With the holiday season approaching, your organization is probably beginning to plan its annual holiday staff party. While the holidays are a great opportunity to celebrate staff achievements and encourage team bonding, holiday parties also present an opportunity for great risk and company liability. If you need a reminder of holiday parties gone wrong, Ask a Manager has a long line-up of what could go wrong at your holiday soiree. However, there are some easy tips to keep your holiday party a safe and fun event for everyone involved. As you prepare to plan your holiday event this season, you may consider implementing these easy tips:

Prepare your managers

You may consider scheduling a manger’s meeting to remind those in managerial roles that they play a crucial role to keep their staff safe during the holiday event. It’s also a good idea to remind managers that if things go awry, that they could carry legal responsibility. Managers should look out for risky behaviors amongst their staff such as over-indulging in alcohol and behaving inappropriately with staff. Executive staff members may consider sharing tips and scripts with their managers in the event they witness inappropriate behaviors during the event.

Plan a family event

It’s less likely for a holiday party to escalate into chaos if significant others and children are involved in the event. However, it’s important to make the event optional and expect that there may be employees who are not interested in attending. In addition, some organizations choose to implement holiday bonuses or incentives to replace an event entirely.

Set limits

In most cases, holiday events tend to become out of control when alcohol is involved. While it’s always an option to host a non-alcoholic event, organizations can also choose to limit how much alcohol is served per person. A one to two drink limit will help reduce the risk of unwanted behavior while also allowing those who prefer to consume alcohol to do so during the party. In addition, you might consider hosting an event earlier in the day to minimize the risk of unwanted behavior. If possible, choose a weekend afternoon or early evening with a hard stop time for the event. This limits the amount of alcohol consumed and increases the likelihood of attending staff to return home safely.

Set expectations for conduct

It is not unreasonable to send out a pre-event email explaining conduct expectations during the party. This is a great opportunity to revisit office rules and can be applied to other events that your office may be sponsoring during the holiday season.

Consider your venue

People have different relationships with alcohol and nightlife which is important to consider while choosing a venue for your organization’s holiday event. It’s not uncommon for organizations to send out a survey to gauge employee interest in a holiday event. However, staff who are planning the event should leave plenty of time to disperse the survey and implement feedback. If you’re going to disperse a survey, now is the time to do so.

Celebrating the Holidays with RiskVersity

While planning a holiday celebration seems like an easy thing to do, many organizations struggle with hosting an event that all employees will enjoy. If it’s time to start planning your holiday party, consider enlisting the help of RiskVersity’s expertise today. Plan a safe event today by contacting us here.