to talk about giving thanks. No, not in preparation for thanksgiving, but in general – do we thank our staff enough? Our friends? Our family? How do we give thanks? How can we give thanks, without going over-the-top? These are the kind of things we’ll touch on later in the newsletter. 

Christmas Hours

The only time I will not be available during the Christmas break is between:
18th and 29th December 2018.
Feel free to contact me anytime outside of those dates.
Best wishes for the Christmas break, and Happy New Year 2019!

We will discuss parts of our newsletter in more depth over on our Facebook page – so make sure you are “following” us both here on our blog, and also on our Facebook so you don’t miss anything. You can visit our Facebook page here. We’re also on LinkedIn!

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Christmas – aka “The Silly Season”

Christmas can be crazy for many reasons, but especially if you’re running a business. Below we have some information to help you through, including:

 

  • How to celebrate Christmas with your staff
    By using it as a time to celebrate and encourage performance, and celebrate key milestones

  • How to celebrate Christmas with your clients
    By using it as a time to reward loyalty, and encourage referrals

How to celebrate, and make the most of, Christmas with your staff

An essential “don’t” is: don’t make the mistake of assuming your staff hold the same beliefs you do, or as the other staff. You may have some staff who are open about their beliefs so you know where they stand when it comes to celebrating, or not celebrating, Christmas. Others may be less open with sharing their beliefs, so it’s best to err on the side of caution and assume some staff have different beliefs and religious views.

 

To ensure everyone feels respected and their beliefs recognised (not overtly, but by other beliefs not being the focus of the event), you can do the following:

 

 

  • Choose workplace decorations carefully
    If you have any “traditional” Christmas decorations, consider incorporating other holiday decor and consult with your staff on what they’d like to see displayed. 

     

  • Make celebrations voluntary, and avoid accidental exclusion of staff
    Staff may hold beliefs where they don’t celebrate holidays, such as being Jehovah’s Witnesses, or celebrate at a different time or in a different way.
    Try to avoid having celebrations during working hours where some staff may be excluded due to their non-celebrating beliefs.

     

  • Be aware of allergies and special diets – including alcohol
    Ensure your menu, whether it be at a venue or within the office, caters for all your staff members and their diets. Consulting with staff is key, as you’ll find out who has allergies and absolutely must not be given a/any particular food/s, or if they have different diets not due to allergies, such as being vegan, gluten free, religious exclusions (such as pork), and so on. Make sure, if you’re planning the catering yourself, you include a range of options for each different diet – don’t have a packet of gluten free crackers for the gluten free staff (even if it’s only one or two people) when the gluten consuming staff have a range of choices! 

    Consider having celebrations away from areas where alcohol is promoted (e.g. bars) and don’t force the idea of it being a celebration because drinking is involved, as some staff may be tee-total for a range of reasons. Have exciting, non-alcoholic beverages available for those that don’t drink alcohol, too – because nothing’s worse than being a non-drinker and only having lemonade or orange juice to choose from! Drinks like sparkling grape juice or creating non-alcoholic cocktails (“mocktails”) are a couple of ideas. You could even have a fun celebration game involving the creation of mocktails!

     

  • Gift giving
    If you’re giving gifts to your staff, or having gift giving between staff (such as a Secret Santa), there are a few basic rules you should follow to avoid exclusion, offence or embarrassment. 

    If you’re having a Secret Santa type arrangement for gift giving between staff, ensure staff are given guidelines about what to spend and what to buy for their gift. Staff must stay within a certain budget to avoid financial burden on other staff who may not be able to afford what others can; gifts must not be offensive to other staff (think avoiding religious-, sexual-, gender-, age-, and race-focused gifts); non-food or alcohol related gifts (think allergies, intolerance’s, teetotalers).

     

    If you’re giving gifts to your staff: stick to the same budget for each staff member, and follow the Secret Santa rules of gifts not being offensive or food or alcohol related. Good gift ideas for staff members are: supermarket vouchers or gift cards to staff members’ favourite stores. 

     

     

Of course, Christmas is the end of the working year which many businesses choose as the ideal time to reward or celebrate staff. Below are a few things to remember:

 

  • Bonuses
    Make sure that bonuses are not based on non-transparent information to avoid discord between staff members’ by the high bonus receiving staff members not appearing as “deserving” to the lower, or non-existent, bonus receiving staff members. A way to avoid this is to keep bonus’s confidential, and encourage staff not to flaunt or speak ill of the bonus they receive, rather to focus on the upcoming year and bettering their, or helping other staff members’ better their, chance of a higher bonus. 

     

  • Performance-Based Incentives
    Ensure performance-based incentives actually match the performance the reward is for, especially as some staff members’ may feel like they performed exceptionally well throughout the year only to receive a lesser reward than another staff member who isn’t perceived as having performed to the same high degree. A way to do this is to have a pre-existing outline of what can be achieved by performing to a certain level, and what must be achieved to be determined as performing at that level. For example, for John to receive a reward of $100 he must have achieved a success rate of 70% of his telemarketing calls over the year. 

