Employee Activities During Work Hours
janetc
24 Posts
We are trying to come up with a good policy regarding employee activities held during work hours. For example, we have a wedding and 2 babies coming and several employees have asked me (as HR) to arrange for the activities, like a shower and/or luncheon. (We have been a small company but are quickly growing).
It is my feeling this should not come from my office and be a company sponsored activity. However, I have not been able to find any "policy" that other companies are using.
Another request has been to have a BBQ in the parking lot and have those employees who wish to join in pay $10 and have it catered. I have questions on the liability issues and the feelings of those employees who might not have an extra $10 feeling left out.
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
It is my feeling this should not come from my office and be a company sponsored activity. However, I have not been able to find any "policy" that other companies are using.
Another request has been to have a BBQ in the parking lot and have those employees who wish to join in pay $10 and have it catered. I have questions on the liability issues and the feelings of those employees who might not have an extra $10 feeling left out.
Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Comments
HR used to get stuck with all of that here. We created a hospitality committee with EE volunteers. They now handle the summer BBQ and the annual Holiday Party. It is a thankless job, much planning and work to make these events happen. Then the complaining comes out. In our case, the minute someone starts complaining we recruit them to join the committee to show us the way to make it better. It does shut them up for a while, but they never help, just complain.
But I digress, HR does get involved because there is rarely a better place. I have found the burdened lessened by being a bit proactive and keeping that hospitality committee stocked with volunteers. New blood on the committee helps avoid burn-out and brings in fresh perspective.
Be ready for some rewards for the committee and some company recognition. An extra day off or dinner gift certificates will usually go pretty far toward letting them know they are appreciated and having that off your desk is worth it.
The only caution is that while at the BBQ, the ee's are sort of on company time...so if an injury occurs, it will likely fall under WC...one good reason to not permit alcohol.
Our Agency used to do a holiday party (which ee's had to pay about 15.00 to attend...and a summer picnic that was really nice (free to ee's and families)both were off-site and not during work hours. Based on ee's suggestions we've done away with these and have a day at Hershey Park...each ee receives 2 tickets, that include lunch, and can buy additional ones at a reduced cost.
As for the social committee....find another way to handle it...HR should not plan these activites...or you'll be doing it forever!!!
The activities I am concerned about here are the "extra" ones, such as baby showers, wedding showers, birthdays, etc. It seems like the employees can come up with suggestions for activities at the drop of a hat.
I'm not suggesting that we don't allow the employees the freedom to socialize and celebrate special events, I would just like to get some feed-back on how involved the company and/or HR should be in sponsoring these events.
Thank you!
You hear complaints that the crib the company bought for Sally's impending birth is so much nicer that the mobile that was purchased for Tina's newborn. Or that the flowers sent to Charlie's hospital bed were much warmer than the card sent to Fred that was signed by the receptionist and the CEO's assistant.
We stopped all of the special recognitions and now just send a card that has been well circulated for signature. Our new policy is well-masked as just being frugal with donors dollars, but it also cut out a lot of extra planning, worry and hurt feelings from those who felt slighted by our gestures that were perceived as not being equal.
I would suggest putting the planning on the ee's who are asking about the showers to give them the party and let you know when and where. They can involve other ee's and/or ask for donations for the event or gifts.
Of course this would be done at there leisure not company time.
This way no one is obligated to attend or participate and company is not hosting event.
My opinion.
Lisa
Neither HR nor the planning committee for our Hershey trip handles these things. Even retirement parties are headed by a close friend of the ee.
And it does sound like you do a lot for your ee's...I would hope they feel appreciated by the company....
These by-monthly events help keep the distance between plant-world and office-world smaller and a small group of employees pitch in to do the set up and then cleanup. Summer is for B-B-Qs and then we have a Chowderfest, a Chilifest and a Fish Fry in the winter months. We also have a pizza lunch every 45 days when there have been no loss-time accidents.
As HR, I do send the notices out and make a shopping list for the boss but after that, I take a back seat approach and just let it happen.
Here I take care of the annual holiday party (with alot of help from some volunteers) but everything else is done by the employees themselves. I grant the permission to have a retirement party but they do the planning. As for babies and weddings, this is probably something that should be done off company time. Once you get into doing things like that as a company sponsored event, it just keeps snowballing.
Good luck.
We do a cookout at least once a year, but we have it on site, we provide all food and employees come by and get the food during their lunch hour. We also have a very nice Thanksgiving luncheon where we provide the meat and the employees bring side dishes, etc. We have traditionally had a holiday party,but scrapped it last year when the cost started going upwards of $35.00/person. We may re-implement this year if employees are willing to pay a portion to attend.
However, we do not plan baby showers, wedding showers, etc. As some of the others have said, someone is sure to get "forgotten" or they will feel they didn't get something another employee got and the list goes on and on. It is also very disruptive to the workday to have a bunch of people attending a baby shower during the work day. We have allowed people to use our education room after hours, but prefer they have these things off site.
I feel the company goes out of their way to provide for the employees, but you know, people will continue to ask for more and more and . . .
Have a great day!