Virtual Holiday Party Ideas

Welcome everybody to HR Simplified. I am Matt Vadie. I'm joined by the one, the only, A-Town Senior HR Business Partner, Amanda Voelz from ERG Payroll and HR. And today we are going to be talking about virtual holiday party ideas. It is getting late in the season. So we know that it is time. We're starting to get the questions for those late planners like ourselves who are wondering, what can we do in this Zoom world to bring our team together in a holiday party type of environment, even though we can't necessarily get together. And so we've got a list of ideas that we're going to walk through. Amanda's put together a great list. And we're, we're actually gonna do something a little bit fun here while we're doing this. And for those of you not joining the video component and not seeing our awesome ugly Christmas sweaters, I encourage you to go to our YouTube channel and check those out, because we're looking pretty fly. But so we're going to actually plan our party as well. So we pinned down a date, but we haven't exactly planned out what we're going to do yet. So we're going to pick some of these activities from the list that we think our team will enjoy and want to be a part of. And So we're gonna kind of go through this with you as we're doing it, but thank you so much for joining me, Amanda. I appreciate you. How are you doing today?

Doing good. I'm excited to talk cheesy Christmas party ideas.

Absolutely, absolutely. So I'm kind of looking at the list with you here, and I see the top one is one that we all go to, and you and I have already started down the path of. Why don't you walk us through a couple of these ideas and what your thoughts are on them and way companies might make them fun?

Yeah, so I think, You know, one of the things that the most important thing that you want to achieve with these holiday parties is just the idea of connection. And, and, you know, virtual parties are a great way to do that. You know, human beings need connection at a biological level. It's, it's in our DNA. We're tribal beings. So just try not to overthink it. You know, anything that you can do to get your team together and having fun is something that they're going to appreciate and something that's that's going to resonate with them. So a couple things, obviously, ugly Christmas sweater contest is something that always comes to mind. And better yet, if you've got a creative group, you can do the best handmade ugly Christmas sweater, and you can provide, you know, basic materials, you know, tinsel, ornaments, things like that. You can send employees home with a little baggie where they can, you know, use the same materials to make their own sweaters. We had thought of a couple ideas as far as decorating the background, having contests as, you know, the best decorated office or home office, or perhaps the best virtual background. I know I've gone to Google a few times and put myself in the actual office with some of those actors there, so that's always a fun idea. Trivia games, you know, that's actually a really good one to do virtually. You can have someone that's in charge of picking the questions or perhaps—

Now, that's interesting. Let me touch on something real quick there before you move on to the trivia. So we're going back to the first and foremost, holiday parties can be one of two things. They can be a lot of fun. They can be a great bonding experience. It could be a good opportunity to engage your team and get people together, one extra touchpoint. Or they can just be dreaded because they're so lame and people don't want to go. They feel like they're being forced to participate. They feel like it's just a, you know, almost like another piece of work that they're forced to do. And so keep that in mind when you're planning this and you're looking through these things is how do we make sure they're fun and engaging? How do we make sure that people participate? And, you know, you touched on something there going back to the homemade ugly Christmas sweater like that one really jumped out at me. I think that's a fantastic idea of just providing materials or giving people a budget to go grab some things to put on on their ugly Christmas sweater. But like you said, for those that are more crafty, it's way more fun when they're not crafty, right? So like the people who are just like, all right, I'm gonna go grab some Scotch tape and some balls and throw them on here and come up, try to come up with something creative, that actually creates the fun, the laughs, the engagement. So don't make it all cringy, but at the same time, you gotta be a little bit hokey, a little bit fun, a little bit engaging, and be willing to kind of step out of your comfort zone with some of these things. So yeah, good stuff so far. So trivia is an interesting one. I like what you've got here. Yeah, trivia is interesting. I like some of the notes you've got here on the movies. So holiday movies, I'm sure there's probably pretty easy Google. I'm gonna pen that down. So we're talking about planning ours. Christmas and holiday movie trivia is a good one that we might throw into our party.

Exactly. And the thing is— You've got the hand raise feature on so many of like the virtual meetings platforms now that you could have a moderator and have everybody, instead of having everybody, you know, jump on the mic at the same time, which is also kind of fun and happens a good bit. And I know everybody's experienced that with all these virtual meetings, but that gives you a way to, you know, see whose buzzer or whose hand goes up first. Charades is another fun one. You can have, you know, a designated member of your team who can privately chat someone or shoot them an email of what they're, what it is that they're supposed to act out. And then, you know, this is a great space to do it. If you're acting out A Christmas Carol, you can't use any words and make up different things. And I think that's a good way to have fun. I do it with my parents a good bit during Christmas. So if I can have fun with my, with my, you know, 60 and 70-year-old parents, I bet, you know, a good group of employees could have a fun time too.

