Whether it’s held onsite at your office or at an outdoor venue, planning your office holiday party early is a smart decision to make. For starters, it will save you and your team a lot of stress associated with hosting a big event, but that’s just one incentive to plan ahead of time! Here are some perks of planning your office holiday party early.
Settle on a Date Early
One of the best perks of planning early is that you get first pick of your company outing’s date and location. If you’re choosing a venue for the festivities, by working with party coordinators ahead of time, it’s likely you’ll be first in line ahead of other groups looking to do the same. Similarly, if your holiday party is held in the office, you have the benefit of putting catering plans in motion if it’s a service you’re interested in providing.
There’s a chance that some people won’t be able to make it to the party, but it’s always a smart choice to give employees plenty of notice ahead of time to ensure a strong turnout.
Customize Your Menu
The best work parties involve food and drinks! If you plan to cater your event, preparing for a holiday party ahead of time gives you the opportunity to craft the perfect menu for your guests. Does anyone have any food allergies, diets, or specific preferences? Planning early gives you the chance to gather this information so that everyone has access to the catering they enjoy.
Highlight Employee and Company Success
Preparing for your holiday party early gives you the opportunity to craft a presentation on the strides your company and/or employees have made over the past year. Sharing a presentation that gives a shoutout to employee success can be a friendly gesture and bolster the team’s morale.
Be Open to Suggestions
The event planner doesn’t need to be the only one in charge of the planning process. To ensure everyone has a good time, consider surveying employees to ask about their thoughts on what makes a successful holiday party. They can also be asked about specific aspects and what they think are the best choices when it comes to:
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- Dinner and hors d’oeuvres
- Games, activities, and entertainment
- Event design, theme, and location
Minimize Stress
Obstacles in the preparation phase are less likely to appear if you plan your holiday party in advance. Ideally, you’ll want to avoid these roadblocks and reduce potential stress, but planning early gives you plenty of time to deal with any issues if they happen to pop up. Plus, employees appreciate being informed ahead of time about upcoming company occasions. Informing them early will minimize any possible stress they experience as well.
Build a Budget & Create a Checklist
Making a comprehensive checklist and budget ahead of time will ensure you can meet all of your goals in planning an office holiday party.
By deciding on a budget in advance, you have plenty of opportunities to hire any professional help you may need. Requesting professional help last-minute can have the unfortunate side effect of increasing the cost of services. Planning early means you can stick to a planned total and avoid over-paying.
Formulating a checklist ensures each step along the way is kept recorded and organized, making the entire planning phase easier to digest.
Prepare Transportation
If your holiday party is host to alcoholic beverages, you’ll want to be confident that employees aren’t able to drive home intoxicated. To ensure this, determine an alcohol policy. Basically, this is a public guideline on whether alcoholic drinks will be available at the party and in what capacity they will appear. More specifically, it states whether drinks are provided during the entire event to guests, if guests should bring their own drinks, or whether they’re only served during a meal.
If it’s decided that your party will have alcoholic drinks, by planning early you’re giving yourself time to set up transportation. There are a few easy ways this can be done – ask for the assistance of designated drivers, plan Lyft and Uber rides, or schedule a bus to transport guests to and from the location of a central meeting area. These are just a few options to ensure your guests return home safe and sound!
There’s a large amount of work needed to pull off a successful work party. The best hosts want to be sure their guests are happy but making that happen last-minute can be a challenge. That’s why planning early is always a smart move. We hope that these perks of planning your office holiday party early can help you create a successful party of your own!!
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