You can hold a staff party at a restaurant or treat your entire staff and their families to a day at a local ball game or amusement park. Most places offer discount rates for groups.
When planning an event, here are four cues to keep the emphasis on fun:
- Take it outside. Hold your outings away from the office, if possible. This creates a more relaxed atmosphere and lets staff members feel free to put work aside and just have a good time. They are more likely to bond if the focus is off the workplace.
- Involve families. This lets everyone feel a part of the workplace community and opens the way for more personalized relationships. In addition, spouses and family members play a major role in employees' longevity with your company.
- Make it enjoyable. Come up with a theme and hold a contest. For example, if you're going to a ballpark, the employee who can name the team's highest scoring player wins a baseball cap. Or if you're headed to the beach, a beach towel can be awarded to the family that comes up with the longest list of songs from Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon movies.
- Keep it regular. The more often you hold company-wide events, the more your staff members feel part of a community that works and plays together. Send out invitations at least a month before each outing and get everyone involved in a countdown.
By investing a little time and money in showing employees and their families a good time, you build loyalty that can help retain your staff.
Now, here's the tax bonus: As long as the get-together is open to everyone, the entire cost of the event is a deductible entertainment expense. Generally, you can write off only 50 percent of entertainment expenses. And with a company gathering, you don't have to talk about business to deduct the cost.