Absolutely. So we started to look at some of these other things here and making sure you've got some prizes for the game, some company swag, maybe some gift cards or some opportunities, you know, you put on here, maybe even a pizza party for teams that win. So that's obviously one way we engage people is we talk about, I don't want to say gamification, but that is the proper term here, right? How do we turn this into, how do we bring out some of those people that are competitive but also keep the people engaged that are a little bit less competitive and make it fun? Fun because, you know, there's nothing worse than once again being on a 30-person Zoom call and just feeling like, oh goodness, this is torture. What do I do? So to also want to think about ways that we can divvy people up. So if you have larger teams, you know, maybe starting with an all-hands that brings the 30, 40, 50 people, whatever it is together, and then break out into rooms and do these things independently. And maybe you're rotating through some of them, be a good idea possibly. So what are some other things that we can do for our virtual Christmas party this year, Amanda?

Well, one thing that's, that's on everybody's mind is, you know, social distancing. So it's going to be hard to get everybody at a restaurant or get everybody in the same room to eat. But if you do your social distancing and your company party via, via Skype or Zoom or whatever the platform it is that you use, lots of companies can, you know, you could hire a food truck where employees can go outside, they can stand in line, social distancing, to get their food. And come back in, or you could give employees an allowance for the day for Uber Eats or whatever the, you know, the service is local where you can still engage and have a meal together. However, it might not be all in the same cafeteria. You guys might be, you know, just having candid conversations remotely and enjoying the food and beverages that the company can provide.

That's a great idea. I think that's something that we— so I'm of the camp of, uh, well, I don't want to necessarily distribute all the work out to other people. At the same time, trying to pack up 12 or 15 different, uh, bags for everybody to be able to do is— it's a lot easier to me to just go, hey, here's $25, go buy yourself a meal, and, uh, or $50 or whatever it is, and whatever you were gonna budget for, you know, and oftentimes organizations are looking at it and going, hey, we've got X number of dollars for the holiday party, which is gonna break down to we're gonna pay for the dinner, we're gonna pay for some drinks, we're gonna pay for this. So think about it in the same way, right? So if I was gonna go out and I realized that to buy you food and drinks for the night, it was gonna cost me $50 per person, send the people $50, go, hey, grab some drinks and some food and have what you want. And let's all get together and do it over this meeting and play some of these games at the same time. I think I'm starting to see ours, taking form here, Amanda.

Exactly. And another great way to do that and provide your employees with something is, you know, there's lots of gifting websites that you can do if you're not— if you don't have all of your employees at the office where you could provide them with a meal or give them a gift directly. There's lots of gifting websites, Eligible Arrangements— or excuse me, Edible Arrangements, Custom Cookies. You know, you get those baskets in the mail with sausage and pears and things like that. And We've even gotten some ice cream from one of our clients. We get that every year. I always look forward to it. But it's amazing all the things that you can actually mail out. You can mail them food that they can enjoy with their family later, you know, and then have them just, you know, share special memories on the call and how, you know, that's one— that's a good way to build connection. And employees, you know, love to talk about their families and to share things. And so that's another idea that I had, maybe a show and tell portion of the virtual holiday party, you know, and you could exchange favorite holiday recipes and then come up with a holiday cookbook for your team or have employees ready to share whether it's like a favorite gift or favorite ornament or tradition. And we could kind of, you know, go around the table to tell funny stories. And, you know, we actually did that on our team call today. Funniest, you know, most awkward Christmas moment. Those things are really fun, and it's a good way to get to know your employees and build those connections in a way that's not solely focused on work.

Yeah, great point. And I'll give a shout out to something we do every morning on our team calls, and those are icebreaker questions. And we're starting to do Christmas and holiday-themed icebreaker questions, talking about some of your most fun or most tragic Christmas party moments. And that was a really fun around the horn this morning. Our team call went about 15 minutes over as people elaborated on some of the wild Christmas and holiday party stories. So yeah, this is interesting. And a shout out real quick to Pendleton Street Business Advisors for sending the ice cream every year. We'll be expecting that soon here. So, John, I'll make sure that I send you the exact time imprint of where this comment is so you can fast forward right to here on your podcast player of choice. So, I like this show and tell thing. That's a really good one. And then your last one on here, I really like too. What's the last bullet you've got on your document that we're sharing?

The recipe exchange. Hmm.

I like that. What's the one thing you always make for this office that is amazing, Amanda?

Oh, I always bring my tin of cookies. I do Oreo truffles and cranberry white chocolate cookies and some fudge and, you know, That's always a staple at my house, and it's, it's kind of nice to build a tradition, um, you know, amongst your family and friends. But then also that can be a tradition that you start amongst the office and amongst your co-workers, and that just reinforces that connection, um, that, that engagement with your company and the business and with the people that, that you surround yourself with at work every day. So that's really important.

