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Want to be a popular boss? Give the gift of cash.
If you’re considering giving your staff a gift or throwing a party this holiday season, here’s a tip: Your workers would probably prefer the cold, hard cash instead.
A new survey finds that 73 percent of people would like a cash bonus this holiday season, if given the choice of holiday perks.
The survey of 2,059 U.S. adults asked what holiday perk people would prefer most, assuming all had about the same monetary value. It was conducted in November by Harris Interactive on behalf of the jobs website Glassdoor, and respondents could choose more than one answer.
The cash bonus was the most popular item. Next came a raise, which was favored by 60 percent of respondents. That was followed by extra paid time off that wouldn’t count against vacation, which was favored by 36 percent of respondents.
Here’s what people didn’t want as much as the cash: company stock, health care subsidies, a gym membership and a holiday party with an open bar. None of those were favored by more than 10 percent of the group surveyed.
It seems that more money is generally one of the top items on workers’ minds.
The same survey found that getting a raise topped the list of work-related New Year’s resolutions, with 32 percent saying that was a top goal.
Many people also plan to peruse the help-wanted ads come January: 23 percent said their top work-related New Year’s resolution was to look for a new job.
CNBC's personal finance expert Sharon Epperson offers advice for what to do with a large monetary gift.
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I think we would all prefer a raise or bonus, but when it comes down to it those tend to cost more money. Often a boss can give a worker an extra day off (like Christmas Eve) without any cost to the company.
Also people don't tend to enjoy a company Christmas party, especially on their own time. This is because they have to be on their best behavior and spend more time with the co-workers they see every day. But the Christmas party if done right can benefit the company, by getting people from other departments together and letting them network. Even if they are just complaining about how they both hate company Christmas parties, they are getting to know one another and this can increase response times, when they randomly need to work together some time in the future.
Raises help with retention. Bonuses don't help the company much. They only help if their is an expectation of a bonus that aids in retention during a critical time or if the bonus is formula based and motivates an employee to meet some metric. But as soon as the bonus is paid it losses all value to the company.
A bonus may cost the boss more money. But the party is a tax write off. I never did like office parties . More often than not I did not go to them. They are all for show and how great a boss I am. Self praise stinks, but the bosses have not learned that yet.
MATCHING Bonuses that the CEO gets
I work for the Franchisee of a Quick Service company that pays their 'bottom line' employees the states minimum wage. Come January 1st all employees through eight different states will be maxed out at 29 hours a week to avoid paying for Obama care.
But all the managers get a Christmas party with open bar!
We always had office parties for every holiday and they weren't tax write-offs because we were in the military. It was done to promote unit cohesion and lift morale. Personally I don't think it did much of either, but we held them anyway because it was expected. People only liked them if they were during duty hours.
I imagine civilian bosses face much the same pressures and think an office party will help their people function together better. Not everything is a conspiracy.
If you had the time of your life at your work party, rest assured, you will get fired for it.
I get a raise, bonus, and some well deserved time off. These days, I usually pass on the Christmas party.
Dang AG, what military was that in? Our party was usually a stale chocolate brownie or something just as good. :-)
A raise would be great, but my organization is incapable of it for the next year, so a bonus, which I know they're capable of, is fine. I never liked work related parties of any kind--I like the people I work with, but prefer to keep my work and social lives separate. LOL, like George Costanza, I don't want my worlds to collide.
3 or 4 of my children were conceived at office holiday parties so that's still what I would want.
LOL. Good one.
I spend 40 hours a week with these goons and I don't want to waste a Saturday night looking at their boring faces. Work related things are so uptight anyways.
In truth, holiday parties infuriate a large number of employees. I am very well employed, happy in my job, and with happy management, but I shall speak an unspoken truth
If held after working hours, they are just about the last thing most of us need around the holidays.
Better nothing than asking me to eat some nasty buffet junk and socialize with people all of whom dislike each other, and to not even pay me for the time it takes!! That is why, given their druthers a solid 40 percent will decline, and about 30 percent will make a token appearance and bail out a back door at first chance
And don't even get me started about the booze. Fastest career killer ever invented.
If you want the truth, ask around. Not the brown noses who show at every party with their stuffed shirt spouses, but the REAL people.
Business is business, and socializing is socializing, and never the twain shall meet.
Bill, methinks you need to improve your PR/socializing skills a tad. There's a reason why those "brown noses" you refer to get raises more often and are the last to be laid off. It takes a very broad skill set these days, encompassing BOTH job skills and people skills, to get and keep a good job these days.
I don't know William. I actually mostly like the bunch I work with. We do all kinds of things outside the workplace together. Only thing we cut out was b-day things, and that was just because we were all getting fat from cake. Of course, where I work, positions are pretty well set and no one is trying to climb over anyone or stab them in the back. I like work and off work time.
