Why you should plan an office Thanksgiving party

Giving your employees some time to connect with each other, participate in games or contests and show their gratitude for one another is worth a temporary loss in productivity. Businesses that choose to ignore holidays such as Thanksgiving may regret it due to poor employee retention rates. You don’t need to throw an extravagant party with expensive food and gifts but do consider taking this opportunity to invest in your team.

Thanksgiving office ideas

When you’re planning your celebration, consider ways team members can get involved. The activities you choose can help you improve your corporate culture through team building, recognition and rewards. These activities can get your employees involved and may even help marginalized workers receive the recognition they deserve.

Office decorations

Several weeks before Thanksgiving, you could allow your team to decorate the office. By delegating the task to them, you’re letting them feel more involved in the festivities. You could even divide the office into sections and assign each one to a team to decorate. You could judge the decorations, and the team that wins could get a prize such as individual gift cards or a free group dinner.

Who are you thankful for?

One activity you could plan is to have your team write affirmations about someone else in the office. Doing this anonymously can make it even more exciting because people won’t know who considers them a great asset to the company. You can get creative and post the statements throughout the office or record them on video to present during the party.

Gobble gobble

Thanksgiving is associated with great food, so try to include it in your party ideas. You might have everyone bring a dish to the office on a designated day and have a contest to see who’s recipe outshone the rest. Another idea is to invite employees to submit recipes privately so you can create a company cookbook. Your team can try out new recipestheir coworkers submitted at home during the holiday season.

Pies are popular at Thanksgiving, so consider hosting a bake sale. Your employees could bake and sell their best pies while raising money for charity. You could also have a pie-baking or pie-eating contest.

Speaking of food, you could have a corporate food drive too. Ask everyone to bring food for the less fortunate and offer to match their donations. Your team may appreciate knowing they’re part of something bigger than themselves.

Games and contests

Parties are always more fun when games are involved. Just keep in mind that some people are more competitive than others, and it’s better to focus on team-building games than to pit people against each other in solo contests. Here are a few ideas for games or contests to hold during your office Thanksgiving party.

• Thanksgiving trivia:Divide everyone into teams and play a trivia game focused solely on Thanksgiving.
• Cornucopia contest:See which team can create the most festive and inspiring cornucopia using the supplies you provide.
• Company trivia: You could see how well your team knows your company history by asking trivia questions about your beginnings and what made your company a success.
• Costume contest: Why not have a costume contest to see who really gets in the spirit? You could offer prizes for the best costumes indifferent categories.

Fundraising events

You could use your office Thanksgiving celebration as an opportunity to create goodwill with your staff, the public and your community. Fundraising ideas for gathering charitable contributions can include:

• Silent auctions: You can donate items your employees can bid on with the promise that all auction proceeds will be used for a good cause. You might choose to give to a local food pantry or homeless shelter or find a charity that aligns closely with your business values.
• Employer match fundraisers: You might choose a charity and offer to match the donations your team gives to the worthy cause throughout the month.
• Services for donations: Another idea is hold an auction with donated services performed by your employees as prizes. For example, they might donate their time fixing a computer or tackling a handyman task. You could give the proceeds to apreselected charity.

Burn Thanksgiving calories

Many office Thanksgiving celebrations happen before the holiday, but you could get your team involved in some physical activities when they return. Ideas include:

• Take a team hike: Get out into nature and explore while walking off the turkey and stuffing you ate over the holiday break.
• Take a trip to the outdoors: You can go one step further by planning a camping or canoeing trip or other outdoorsy adventure.
• Plan a group visit to an indoor amusement park: Not only is this a great way to get active, but it can let your employees connect with their inner children.

Cocktail party

Hosting an after-hours cocktail (or mocktail) party is another way you can get your workers together. You could let them bring their significant others and set aside time to recognize workers for their achievements. Some people may choose to avoid alcohol for personal reasons, so it’s a good idea to offer mocktails and let everyone know they’re welcome but aren’t required to come to the event.

How to show your appreciation to your employees

Regardless of how you choose to celebrate Thanksgiving at the office, you should take some time to let each member of your team know they’re valuable to your company. You could send them all a small gift card with a personalized note highlighting one of their biggest accomplishments over the past year. Creating personalized notes may take longer, but they’re much more sincere than sending a form letter to everyone on the team.

To save time, you could have each employee’s immediate supervisor send these notes. Team leaders have closer relationships with their team members, so they’re also more likely to know the right achievements to highlight to make each person feel appreciated.

The bottom line

Hosting office Thanksgiving events is a great way to develop your company culture while showing your employees you appreciate what they do for you. While you could cater a lunch or after-work dinner, getting your team involved can help lower your expenses. You also have an opportunity to give back to the local community if you include one or morecharitable fundraisersin your Thanksgiving celebrations.

You can go the extra mile by giving your employees a small gift and note to show them they’re appreciated. Even the smallest of gestures can go a long way in demonstrating you care, and your employees may remember what you’ve done if they’re ever tempted to go to work for one of your competitors.