December 9, 2015
Come to the end of the year, it’s time to take a look back and reflect on your company’s successes – and celebrate your team. Whether you reached all of your smaller goals or made one large accomplishment this year, it deserves some recognition. The holidays are a perfect time to recognize achievements AND get in the spirit with fun holiday party ideas. Here are some examples of holiday team celebration ideas and how your team can commemorate this year’s successes.
Why Celebrating Success is Important
1. Boosts Morale
Every now and then, you might find that your office needs a little pick-me-up. Celebrating success at the end of the year is the perfect way to do this. It allows the whole team to come together and recognize everyone’s individual hard work as well as everyone’s collaborative works as part of your holiday party. Day-to-day it’s difficult to take a step back in the business of everything to recognize the hard work that everyone is putting in to achieve goals. When you take a minute to celebrate your successes, it will increase your team’s confidence and make their contributions feel worth it.
2. Helps Achieve Goals
How’s a fun holiday activity for incentive? Incentives are a good way to make sure that your team stays on track. If you know there’s an exciting event awaiting your success at the end of the year, all the more reason to work a little harder and keep your head up while you’re at it! It also helps to plan your events in advance so that you will have something to look forward to.
3. Reduces Employee Burnout
Employee burnout is a very serious issue that can have harmful effects on your company and its employees. Fun holiday team celebration ideas are a great way to reduce employee burnout. Infusing these events with team building can help increase morale, reduce burnout and it’s a blast! Getting everyone involved and feeling included is one of the most important ways to reduce burnout. Plus, having a fun activity planned to look forward to is a bonus to anyone’s mood!
4. It Brings the Whole Group Together
An end-of-the-year celebration is a perfect time to gather everyone in the office together. It’s rare that everybody is able to come together at the same time. Instead of the usual department meetings or lunch out with your friends, a celebration of the hard work of your entire team will encourage 100% attendance and participation!
5. It’s FUN
…and fun is GOOD! Having fun at work is very important in shaping company culture and creating a positive employee experience. Adding a little bit of fun and excitement into your workday can have its benefits. Not only will it serve as a great way to break down the professional relationships among co-workers and build some genuine relationships, but it can also serve as a break from sitting at your desk all day. Get up, get moving, and have some fun!
How You Can Celebrate Success
1. Customize It
Think about your particular office dynamic when planning a team celebration. To maximize your event, take into consideration the preferences and goals of the larger team. One way to ensure you are making the right choice is to have the entire group vote on what the celebratory activity will be. Be sure to assess how your team feels about doing an in-person event. A virtual event may be a better fit for your team. This will not only give the whole office a sense of customization, but it will get everyone involved and hopefully urge more people to attend the event itself if they feel like they have a say in it. Try something different this year and try one of these alternatives to the traditional holiday office party.
FYI: Holiday party invitations reach their peak in mid to late November, but continue to be sent in December. Click here for a customizable holiday save the date and invitation.
2. Thank Individuals
Team celebrations are a great way to show your gratitude towards individuals. While the whole purpose of your celebration is to recognize success, this is in a much wider sense. Recognizing individuals and thanking them for their work adds a great personal touch to your success celebration. After all, it does take each and every member of the team to achieve success. There are many ways that you can thank individuals but here are some suggestions: writing personalized thank you notes or giving a quick shout-out at your celebration. Either way, individuals will feel recognizes and it will emphasize the importance of their work.
3. Give Back to the Community
A great way to celebrate your organizations’ success is to give back to the community. Especially at the end of the year around the holiday season, there are many local charities that are in need at this time of the year. You’ll reward yourselves with the gift of giving back. Charitable group activities are a great way to celebrate your success and put your efforts towards something that makes a difference. Not only will you engage and bond with your team in ways you never have before, but your efforts will be going towards benefiting the greater good of society. Some of our favorite events to give back are the Charity Bike Build, Operation Military Care, and Impact Online.
4. Enjoy Good Eats
A culinary team experience is a great reward for a job well done! Culinary classes, chocolate challenges, tours, and murder mysteries are all great ways to bring your team together in an engaging and delicious activity. And what better way to say thank you to your employees than a tasty culinary experience to top off their year’s success. Culinary team activities make for great holiday team building activities to engage in a fun cooking activity with your co-workers. With these events, you can make your cake and eat it too!
5. Let Loose and Have Fun Together
You’re celebrating a YEAR of success, which calls for a super fun celebration. Whether your celebration takes you on a Festive Amazing Race Around the World or in an intense escape room like Escape the Blizzard, you deserve to have a little (well, a lot) of fun! There are many fun holiday team building activities to choose from, you just have to pick the right one that will have your whole team letting their hair down too! You’ll have so much fun participating in these activities all while creating and strengthening genuine relationships with your co-workers.
Planning a team celebration is a great way to boost your employees’ morale and improve their employee experience. If you need help along the way, TeamBonding will be there. Be sure to check out our team celebration ideas for the holidays to make this experience one your team will remember!
