With Christmas creeping up on us once again, thoughts are turning to holidays and, of course, the office Christmas party. However, a new survey by the Society for Human Resource Management has found that fewer companies will be throwing office Christmas parties this year.
A survey of 385 HR professionals found that 30 percent of people claimed their organisations do not usually have an end-of-year holiday party, almost double that of 2012, when the figure stood at 17 percent.
65 percent showed some Christmas spirit and said that their organisation will have a Christmas party, at least for this year.
Perhaps because it is easier logistically, it is the smaller companies that were found most likely to have a party and most (80 percent) said that the 2015 budget was about the same as the 2014 one. Almost half (45 percent) indicated their budget was larger this year. A majority of the parties will be held offsite (67 percent), which is probably a good thing, because every Christmas party should entail a break from the office.
Robert joined the HRreview editorial team in October 2015. After graduating from the University of Salford in 2009 with a BA in Politics, Robert has spent several years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past he has been part of editorial teams at Flux Magazine, Mondo*Arc Magazine and The Marine Professional.
