When you imagine your holiday office party, how do you feel? Are you having a good time? Did you bring a gift for your coworkers? What about your boss? And a question that we really just started asking this year — are you attending in person or virtually? As the holidays approach, your company's celebratory plans may be feeling and looking just a little different than they used to.

Wanting to understand this new world of holiday office parties, we conducted a survey on October 30, 2020 of more than 1,000 employees across the country who are actively employed and have holiday office parties on the short-term horizon. Whether they're virtual or in-person, what do employees expect? Or better yet, what do they really want? With such a rough year in hindsight, we think it's best to listen. Keep reading to see what they had to say.

Work Party Status

Our study kicked off with a simple glimpse into what format work parties would actually take this holiday season. We asked respondents to tell us the types of parties their companies were hosting as well as how they felt about that decision.

Roughly one-third – or exactly 31% –of employees said their work parties were going remote this year. Just about the same amount, however, are throwing the party in person. In spite of these unprecedented times, the majority of employees (61%) felt completely comfortable participating in an in-person party this year.

As expected, fear of the COVID-19 infection was the primary reason employees felt they may not enjoy themselves at the party. Thirty-three percent weren't looking forward to spending extra time at work, 32% were frustrated by the extra costs associated with going, and 28% just didn't want to socialize with employees. Fewer than 1 in 5 could actually say they always enjoy the experience. That said, we must consider that these pieces of data were only focusing on the potential reasons employees wouldn't enjoy themselves. As you keep reading, you'll discover many of the perks.

Participation Prizes

Perhaps certain activities would feel more appropriate or safe in a virtual environment as opposed to in person. The next part of the study dissects that concept and asks employees how comfortable they would feel participating in various activities, both in person and remotely.

 

Comfort levels weren't exactly high even from home. The most "comforting" of all activities we asked about was employee awards, which only 54% expressed comfort in doing, even remotely. This number didn't even drop significantly were the process to occur in person. It would appear then, that employee comfort at a holiday party actually has very little to do with COVID. Even at home, the interest in these activities increased only marginally.

The least desired (or least comfortable) activity to do from home was the scavenger hunt, which less than 22% felt comfortable doing this way. The level of comfort actually increased as an in-person experience. The same went for Secret Santa, which more employees felt comfortable doing in each other's presence as opposed to separately from individual homes.

Festivity Morale

Looking at the positive side of parties, we wanted to know which benefits employees perceived these experiences as potentially having. The charts below reflect how respondents felt things like morale, relationships, and even job satisfaction could be influenced by a holiday party.

Even though office parties hit a forced evolution of sorts this year, most employees still saw tremendous value in having them, particularly this year. In fact, most employees we spoke to thought that either type of party – virtual or in person –would help to improve morale around the office. Another 60% said a holiday party would help improve their relationships with co-workers, which in turn has been well-known to improve job satisfaction and overall happiness.

In a time when isolation is all too common, 37% were optimistic that a holiday party could improve feelings related to quarantine. Managers were even more likely to feel this way, with 39% saying feelings of isolation would improve with a holiday party this year. Thirty-seven percent also hoped general team connections would improve with a simple soiree.

Paying for the Party

Moving back to the theoretical downsides of having a party, we wanted to know how employees and management felt about spending money to host said party. Would people want the party enough to forgo some other alternatives that could be provided with the money? Find their answers below.

Very few employees wanted to keep the holiday party budget where it was. Instead, about 91% had opinions of how it could be spent elsewhere. Compared to a similar study that was run last year, employees are now two times more likely to feel that their employers were spending too much. Instead, people most often wanted individual bonuses (49%), gift cards (44%), and employee gifts (40%).

When we asked management how they felt about the holiday expenditures, about a third agreed with other employees that their company was spending too much. Nevertheless, most agreed with their employers' decisions and felt that the spending limits were just right.

Employee Giving

In addition to the money the company itself spends on the party, there's often the additional costs that employees are required to incur for things like gifts. The next piece of our study looks at the emotions employees have around gift giving to co-workers as well as the types of gifting traditions they prefer.

Three-quarters of employees were required to give gifts to one another or at least had some type of tradition in place that was likely difficult to opt out of. That said, 86% of people wanted this tradition to continue, finances aside. Most had experience with the Secret Santa (42%) format, where only one gift is purchased for a secret someone. The other popular traditions also required buying only one gift, such as white elephant (25%) and a 1:1 gift exchange (9%).

Even though most also agreed that they never or rarely went over spending limits, this year might look a little different. Two-thirds agreed that it was OK to spend a bit more in 2020, perhaps considering the rocky road that has brought us here. That said, with virtual parties becoming so popular, 65% agreed that they will need to factor in shipping prices to the cost of the gift, and more than half said they would circumvent shipping costs altogether and just send a virtual gift card instead.

The Reward of Giving

Apart from the actual physical present, did employees perceive other, less tangible benefits to gift giving? Our study ends on this note, with employees sharing the perceived positive impacts of buying gifts for one another this particular holiday season.

 

As it turns out, some of the reasons behind gift giving were more wholesome than others, particularly when you consider who the recipient is. When co-workers gift to one another, they often perceive benefits like improving relationships (58%), team connections (52%), and morale (50%). When it came to giving to managers, however, employee motivations were more often self-serving. More than a quarter wanted to stand out from their peers, while nearly 1 in 5 said giving their manager something might help advance their career. The majority, 57% simply wanted to express their gratitude.

Holiday Hopes

Whether you're one of the many who are partying virtually or in person, consider that this study finds many employees across the country believe in the office holiday party's ability to bring people together, improve morale, and even increase job satisfaction.

Should you need just the right office gift – one that may provide the feel-good benefits many employees described – head to Office Depot, the one-stop shop for all your business needs. You'll be able to find a great gift to show that connection you hope to foster or the gratitude you want to express.

Methodology and Limitations

In this study, we surveyed 1,014 people in the United States who were actively employed. The survey included questions about holiday parties. All responses were collected on October 30, 2020.

Participants ranged in age from 25 to 60 with a mean age of 38 and a standard deviation of nine years. Of our respondents, 46% were women, and 54% were men.

For short open-ended questions, outliers were removed. To help ensure that all respondents took our survey seriously, they were required to identify and correctly answer an attention-check question.

These data rely on self-reporting by the respondents and are only exploratory. Issues with self-reported responses include, but aren't limited to, exaggeration, selective memory, telescoping, attribution, and recency bias. All values are based on estimation.

Fair Use Statement

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