Consultant has tips for holiday office gift-giving

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Local employers wondering what to give their valued employees for the holidays need only look as far as their hearts and wallets. The consensus: Spring-field employees' Christmas wish lists are a mixture of cash and consideration. |ret||ret||tab|

Springfield consultant and speaker Mark Holmes helps corporations build better relationships between employees and management. In his new book, "The People Keeper," Holmes gives management ideas on gifts that score big with employees. |ret||ret||tab|

Holmes is the president of Consultant Board Inc., which assists organizations and individuals in improving performance with customers, strengthening em-ployee retention, and increasing teamwork, communication and leadership. According to his Web site, www.thepeoplekeep er.com, his ideas on employee motivation and organizational performance have been used in such corporations as Chick-fil-A, Rhone-Poulenc, Dow Cor-ning Wright, Cisco Systems, Service-Master (Clean), Tracker Marine, and successful family-owned businesses like Hammons Products Company and Silver Dollar City. |ret||ret||tab|

Holmes' rule number one of employee holiday gift-giving: the gift and the thought behind it must matter to the employee, Holmes said. |ret||ret||tab|

"Thoughtful gift-giving helps create a relationship that says I appreciate you and what you do here,'" he added. "That's the whole point of a Christmas gift." Holmes also suggests that employers ask employees for a list of gift suggestions in a number of price ranges. These suggested gifts can be given during the year as thank-you gifts, incentives or Christmas gifts. |ret||ret||tab|

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Christmas bonuses|ret||ret||tab|

An employee would have to be pickier than Scrooge himself to turn down a cash bonus, right? Not necessarily. Christmas bonuses aren't a gift-giving slam dunk, according to Holmes. It's crucial that employers remember that a Christmas bonus is a gift, and as such, should not be performance-based. Varying the bonus amounts that employees receive is another big no-no, according to Holmes. "Then the bonus becomes despised and is contrary to what you intended," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

Christmas bonuses can also be a source of disappointment when they vary from year to year along with the company's bottom line. "Make sure the amount is something you can manage and something you can repeat in the years to come, even in the worst of financial times," Holmes said.|ret||ret||tab|

Holmes said employers would also do well to remember their employees' families when it comes to Christmas gifts. Family-oriented gifts go a long way toward building a relationship with employees, Holmes said. One family-oriented Christmas gift option would be to offer a few paid days off. Again, Holmes stresses that this option must be manageable within the organization.|ret||ret||tab|

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Good gifts|ret||ret||tab|

Employees have their own ideas of what makes a good Christmas gift. Joan Ward, an employee of the Catholic Center, said that good gifts are a reflection of having gotten to know your employees. "I'd like to think that my employer would know what I wanted," Ward said. Ward said that her wish list includes a cash gift or a contribution to a charity of her choice. |ret||ret||tab|

John Murphy, midwest sales coordinator for Prime Inc., said that his employer doesn't give Christmas gifts at all. In-stead, the company throws a lavish Christmas party the day after Thanks-giving, said to cost well into six figures. "We have a huge Christmas party at a hotel and convention center," Murphy said. "There are usually 1,000 people or more there. They have a great dinner, a live band, and closed-circuit television so that guests can see the party from all of the banquet rooms." |ret||ret||tab|

Murphy thinks that Christmas bonuses are better than gifts, for practical reasons. "Some employers give small gifts, but I think a cash gift is even better, especially for employees who have kids. If the company is doing well, I think giving a cash bonus at Christmas is a good idea." |ret||ret||tab|

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Shower of gifts|ret||ret||tab|

Rose Quintana, salesperson at Fleet Sales LLC has received a shower of Christmas gifts from her employer through the years, including a television, Nintendo, video cassette recorder, cash bonuses, toys for her young son, even a washer and dryer. Quintana said she also appreciates her employer's thoughtful timing of the Christmas bonus. "We always get our bonus right after Thanks-giving, so we actually have time to shop. We always have a nice dinner out somewhere, too." |ret||ret||tab|

Some employers use the holidays as a chance to exercise their funny bones. Kira Owens, teller at Bank of America's College Street location, said that she got a big surprise when a previous employer went to distribute holiday gifts to employees. "I'm a vegetarian, and a bank I worked at gave everyone a ham at Christmas," she said. "I got a head of lettuce." Owens thought it was hilarious and wasn't offended at all by the joke.|ret||ret||tab|

What Santa leaves under the corporate Christmas tree won't make an employee stay or leave, but it can be symbolic of how an employer views his or her employees, Holmes said, adding that employers can damage management-employee relations with thoughtless or unequal giving. Ward even recalled an employer she knew who would recycle gifts given to him by vendors, wrapping them up and giving them to employees. |ret||ret||tab|

Owens said she has no preference when it comes to the Christmas gifts employers give their employees. "What-ever they feel like giving is fine with me," she said. "It's more heartfelt if they decide what to give you." |ret||ret||tab|

Quintana said that she views Christ-mas gifts from her employer as a barometer of esteem for her and her service to the company. "My boss knows my family well enough to know what we need," she said. "It's great that we have that kind of relationship." [[In-content Ad]]