     

  • Celebrating Key Milestones (long-serving staff members, high sales targets, etc)
    Christmas is a good time to celebrate these, and acknowledge those that deserve it. Ensure you select appropriate gifts for the achievement – for example, a weekend away may be appropriate for a long-serving staff member but not so appropriate for the new staff member who met their sales targets. 

     

How to celebrate Christmas with your clients

When it comes to decorating the office, follow the same guidelines as we outlined above with regards to staff, as it’s likely you’ll have clients from a range of backgrounds with different beliefs coming in during the holiday season. However, when it comes to thanking clients for their business over the past year, read the below section on “Giving Thanks” which has some great tips. 

 

Another thing to consider is ensuring your clients are well-communicated with in the lead-up to Christmas with the possibility of varying office hours, less staff on duty, and so on. 

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Giving Thanks

It’s easy to say “thanks” automatically, but how many of us actually thank people when they deserve it for things they’ve done without being asked, prompted or told to do so? In fact, how many of us in business actually thank our clients for coming to us – many times it’s the clients who thank us for a job well done but, without our clients, we’d have no business! 

 

The things you want to thank, or reward, your clients for are generally things such as:

 

  • Referral of business

  • Having their business (remember, there’s other businesses they could choose!)

  • Making your job easier somehow (such as supplying their accounts in an orderly fashion rather than a plastic bag of receipts to collate if you’re an accountant)

     

How to thank your clients

There are a range of ways to thank your clients, but consider the reason why you’re thanking them and whether the gift matches the reason – don’t give to generously if you can’t gift more generously next year should the client give you more reasons to give thanks. Reasons to consider giving gifts to thank your clients are:

 

  • Referral of business
    If a client refers business your way, you must thank them – not necessarily with a gift, but just a sincere thank you upon referral, or at the end of the year giving a gift to those who have sent multiple referrals your way. 

     

  • Having their business
    If you didn’t have clients you wouldn’t be in business, so consider thanking your clients for their business at the end of each year so they feel valued and that their choice in you as their provider was the best choice. 

     

  • Making your job easier
    For example, if you’re an accountant it would make your job easier if a client had their accounts in order ready to process, rather than a bunch of receipts in a plastic bag for you to collate before processing the accounts. Using this example, think of ways clients may have made your job easier, and thank them if appropriate.

     

Ways to thank your clients include:

 

  • Thank you notes upon receiving referrals of business
    These can be hand-written (time permitting) to show the personal nature and sincerity of the thank you, or they can be electronic (but ensure they are personally addressed to avoid looking like a generic, non-sincere message). 

     

  • Rewards or gifts
    You could offer things like gift cards, supermarket or fuel vouchers, a discount off their next lot of work, or free work.
    For referrals, consider having a set referral reward system, whereby a certain number of referrals achieves a certain level of reward. For example, 1-5 referrals receives a $10 gift card or voucher; 5-10 referrals receives a 10% discount; 10+ referrals receives free work. 

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Did You Know –

How much do you really know about Christmas?
Take a look at the facts below and test your knowledge!

 

  • Many of the popular Christmas traditions today found their roots in Saturnalia: Branches from evergreen trees were used during winter solstice as a reminder of the green plants that would grow in spring when the sun gods grew strong;

     

  • These evergreen branches became the foundation of our Christmas tree. Germans are thought to be the first to bring “Christmas trees” into their homes at the holidays and decorate them with cookies and lights;

     

  • The Christmas tree made its way to America in the 1830’s but wasn’t popular until 1846, after Germany’s Prince Albert brought it to England when he married Queen Victoria. The two were sketched in front of a Christmas tree and the tradition instantly became popular. Royal fever was real even back then;

     

  • The well-known reason we give presents at Christmas is to symbolize the gifts given to baby Jesus by the three wise men. But it may also stem from the Saturnalia tradition that required revelers to offer up rituals to the gods.

     

For more Christmas facts, visit ET Online.

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Are you struggling whilst wearing all the hats? Unsure where to start?
In a lull, and need help to get out and back on top? Call Steve, now!

And don’t let the thought of “Oh, but how much will it cost?” stop you from picking up the phone. Why?

My first introduction session is FREE!

So, what are you waiting for? Pick up that phone and book your consultation with me, where we will focus on:

  • Discussing your business
  • Reviewing your goals
  • Giving you ideas, and
  • Discussing your options

 

To take advantage of this offer you can either visit my website to sign up, or you can give me a call on 027 447 7577.

I look forward to helping you succeed!

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Steve Hockley Business Coach
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Lower Hutt
Wellington 6010
New Zealand


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