Christmas
Shopping For Your Employees
If you are the boss at your
company and you and your company have had a successful year
financially, you may want to share some of that success by
purchasing Christmas gifts for your employees. However,
Christmas shopping for your employees is not an easy task. There
are a number of factors which contribute to the difficulty of
the situation. The number of employees is one such factor. You
may have a large number of employees and they may not share
similar interests making it difficult to decide on a gift.
Additionally, you may be concerned with the prospect of
employees talking about their gifts and jealousy arising if it
is believed some employees received more expensive or better
gifts than others. This article will discuss some of these
concerns and will offer tips for dealing with these dilemmas.
Favoritism is a serious issue which all bosses should carefully
consider when Christmas shopping for their employees. Bosses
should assume the gifts they give to their employees will be
discussed and compared so it is wise to not purchase any gifts
which will be viewed as favoritism. One way to avoid this
problem is to purchase the same item for each of the employees.
This may seem impersonal but office politics often takes
precedence over sentiment and in this case it is wise to give
each employee the same item to avoid any potential problems. The
boss may opt to give more expensive items to hiring ranking
employees. This is an acceptable practice as long as each
employee on the same tier is given the same gift and employees
on higher tiers are given more expensive gifts than employees on
lower tiers.
Bosses also have to consider finances when Christmas shopping
for gifts for their employees. This is a particularly important
concern especially in cases where the boss has a large number of
employees working for him. In this case the boss may have to
consider giving only small token gifts due to the large number
of employees. If he is paying for these gifts out of his own
pocket, it is not reasonable to expect him to purchase
extravagant gifts for many employees. If the boss is receiving a
bonus for his hard work during the year, he may make a decision
to allot a percentage of his bonus to the purpose of purchasing
Christmas gifts for his employees as a way to show his
appreciation for their hard work and dedication throughout the
year. In some cases, the company may even allow their high
ranking employees to expense the purchase of Christmas gifts for
employees because it is viewed as a method of keeping morale
high and retaining employees. In this case the boss should
review the company policy and determine how much it is
acceptable to spend on each employee before doing his Christmas
shopping to ensure he will not be violating any company policies
in making his purchases.
Another difficulty bosses often face when Christmas shopping for
their employees is selecting a gift which will be appropriate
for all of the employees. This can be a difficult task because
the boss may have a wide range of employees working for him with
varying interests. As previously discussed, it is considered a
good idea to purchase the same gift for each employee instead of
choosing a distinct gift for everyone. While this makes shopping
easier in one capacity by ensuring the boss only has to select
one gift, it complicates the Christmas shopping process by
tasking the boss to select one gift which will be universally
appreciated by all of the employees in the office. Examples of
some gifts which are generally appreciated by all may include
items with the company logo such as sweatshirts, mugs or other
office items. These gifts are not only practical but also help
to promote a sense of pride in the company. Gift certificates
are also always appreciated. Gift certificates to local
restaurants or business or online retailers are gifts which are
likely to be appreciated and valued by all.