Around the holidays, people usually think about spending some family time. They look forward to some time off from work and reconnecting with loved ones. They might also think about tasty holiday meals that they’ll enjoy.
As a company operator or owner, you might think about holiday food gifts as a way to tell your employees that you genuinely care about them. Cash or gift cards work well, but maybe a sweet treat sounds better to your workers. If they’re putting in some long hours for you, a snack or even a whole meal might brighter their days with you.
Let’s talk a little more about holiday food gifts. You should follow these suggestions if you decide to go in this direction.
Check for Any Employee Allergies
Holiday food gifts are always worth considering, but you should remember that some people have particular ingredient allergies. For instance, some individuals swell up or get hives if they encounter nuts, shellfish, etc.
You can ask each specific employee about any food allergies before you get a food item for them. If someone tells you they have a nut allergy, for instance, and you’re getting each worker some fudge, you can make sure that person does not get any nuts in theirs.
If you know that a worker can’t eat a certain food, you can get them something else that’s similar but won’t harm them. They will definitely appreciate that you took the time to see to their safety.
Ask About Any Religion-Related Food Needs or Beliefs
Some people don’t eat particular food items because of religious beliefs or requirements. Some religious sects don’t eat cows or pigs. Others don’t eat shellfish.
You can take the time to ask each person if they don’t want a food item because of their religion. Again, they should appreciate that you took the time to ask instead of just assuming you could get them anything indiscriminately.
When you take this action, you show that you welcome a diverse workforce. That will likely lead to more employees staying with you. Employee retention matters, and you can take a major step in that direction with a little care and thoughtfulness.
Get Food Items that Match Service Time and Rank
If you’re going with food items as holiday gifts instead of cash, gift cards, or other options, you want to get everyone the same thing that holds the same rank or position within the company. For example, if you have a dozen IT employees working for your business enterprise, you might get each of them the same cheese and sausage sampler, assuming they tell you they’re okay with eating those items.
However, say that you have a vice president or CFO, and you want to get them a food item as a gift. You might get them something like a gift set of Omaha Steaks to show them you care. The set may come with some steaks, crabcakes, lobster tails, and so forth.
You probably can’t afford to get such a lavish food gift for every employee. If you only get high-end food gifts for highly-placed workers, that’s probably the right move, given the circumstances.
You might also give out more expensive or fancier food gifts based on service time. If someone has put in twenty or thirty years with your company, it makes sense to get them something that costs more than you’d get an individual who just started working there a few months before.
Exercise Caution with Alcohol Gifts
You might choose to get some of your workers alcohol as a gift. You might get each person a bottle of good Scotch or vodka.
If you do that, you need to check several boxes. First, you must ensure each employee has reached the legal drinking age. You might have some young employees working for you around age 18-20. They’re old enough to work at your company, but they can’t drink legally yet.
You should make sure that none of your workers have alcoholism problems. If you know that someone doesn’t drink anymore because they have prior drunk driving or public intoxication arrests, you want to keep alcohol away from them. You also don’t want to make them feel uncomfortable at work in any way.
You should check to see if any workers can’t drink because of religious beliefs. Some religions say their followers shouldn’t consume alcohol.
Finally, you should make sure that if you hand out alcohol at work and have a holiday party, that no one drives after they’ve indulged. There’s nothing wrong with drinking with some fellow employees after the workday concludes, but you don’t want any drunk driving arrests or crashes after that, or the police might hold you liable.
Have taxis or Ubers standing by to drive any worker home who indulged. You can easily take this safe and responsible action.
Deliver the Food Gifts in a Timely Manner
You might look into some food gifts that you need to deliver in a timely manner. For instance, maybe you’ll get each worker an edible arrangement with fruit. Those arrangements only last for a few hours, so you should make sure each one gets to the proper worker in very little time.
If you get each worker some frozen steaks or something similar, you need to get those to the employees before they thaw. You don’t want the food delivery to sit at each employee’s desk over a weekend. If that happens, it can ruin the food and endanger your workers if they try to eat it.
If this sounds like too much work or it’s too hard to keep track of religious food preferences or allergies, you can always avoid these gifts entirely. Many people like food gifts, but you have lots of other options that you can easily obtain. Something like cash or gift cards doesn’t usually take as much effort as food gifts, and your workers will probably like those just as much.
