The countdown to the Christmas holiday season has begun! As soon as the Christmas tree goes up in the office, a relaxed atmosphere of yuletide merriment takes over as everyone gets in the holiday spirit. However, the Christmas season is also the perfect time to get more staff engaged in and using the intranet on a daily basis. Make your intranet the go-to platform for all things festive and you will find that your intranet usage stats enjoy a very welcome boost. Here are some ideas to get you started.
1. Office Christmas Party
The Christmas party is a great way to thank staff for all their hard work throughout the year. It’s also a good team building opportunity as colleagues get to spend time with each other away from the stresses of the office. However, it can be a nightmare to organize, but not so with the intranet!
Ask employees for their suggestions on things to do or places to go through a survey on the intranet. Then come up with a shortlist and get team members to vote on their preference through an online poll. The intranet’s in-built forms builder makes it a quick and easy process to set up a survey or poll. Alternatively, you could use Google Forms to create your survey or poll from an embedded Google App suite.
And once the location has been decided upon, use the intranet’s news feed to publicize the event. In fact, why not get the president to issue a personal invitation to all staff on a vlog? Videos on the intranet are another way in which you can actively engage with staff and are often more powerful than an all-staff email or traditional paper invitation.
And don’t forget to publish some photos and a review of the event on the intranet’s news blog afterwards.
2. Secret Santa
Nowadays, it seems as though every office has a Secret Santa and they can certainly be lots of fun. The intranet makes it a whole lot easier to organize and run the process. Not only can you organize and publicize the gift exchange online, staff members can post the best and worst Secret Santa presents on the staff blog for a bit of light-hearted entertainment.
3. Online Christmas Cards
Exchanging greetings cards at Christmas is a time-honored tradition, but in today’s more environmentally aware workplaces more colleagues are preferring to send online cards to cut down on paper and card usage in the office. Encourage employees to send their holiday greetings on the intranet and you will also be contributing to a greener world.
4. Coordination Of Corporate Cards And Gifts
Overseeing and coordinating the list of corporate greetings cards and gifts is a logistical feat. As well as being a time-consuming process, it’s not impossible for admin errors to result in multiple cards and gifts being sent to the same client by different teams! Use an intranet-embedded Google Form or your intranet’s own forms builder to simplify and standardize the whole process across the organization. Duplicates can easily be picked up and the streamlined system means that your cards and gifts will be sent out in plenty of time for Christmas.
5. Corporate Calendar Of Christmas Events
As well as the office Christmas party, there are usually a whole host of other Christmas events to keep track of. It could be celebrations hosted by clients and important customers, industry events or suppliers’ yuletide parties. A central corporate calendar displaying all company events is an absolute must at this time of year. The calendar can be organized by team or geographic location as well as on a corporate basis so that employees can keep up to date and see at a glance what’s going on throughout the company.
6. Christmas Charitable Opportunities
Many companies focus their charitable efforts on the Christmas season. It could be carol singing in a local rest home, collecting food donations for the city mission or a gift collection for a local charity. Whatever the case may be, the office intranet is the perfect vehicle for publicizing and organizing any charitable or fundraising initiatives.
7. Christmas Decorations Competition
Everyone enjoys a competition, right? So why not hold a Christmas decorations competition on the intranet. Charge each team in your organization to submit photos of their festive-themed decorations. From candy canes and twinkling lights through to Rudolphs, mistletoe, holly and tinsel, your teams can let their imaginations run wild and have some fun. You can then then select a winner either through a popular vote on the intranet or by the president picking the winner.
8. Christmas Vacations
The holiday season is of course a popular time for employees to take some vacation. A team calendar on the intranet can be used as a planning tool to ensure there are enough staff on hand to keep operations going. And instead of sending an email or filling in a paper form, get employees to complete an online vacation booking form. The intranet will automatically route the form to the manager for approval. It’s a far more efficient way of doing things and eliminates the risk of paper forms going astray or emails being lost in a sea of unopened messages.
You can also use the intranet’s news feed to remind staff about other policies that are relevant at this time of year such as the corporate gifting policy, rules relating to client entertaining or emergency procedures to be followed outside of standard office hours.
9. Festive Fayre Recipe Exchange
Christmastime usually sees a more relaxed atmosphere in the office. It’s good for staff to enjoy some downtime away from the daily pressures of the job. A festive fayre recipe exchange via the intranet is a good way to introduce some good-natured frivolity into the workplace. Everyone has their favorite, tried and tested Christmas recipes, whether it’s the perfect mince pie, an awesome cranberry stuffing for the turkey or tips on how to make the ultimate glazed ham. In fact, you could make the recipe exchange a regular feature of your social intranet.
10. Festive Thanks
Finally, the end of the year is the perfect team to say thank you to employees for all their hard work throughout the year. Use the CEO’s blog on the intranet or better still post a video message for a more heartfelt thank you message.
In addition, consider setting up a festive high five area on the intranet. The idea is that colleagues can acknowledge the help and support of their fellow team members or co-workers in other teams with a virtual high five. It’s a great platform for spreading yuletide goodwill throughout the office.
Kickstart Intranet Engagement This Christmas
As we have seen, Christmas is the perfect time to revitalize interest in your intranet. And so, if intranet usage has recently taken a dip in your company, then making it the go-to platform for all things festive will give your intranet that all-important boost which will last long into the new year.
For more ideas on reinvigorating your intranet or driving intranet adoption, then get in touch with the expert team at MyHub who will be happy to help. Plus if you’re after a failsafe Christmas pudding recipe, then we can help you there too. Happy Holidays!
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