Earlier this week, we shared our patented Top 5 Holiday Party Tips.  As a follow-up, here’s some interesting data from BNA’s annual Year-end Holiday Practices Survey:

• Party on.  64% of employers will throw a holiday bash this year (down only slightly from last year’s record of 67%), with more employers than ever before (92%) picking up the entire tab.
• More booze?  Not sure what this says about the mental state of corporate America, but more employers plan to serve alcohol this year — 65% compared to last year’s 59%.
• More safeguards?  Of the employers serving alcohol, 75% monitor consumption, 58% limit serving times, 46% provide taxis, 32% offer discount hotel rates to encourage overnight stays and 12% arrange for designated drivers.
• No spouses.  Fewer employers allow non-employees to attend the festivities.  Only 55% will allow spouses or other guests, continuing a decline from 2004′s high of 63%.
• Less charity.  Only 61% of employers will participate in charitable activities this year, up 3% from last year but down considerably from prior years when more than 70% of employers participated.  The most frequent activities include gifts to needy children (41%) and food drives (39%).
• Scrooge-ish gifts and bonuses.  Only 40% of employers will give gifts or bonuses this year, down from 44% last year and 49% the previous year.
• What if Santa brings gifts from vendors?  18% prohibit outside gifts entirely, while 51% allow gifts of nominal value and 14% set limits on value (typically somewhere between $25 and $100).  15% have no outside gift policy.

For all the results, click here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Employment Law News, Holiday Parties, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.