’Tis the season for employee recognition

Paid time-off among holiday perks

It’s that time of the year. A time for office parties and festive decorations and gifts to staff to acknowledge their hard work during the year.

At least, that was the tradition. As Canadian workplaces become more diverse, however, employers are modifying recognition approaches. They’re putting less emphasis on Christmas, but they still see the season as a time for celebrating.

It used to be that the employer would impose some sort of ceremony during the Christmas period that everyone had to participate in, says Earl Miller, a former director of diversity and now senior manager of public, corporate and government affairs at Scotiabank in Toronto.

“I find now, during the holiday season, people are doing what makes the most sense in their particular workplace. It is a factor of our multicultural society and the desire to engage employees in the workplace on their own terms.”

At Stikeman Elliott, a law firm with offices across Canada, director of human resources Karen Lowe says the holiday season still provides an opportunity to take time out from the busy work schedule to acknowledge the contribution of staff and their families.

“We have a year-end holiday dinner and dance at the Four Seasons Hotel (in Toronto). A few weeks later we put on a large family festival at the Liberty Grand that replaces the old-style family Christmas party,” says Lowe.

“It’s about the total experience. There are crafts, family photo opportunities, entertainment and a loot bag to take home. We collect gifts for (a local) Christmas wish foundation and get our teenagers to help us as part of their school voluntary hours. This year we are trying to introduce other cultural crafts and traditions into our festival.”

Stikeman Elliott used to bundle employee recognition into an annual Christmas gift and party. Now they celebrate employee milestones in September with different activities related to length of service. Lowe says this approach offers a more focused opportunity to celebrate how people have grown on the job. On their anniversary dates, employees receive flowers and can choose a gift certificate or RRSP contribution. A discretionary merit-based bonus comes in February following the year-end performance reviews.

Recognition programs are moving from once a year at Christmas, agrees Graig King, regional manager for eastern Canada at Terryberry, a Mississauga, Ont.-based recognition programs provider. More employers are recognizing employees on a quarterly or monthly basis, or on the employees’ anniversary dates.

“The employer wants to keep recognition alive and in front of employees, and spread the budget out through the year,” says King. Recognition programs are becoming more personalized and may include the family as well.

“In this way,” says King, “employees can see a direct return for their work. Their families and colleagues can also see there is recognition for a job well done.”

As the festive season approaches, Ladi Popoola, business-to-business account manager at Roots Canada, finds that companies are looking for inspirational products that they can brand with their logo for holiday party door prizes and seasonal employee incentives. “Monetary gifts tend to be forgotten,” says Popoola. “A $300 bonus is fine, but you pay some bills and the memory fades. Companies want a holiday gift employees can use every day that is cool, professional, and gets their brand across; a gift that says we appreciate you.”

Elizabeth Roe Pfeiser, vice-president organizational development at Research in Motion (RIM) in Waterloo, Ont., says that while the tech sector is known for its novel approaches to employee recognition, at this time of the year, RIM employee celebrations are like those at other workplaces.

RIM sponsors holiday parties at their headquarters around the world. “The majority are evening events with dinner and entertainment or dancing. We follow the culture of the country we are in: winter-themed parties in North America and more intimate dinners in our smaller Asian offices,” says Roe Pfeiser.

Employee names and years of service scroll across a big screen during the event and the executives are on hand to thank employees.

There are team pot lucks and lunches at RIM throughout the holiday season. “We give all our staff paid time off between Dec. 25 and Jan. 2 to acknowledge their hard work through the year.” RIM employees also engage in charity events every year, this year’s event being a toy drive, with departments competing against one another. Also, every year employees receive a newly designed “RIM wear” garment that is kept as a surprise until the last minute.

Not all organizations use the holiday season for employee recognition, however. The annual Battalia Winston International survey on holiday celebrations found 13 per cent of the 150 U.S. companies surveyed would not be holding a holiday celebration this year, a drop of eight per cent from 2004. Only 38 per cent of the respondents said their celebrations would include gift giving. This is a significant change in holiday celebrations from the late 1990s when roughly half the employers surveyed gave gifts. Higher interest rates and rising energy costs are seen as factors contributing to this change.

TransCanada, an energy infrastructure company headquartered in Calgary, is one organization that does not do anything special to mark the Christmas holiday season. Employees have said they find it more meaningful to do things at the level of the work group, says communications manager Claudio Perrella. Festive functions are organized at the discretion of the various departments, which are responsible for budgeting, planning and hosting. If employees undertake a charitable activity over the holiday season such as an adopt-a-family program, then TransCanada will match anything that is raised, but this is done year-round and there is no specific Christmas focus.

For public-sector employers, the need to use taxpayers’ money responsibly makes planning holiday events a challenge. But these are a morale builder and an investment in staff, says David Coward, director of human resources at Collingwood General and Marine Hospital in Ontario. The hospital asks staff to pay a nominal fee for their annual turkey dinner held in the cafeteria. The senior management team carves the turkey and serves the meal to the 400 employees. There is a contest for holiday decorations in the different departments.

The week before Christmas, members of the hospital’s board of trustees go around with a cookie cart handing out coffee and cookies to staff. “It is a chance for them to say ‘Thank you’ to staff, whom they would otherwise not see,” says Coward.

Non-profit organizations do not generally have the budget for bonuses or holiday events to acknowledge employee efforts. “Our funds are locked into a project base,” says Brenda Campbell, administrative co-ordinator with the Workers’ Action Centre in Toronto, a labour support service.

“So we give employees time off between Christmas and New Year. People put in a lot of personal time through the year and this is a small token of appreciation. We also make a point of taking some social time by going out for a meal with each person contributing to the cost. These days, time is an important perk for people.”

Susan Singh is a Toronto-based freelance writer.

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