I think you should just be happy with HAVING a job!
I actually enjoy my company's holiday party. It gives us a chance to relax and meet new people that we might not normally interact with. Still, as nice as it is, it won't make up for poor compensation numbers. It takes both company perks AND decent compensation to retain your employees.
Sometimes a holiday party can create a much-needed moral boost though. I worked somewhere that gave out $50 gift cards, but the employees were miserable. Sure, they needed money, but what they really wanted was to feel appreciated at work. A gift card doesn't do that. But it's really a case-by-case basis I think--whatever works best for your company.
All other choices is temporary, but a raise pays the bills (the earned gift that keeps on giving...)
A cash bonus used to be nice, but thanks to the current Idiot Administration and their IRreSponsible, it's a pain for employers to cut a check to the employee, and issue it for face value. If you want to give out $100 bonuses, you either deduct the taxes, and suddenly, the employee sees a less-generous $70 (or whatever their W-4 leaves them), or the employer has to bulk up the gross and then the checks will be anywhere from $90 to $125. The Gov't has to stick their fingers into everything and ruin it for everyone, including gift-giving.
Wisconservative, those rules on bonuses have been in place for a very long time and have nothing to do with the current administration. I know this because it's what I do for a living.
Tell your boss to give you a gold present and then go pawn it tax free. Works great!
Anyone who picked a bonus over a raise is, quite frankly, a knucklehead in math. If you make $40K a year, just a 3% raise would give you $1200--for the first year alone. Who out there with a brain would really pick a $500 Xmas bonus over a $1200/year raise? And, that raise over the next 3 years totals almost 4 thousand dollars. Some of you need to pull out your calculators.
Depends on the interest rate of the bills that you can pay off Ruppert.
3 % raise over time is less than the amount of interest compounding on that 500 dollars that you use to pay off existing debt (which may be at 21% or higher).
Now if you are talking debt free.. .of course pick the 3 %.
Given the cost per person of a holiday party may be $100, I would much rather get the $70 bonus (after taxes) than attend a one-time couple-hour event where liquor is served to office personnel.
My husband hasn't had a salary increase in six years. He makes nice money, so we're not really complaining too much, except four years ago his company laid off everybody on my husband's shift except him ... so now he's doing the work of five people with no additional compensation. He's exhausted and fed up!
I would love a "Bonus" this holiday season, but I know that my employer "the great State of Idaho" will not be doing that for me. I could really use the extra funds this year.
If you work for a local,county,state or federal government and they give you a bonus they had to take that money from someone else to give it to you.
Any money a government has comes from some sort of tax or fee so your bonus is costing someone else.
Never gotten a bonus. Have taken pay cuts the past two years to keep the place going.
Working for the government, we don't get anything extra. We do have our own Christmas party, paid for by the employees. It's the spirit of the season, not expected perks that make our parties fun.
We will also have a pot-luck with the whole building before Christmas, again paid for by the individuals. It's a chance to get to know all the new people and catch up with the old ones.
Time off? What the hell is time off?
We work 5 days a week, put time in on the weekends. Up at 6, not home till 8...fly coach, take the cheapest hotel. Carry phone and laptop everywhere, get calls early, late, odd hour conference calls.
What time off? We are always on. Even when you take a day off...you still get calls and emails. There is no such thing as time off. You may be out of the office, spending time with family, or on a trip....but there is always a blinking red light on the BBerry letting you know you have a VM or email.
My company is enforcing a hiring freeze, and has been working everyone extra hours to avoid hiring the help we need. I wrked on Thanksgiving, and I'll be working Christmas too.
On the other hand, I just had a performance review, whch resulted in a 4% raise. The company Christmas party is coming up and that's where they hand out the bonus checks. Some people split right after the checks are handed out, but I like to hang around and drink with those that stick around. Then, when I start getting a little tipsy, and am in danger of saying something that I might regret, I make a run for some other bar. Usually the same one my other coworkers went to.
I feel good about the company I work for when I read of how other places treat their employees. I've worked places where the choice between raise, and bonus, and party were moot. You got none of that, you felt lucky if they handed out some frozen turkeys. Right this minute, I feel blessed to be recieving all three.
I'd take either of the first three. A little show of professional appreciation would be nice. the last salary "action" I've received was a 3% pay cut and a hiring freeze a few years ago. And before that nothing for a few years. The holiday party is a nice gesture, but VERY under appreciated by most.
THe HOUSE OFTEN KEEPS TIPS - NOT THE EMPLOYEE
My son is a college student working in an upscale sandwich shop. Employees caught keeping tips are fired. During college, my daughter played cello for a tony bed and breakfast on Sundays. A guest gave her a $100 tip the house refused to share with her.
VERIFY THE TIP POLICY before you give a generous gratuity.
A bonus would be sort-lived. A raise will last all year.