As the festive season approaches, we’re sure many of you will be organising events for and with your teams.
Naturally, this is a time of celebration and an opportunity to recognise your team’s contribution during the year and we wouldn’t want to be killjoys! However, our experience shows us that a bit of pre-planning and boundary setting can be useful in preventing some of the issues which can arise and spoil the afterglow of the event.
We provide a Behaviour at Work-Related Social Events Policy, available to download by the clicking on the button below, and it might be worth sending that around to everyone in advance/with the invitation/or make colleagues aware how to access it.
Additionally, an invitation which is also available to download below, setting out details (including when the Company event finishes) can be very useful. The idea being that if colleagues carry on after this time, it’s not part of the work-related event.
Also, remember that it’s important to be inclusive in events that you organise. Consider colleagues who may be under 18 (and therefore maybe shouldn’t be drinking), colleagues with disabilities (both physical and mental), the idea of the Christmas do can be terrifying to some colleagues and being put under pressure to attend and/or “teased” if they choose not to do so could be harassment.
All that said, we do wish you a wonderful festive season and hope you and your teams have a wonderful time – and we very much hope not to be hearing from you afterwards!
Holly Mapstone is an HR expert and specialises in helping those of you in the SME sector with all of your HR needs.
Consultancy allows Holly to be agile and to adapt her style and support to suit the needs of her clients. Building strong working relationships allows Holly to deliver improvements, while also aligning people strategy to business outcomes and promoting resilient and positive cultures.
Need Advice?
If you need a hand with any of this, or anything else when it comes to the people and practices in your business, we’d love to help. We are always happy to debate the pros/cons, dos/don’ts with you so please do talk to us if we can help in any way, we are here to support you. Just give us a call and arrange a free consultation. You can talk to Alison directly on 07967 221595 or email info@enlightenhr.com
