The number of different ways that business owners celebrate the holiday season is nearly limitless, ranging from none at all to magnificent parties and individually selected gifts. The size of the company is not as important as the attitude of the owners, since some struggling companies continue their holiday celebrations even as some larger, more successful firms might ignore the season completely. If you are more of a Santa's helper than you are a grinch, then this article will help you see how easily you can choose the right gift for your employees for the holiday season.



One of the most important things to remember is that gifts with even a minimal amount of individuality, chosen with the recipient's likes and habits in mind, have a far better effect on morale than either ?group gifts? (a stereo in the break room) or ?mass gifts? (where everyone gets the same Starbucks $20 coffee card). At a large company, then, owners and executives may have to delegate the gift task to department heads or the personnel department ? to someone who knows a little bit about each employee.

Of course, firms without much money to spend may indeed have to settle for a group or mass gift, or perhaps a modest get-together in the lunchroom with an employee gift exchange. But firms that can budget the necessary funds can make the holidays a real morale booster for their employees, and do so cost-effectively and creatively, too.

The basket approach

If the decision has been made to give each employee a gift from the company ? which can take place at a potluck lunch, perhaps ? then the first step for the gift buyer(s) is to gather some ?intelligence? on each employee. This should be done at least three months early (September) so as not to raise suspicion. Talk to the co-workers and supervisors of each employee to get some kind of idea as to their interests and hobbies.

Gift baskets are a great way to ease the task of making individualized gifts. They can be either simple or extravagant or somewhere in between, and can be designed to work within any size budget. You can also save time and money by making similar ?base? baskets ? cheese, wine, crackers, etc. ? with a single, central, themed gift appropriate to the recipient.

For example, the fisherman in the accounting department would get a basket topped with a new reel or a gift certificate from a bait-and-tackle shop. The cake decorating hobbyist in administration would get the same basket, but with a recipe book or some choice almond flour in the middle. Let your creativity shine with a themed gift basket for each worker.

The single-item approach

Given enough time and a large enough budget, you might choose to give each employee an individual gift. To ease this process, you should consider shopping in a single location, either online or off, that has a great variety of modestly-priced items. It doesn't have to be Wal-Mart and it certainly shouldn't be Kay's Jewelers, but there are plenty of places left ? like eBay, crafts shops in your area, the wholesale district of any good-size city and so forth.

As much as you can, keep the costs reasonable, and reasonably close to one another, too. Relationships at workplaces are complicated, and giving a Rolex to Bill and a Timex to Bob is not a good way to keep morale high. The fact is, with just a little planning and some tightly scheduled rounds of shopping and gift-wrapping, you can have all the components of a great holiday bash at your business.

Investing in people

Business is all about relationships, both inside and outside your company. It is actually a complex, interwoven system of ?relations and communications? that has evolved for the mutual advantage of participants ? in other words, it should be ?win-win.? The quality of the ?human environment? is even more important than that of the physical environment, and much more difficult to clean up once it's polluted with jealousy, bitterness or other ?bad vibes.?

A holiday gift will go a long way to maintaining good morale, but by itself will not build it initially. That is to say, don't count on a holiday gift and a potluck to make up for shabby treatment of your employees the rest of the year. Gift giving and parties should be part of a continuum of activity and attitude that exists year-round. When you really do have this outlook about your business and your employees, it does become easier to select either group or individual gifts. And don't forget that a quick Internet search on these various terms will bring you more ideas than you can ever use. Once you have the giving spirit, the rest almost takes care of itself.