HR Tip of The Week: How to Survive Your Office Holiday Party 

• Provide rides.

David Lewis, president and CEO of the Norwalk, Conn., HR outsourcing and consulting firm Operations, Inc, agreed that shorter parties are better. He also suggested that company executives think about ways to get employees home safely. Lewis said some of his clients pay for Uber drivers to shuttle all workers to the party and then home. 

• Lose the mistletoe.

And forget about party games that involve revealing personal secrets or require body contortions [or] physical contact or any sort of disrobing. In fact, party games in general pose all sorts of unknown risks. 

• Limit alcoholic beverages.

Have you come up with a plan to ensure that you’re not providing alcohol to people and then sending them on the road where you absolutely could find yourself in the position of some measure of responsibility for their condition and [the] results? 

• Create a ‘respect’ memo.

Remind employees, in writing, of the company’s policies on harassment as well as the dress code, suggested Philippe Weiss, managing director of Seyfarth Shaw at Work, a law firm dedicated to compliance services and training subsidiary. Weiss is based in Chicago. 

• Monitor behavior.

Sharlyn Lauby, SHRM-SCP, president of Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based HR consulting firm ITM Group Inc., agreed that it is important that somebody monitor the party to stop problems, but she says that person needn’t be from the HR department. 

HR Tip of The Week

5 Actionable Ways to Improve Your Employee Relations

• Go Digital

  • Technology. It needs to be the first move you make when refocusing your strategies to put employees above numbers (and just so we’re clear, when you focus on employees, those numbers will increase.) A mobile team communications app is a demonstration of trust, transparency, and inclusion. Read on to see why a digital workplace can be a game changer for your organization.

• Build a Centralized Employee Relations Oversight Team

  • As you begin to implement strategies to prioritize employees, determine the team that will oversee their implementation, manage conflict resolution, and track the analytics of employee feedback and engagement.

• Establish Complete Transparency and Open Communication

  • Here’s what employees want from internal communications: a voice and transparency. Create circular communication economy within your company with a workforce app. Give everyone access. Encourage open communication through a digital workplace and let every employee participate and contribute.

• Resolve Issues Quickly

  • An inevitable element of employee relations is conflict resolution—from discrimination complaints to conflicts between workers. It’s essential to have a process and protocols in place to handle issues swiftly and fairly.
    • For conflict resolution make sure to:
      • Create an environment where employees feel safe to speak up.
      • Resolve issues in a timely manner to lessen the impact to workflows and productivity. Lingering issues can also lead to an air of distrust in the workplace that can spread like wildfire.

• Hand Over the Reins

  • When you hire an employee to fill a specific role, give them space to own their title. Let employees make decisions, and let them set goals for accomplishing tasks. Equip them with the freedom, the tools, and information to be self starters. Build a rapport that encourages them to seek guidance without micromanaging them. They’ll gain confidence, expand their capabilities, and work harder when they see what they can accomplish.