Don't let the gloom cramp your style this Christmas. Office parties
are good for your spirits and your business, says Colin
Beveridge.
It's been a hard year for the IT community and I don't know anybody
that feels completely relaxed about their prospects for next year
either.
Budgets are down, headcounts are shrinking, projects are being
shelved left, right and centre. Discretionary spending on new
technology has become a thing of the past.
Many of us are getting by on subsistence levels of investment. It
looks like austerity will be the flavour of the month for the
foreseeable future.
So should we cancel the Christmas party?
No - absolutely not! That's the last thing we should try to cut,
even when times are hard. I'm not saying that we need to spend a
fortune on festive fripperies - but a good Christmas "do" can be
worth a dozen departmental "away days".
Staff morale is one of the greatest unmeasured performance
indicators - and yet it is one of the most influential success
factors in any business. Show me a thriving company and I'll bet
that strong morale plays a leading part in their success.
Strangely though, nobody has ever asked me to report regularly on
the morale within my department. Is it because we think that we can
gauge morale simply by tracking the numbers of monthly "leavers and
joiners," rather than by asking the straightforward question: "how
is the team spirit of the department?"
Perhaps I've identified a new objective for our IT management
scorecard in 2003: to facilitate a happy workforce. Now that would
be a really interesting Key Performance Indicator. And a serious
challenge.
In the present economic climate we need all the laughs we can
get.
So let's make sure that we all have a cracking run-up to Christmas
and the New Year. Let's start by putting a bit of sparkle back into
our everyday work, wherever we can. It's quite easy when you start
to think about it - there are all sorts of opportunities for
"tweaking" things slightly to put people in the mood for the
holiday season.
For example, you might like to alter the banner page separators on
your network printers to include a suitable "greeting," or festive
message.
Intranet websites are a great medium for this sort of exercise,
providing you avoid blatant tackiness - although that might be
quite chi-chi in some corporate cultures.
Or maybe you could get your help-desk staff to dress up as Santa's
Elves for the week. Only joking, guys.
Whatever you do, I hope that you thoroughly enjoy yourselves and if
you do have a staff party, don't forget to include the shift
workers, the field workers and the home-workers - these are three
very important groups that are easily overlooked when arrangements
are being made.
If necessary, have more than one party! They can be great bonding
exercises and the source of much-needed morale for the even more
challenging times ahead.
From a purely business management perspective, I can't think of a
more cost-effective way to spend our time - and partying certainly
beats trudging through the Trossachs in the cause of team-building.
Have a great Christmas everybody. We've earned it.
What do you think?
Is the Christmas spirit good for
business?
Tell us in an e-mail >>CW360.com reserves
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Colin Beveridgeis an independent consultant and
leading commentator on technology management issues. He can be
contacted atcolin@colin.beveridge.name