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Home > Business > How to keep employees engaged during the holiday season?

How to keep employees engaged during the holiday season?

Published by Gbaf News

Posted on December 1, 2018

3 min read

Last updated: January 21, 2026

How to keep employees engaged during the holiday season

Slacking off at work during the holiday season happens as employees deal with additional chores at home, parties and school plays. So how do you keep employees engaged and productive during the holiday season with the all partying and merriment flowing around? Well its simple, you can implement the ideas we’ve listed below or use them as inspiration to create your own.

Challenge Everyone to Meet Goals and Provide Rewards

Whether you are in the midst of the holiday season or just approaching it you need to first and foremost formulate goals for your employees to achieve. When formulating these goals ensure that you too have a list of important ones to meet. Having goals set in stone, helps employees work towards them throughout the holiday season and remain focused. Also make sure you provide additional motivation in the form of rewards or special gifts to employees which will encourage them to attain their goals.

Celebrate in the Office

There are a lot of holiday parties happening every year and when employees come to work they are missing out on several. So take time to create parties within the office so that employees can celebrate at work. Especially employees who are in the service industry work through the holiday season. So if you own a restaurant that is going to be busy right until Christmas eye and even after, it makes sense to have a celebration to keep staff motivated. Additionally, many businesses also celebrate Hanukkah in the office as the Jewish holiday takes place in the month of December and sometimes around Christmas.

Schedule Evaluations

Providing evaluations to employees just before a major holiday like Christmas and Thanksgiving encourages them to perform better. Also acknowledging hard work put in by the employees during the year creates good will. Employees will then be less irritated about missing a family dinner, while they work extra hours to deal with the holiday rush in your store. Additionally providing a bonus around the holiday season is common in many countries. You can adopt this practice to ensure that employees have a bit of extra money on hand which they can spend on their families.

Organize a Secret Santa gift Exchange

Bringing the gift giving within your office is a good way to add a dash of suspense and encourage people to be enthusiastic about work. One way to exchange gifts within office and do so with creativity is to hold a “Secret Santa”, where co-workers each pick a name. Since Secret Santa gifts are usually affordable items like mugs, pens and chocolates all employees can include their names in the draw.

Provide Free Food at Work

The holidays usually involve a lot of food, and when employees are at office instead of celebrating with their family they are usually missing out on traditional delicacies. So circulating cookies, chocolates, sponsoring free breakfasts, or buying Toffee Nut Crunch Lattes from Starbucks for employees will help keep them motivated. Buying lunch or dinner for employees working overtime during the holiday season also helps.

Finally make sure you invite employees and their family for a Thanksgiving and Christmas party and ensure that the food is good and abundant. Good food and encouraging the spirit of giving amongst your employees will go a long way towards keeping your business primed and ready to serve customers during the holiday season.