Tips for Throwing Hybrid Holiday Parties in 2023
Our goal at White Elephant Online is to make sure every employee has a fantastic experience with their co-workers at the holidays. Here are some tips for navigating the office holiday party this year, and ways to celebrate with hybrid & remote teams.
Navigating the current work world can be a challenge. Even 3+ years into the new world of remote & hybrid work, companies are still getting their bearings on what the best balance is. What are the policies that will keep employees happy and still allow the business to thrive? But, it does seem that in 2023 companies are finally settling into the new norm. Policies that allow some level of remote work are becoming standard, and employees are used to getting back to the office a couple times a week.
But what does that mean for the office holiday party? What used to be a tried-and-true way to boost morale, reward employees and celebrate the year has become a thornier question these past couple years. Here are some of the challenges we’re hearing from companies as they head into the holiday season.
Challenges planning a holiday party in 2023
We hired remotely during the pandemic, now we’re a distributed team. During the pandemic, with companies working remotely anyway and a tight labor market, many departments decided to broaden their search and hire people who weren’t local to HQ. While this has a ton of benefits, it can be a challenge when it comes to bringing people together in person. Do you have the budget to fly everyone out? Is everyone available and willing to travel close to the holidays?
Budgets are tight. The economy is… rocky. While the longterm outlook is unclear, many companies are tightening their belts in anticipation of tough days ahead. This can mean less money for employee culture events like a holiday party, especially if you need to cover travel for remote workers as well.
Recent Layoffs. Many companies have had continued layoffs this year, so to turn around and do a splashy holiday party seems a bit tone deaf. What’s the best way to reward employees, but not be ostentatious about it?
So what’s the best way to tackle these concerns & issues?
Here are a few tips to navigate the waters:
Listen to your employees. Sometimes the easiest way to figure out how to make your employees happy is just to… ask them! Consider a survey, or rely on team-leads to get a pulse on how your staff wants to celebrate the holiday season.
Offer multiple options. So you’re a distributed team. You’d like to get everyone who can make it together in person. That’s fine! But if you don’t offer a way for remote workers to participate as well, they’ll feel left out. You can consider having a separate day for “remote holiday activities”, or create a hybrid event where remote workers can call-in via Zoom for portions and join in on the fun.
Get down to the spirit of the season. Ultimately, employees want to feel rewarded and they want to feel connected to their co-workers and teams. You don’t necessarily need to spend a ton of money to make that happen.
How White Elephant Online Can Help
White Elephant Online has been offering a fun & impactful game for remote & hybrid teams for years now, and the feedback has been outstanding. There’s a reason that White Elephant is played by millions of people each year: it’s fun! And White Elephant Online is the way to play the game with remote or hybrid teams.
How to use White Elephant Online for your 2023 Hybrid or Remote Holiday Party
As the main company event. Whether your company is large or small, you can host a White Elephant party. We recommend groups of no more than ~50, but it’s easy to setup multiple games for your employees to join.
As a supplemental company event. We get it: you want some drinks, some our d'oeuvres and the old trappings of a great holiday gathering. Go for it! But remember: you want to offer something that your remote workers can join as well. Hosting a White Elephant Party in addition to the main event is a great way to offer a fun and memorable celebration.
As an option for individual teams. If you’re part of a large company (or, like a really large company) then chances are there won’t be any company-wide celebrations. But that doesn’t mean that individual teams aren’t craving some camaraderie and fun! Sending out an email, Slack or Teams memo letting teams know they can easily organize a game for their teams on White Elephant Online is an easy way to support them in celebrating the holidays.
Why is White Elephant Online good for your office holiday party?
It’s Inexpensive. With games starting at just $49, there’s no cheaper way (remote or otherwise) to bring your team together. And if you have extra budget, go ahead and pay for the gifts on behalf of your team members as well!
It’s easy to plan. We’ve made our platform as easy and intuitive as possible. In just a few minutes you can setup a game and invite all your players, who can submit a gift from any online retailer. On game-day, the platform assigns numbers and facilitates all of the game play - including any custom rules you’ve setup.
It’s a tried and true holiday tradition. White Elephant, also called Yankee Swap or Dirty Santa (depending on your region) is played by millions of people each year. There’s a reason it has such staying power and broad reach: it’s a really fun way to spend time with coworkers, friends or family.
How to play White Elephant Online with your Hybrid or Remote Team
OK, you’ve decided you want to offer a way for your company or team to get together remotely. Here’s a bit about how that will work. (If you’re not familiar with how to play White Elephant in general, check out the White Elephant Rules on our How to Play page. In a very small nutshell: everyone brings a gift, takes a number and then you open & steal gifts from each other until everyone has a gift. It’s loads of fun).
How to play White Elephant with a fully remote team
White Elephant Online was designed with fully remote teams in mind.
You can easily create your game and invite your players.
Each player will submit a gift, which is as easy as pasting a link from any retailer they choose.
On Game-Day, one person will act as the “Game Lead.” They’ll open up the game and share their screen (e.g. on Zoom, Teams or Google Meet). They’ll be the one to click to open & steal gifts, while others follow along and call out what they want to do. This creates a very vocal and interactive experience for everyone involved.
Once the game is complete, we’ll notify everyone of who won their gift so the gift can be purchased & shipped. For companies, who have concerns about employee privacy and sharing addresses, we offer a number of additional Gift Distribution Options.
How to play White Elephant with a hybrid team
We’ve had many teams use White Elephant Online to run games ‘hybrid-style’, where some people are in a central location like the office, while others are joining from home. Fortunately, our platform works great in this case. Here are some tips if you’d like to run a hybrid White Elephant holiday party:
Put all the gifts into White Elephant Online. Even though you’ll have some people in-person and some distributed, it’s best to have everyone submit gifts virtually into our platform. If you have some physical gifts in person and some virtual on White Elephant Online it will become very difficult to manage who has what at any given time. Yes, this means people won’t be unwrapping gifts in person, but it also means no one has to spend the time boxing & gift-wrapping their item! Plus we have some really fun GIFS to watch while you unwrap gifts virtually.
Share your screen, and broadcast it for in-person attendees. As mentioned above, one person acts as the “Game Lead” during the game and will be the one to click to open & steal gifts. This makes it easy to manage a hybrid game. Simply have the one laptop showing the game, share your screen on Zoom (or other video platform) for the remote attendees, and then make sure to project the game onto a large screen for all in-person attendees. This way, everyone can easily see the action in real time.
Share & broadcast people’s faces as well! For the best experience, as with any hybrid event, you want your staff to all be able to see each-other! There are two elements here: 1) Have a good quality video camera that can capture the people in the room, and have that video feed in the Zoom call. 2) Have a second laptop that is hooked up to a screen or projector that just shows the Zoom attendees, so everyone in-person can see them talking & interacting.
Handle gifts however you’d like. At the end of the game, everyone will receive the information about who won their gift (or if you’re an Admin on the game you can download an excel export with this info). Some teams choose to have players ship the gifts directly to the recipients home address, but since you’re hybrid you can easily tell people to ship gifts to the office for pickup next time they’re in. We also offer a number of additional Gift Distribution Options to protect employee privacy.
We hope this guide has been helpful for you! If you have any questions or suggestions, drop us a line at hi@whiteelephantonline.com!
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