That's awesome. I love it, and I love getting everybody's recipes. We are in the South, and so we have a lot of great cooks on our team and a lot of great recipes. To share. So exciting, uh, and, and have folks all over the country from the team nowadays. But, uh, so I, I think I'm starting to get a feel for how we can shape our party here. You know, we're going to be virtual. We're going to send— I think we should send— I want your thoughts on this— I think we should send, uh, some sort of gift card or cash allowance to everybody to go out and get some food and drink of their choice. And, uh, and so we're not choosing things for everybody because everybody's got different tastes there. We have some people that drink, some people that don't drink. If you don't drink, you can go get a big steak instead of a, uh, hamburger and a bottle Fine. I like the Christmas trivia. I think that's a great one that we can do, and that will be fun and engaging for everybody. I love what you're talking about with the hand raise feature on Zoom, because that is kind of problematic once we all get into a room, is everybody trying to talk at the same time. What else from here do you think we can implement? And I got a couple others, but I'd like to hear your thoughts.

I'm excited about the charades. I think with the actual, with the, with the video feature, that's going to be something that You know, people might secretly press the record and use it for blackmail down the road, but I think that would be very fun and entertaining and a good way to, you know, to lift our spirits and laugh and have a good time even though we'll all be remote. And that's kind of the point, you know, of all of this is to make sure that it's fun and engaging. The different contests You know, I've heard companies rewrite songs to— or rewrite lyrics to different Christmas songs or act out the different Christmas songs. So that could always be fun, or kind of the little fill in the blank with a verb or a noun or an adjective and come up with your crazy, you know, our crazy own ERG Night Before Christmas story. So that could be something fun to do.

Love it, love it. Yeah, and I'm giving a big thumbs up to the show and tell. I'm also thinking, as I took a little note here of how do we, you know, normally when we have our party in person, we invite significant others. How do we keep the significant others involved too in a way that's, you know, fun for them and they're not like, oh goodness, I got to sit in on Amanda's Christmas party. Poor Tommy. You know, we can't get Tommy to show up in person. So if we can get him to show up to a virtual one, it'll be huge. So we'll look at some creative ways to get them involved as well. But I think I love everything we've got here, the recipe exchange, the show and tell. Uh, the, the also the charades, that would be the one I wouldn't vote for, but that's the one that other people are going to want to do, so we'll do it because it's not just about you, it's about everybody. So, um, then some trivia and some, some budget towards being able to have some food and drink on hand, uh, while we're there. And of course ugly sweaters, I think that's just a staple nowadays. You've got to have the ugly sweaters.

That's a staple. I feel like everyone has one in their closet already, whether it was a work party or, you know, a party in their neighborhood. I'm sure everybody's got a couple. And, and if you don't have one, then you can make one.

There you go. Yeah, that'll be it, right? Is just kind of give the asterisk, the caveat, if you don't have an ugly sweater, then just make one. Be creative. So, well, this has been really helpful. I'm excited now because I know we already pinned down a date, but I really had no idea what we were going to do at this party. And so I know that the squad is going to be excited and everybody likes to hear these fun stories from each other. Any parting thoughts of wisdom as it relates to whether or not— let's talk about why you would even want to make sure you keep traditions like this alive during a strange year like this year, Amanda. What does it mean to a company long-term?

Well, you know, long-term, you got to think about the impact that it's having on your employees and the impact that it has on your business, right? So studies show that customer satisfaction is directly correlated with employee satisfaction. So, you know, most of us want to improve our business. If you want to improve your customer experience and you want to improve your— the quality of your products, the quality of your service, the bottom line, it's imperative that you also look at ways to improve employee satisfaction. And it's not all about compensation. Most, you know, a lot of people make the mistake of thinking that compensation is going to be the win-all, the— the golden ticket as far as satisfaction for their employees, but it's literally the bare minimum. It's the premise of the employment relationship is to provide work in exchange for money. So, you know, if you're doing that, you're doing the bare minimum. And how long do you think you're going to keep your customers if you're just doing the bare minimum for them? So, you know, thinking back to job satisfaction, it's the result of engagement, It's a result of connection, building positive relationships with your managers and your coworkers, and then also feeling appreciated and valued. And even if it's something as small as a $5 gift card, knowing that you're valued and appreciated at work, it goes a long way. So those are all things that as an employer that are important to provide. And Christmas, you know, is a unique opportunity or the holiday season is a unique opportunity to, to work on some of those things. And again, the reason it is so important is because, you know, once again, you know, you improve your employee satisfaction, you improve the bottom line for your, for your business as well. And, you know, you also have fun doing it in the process. So it's a win-win for everybody.

Yeah, absolutely. And I, and I think you touched on something in there as well that's really important that we want to make sure we're crystal clear on, and that's to be inclusive, right? These aren't just Christmas parties, these are holiday parties. We want make sure that we're celebrating all the holidays that matter to our teammates. We've got diverse groups of folks on our team that celebrate multiple different holidays this time of year. Let's be inclusive. Let's make sure that we're bringing forth a celebration that everybody can get behind because it's not just focused on Christmas. It's not just focused on one religion or one sect. It's about us coming together and celebrating a season together that's about giving and about engagement and about helping each other. And let's keep that top of mind as we celebrate with our team. So, um, Awesome stuff, Amanda. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm excited for our holiday party, and I'm excited to— that people will hopefully be able to glean some of these tips to make their holiday party even better. And we look forward to speaking to all of you soon. Thank you so much for spending a few minutes of your day with us today.