Your guide to creating Christmas comms

At this time of year thoughts begin to turn to Christmas and if they haven’t already, plans start being made as to how to mark it within organisations.

People inevitably look to internal comms departments to pave the way through the festive season, and this article will help you do just that.

My twin sons will be turning one-year-old on Christmas day, so 2015 is an extra special year in my household.  (I have no idea how we are going to combine both celebrations – we’re thinking of having 25 January as their ‘unbirthday’ – all ideas welcomed!).

1As internal comms pros work to position themselves as strategic and trusted business advisers, I know how much frustration there can be when your company expects you to suddenly be a seasoned events producer on top of your day job, and you end up working tactically.

Anyone else experience the perception that you have a magical cupboard bulging with Santa suits, Christmas decorations, advent calendars and the like?

Yep, thought so.

If you’ve worked with me, you’ll know that I love all things Christmassy and am often the instigator in decorating the comms area in offices and finding any excuse for mince pies in meetings.

I can see the value in giving employees a break from the norm, and a reason to do something different in a bid to make the working environment that bit brighter.

Christmas card? Got it licked… or maybe not

Advent calendarSo what’s the answer when it comes to Christmas cheer? I recommend involving people and choosing appropriate ways of celebrating for your company.

For example when I was starting out my internal comms career, I was given the task of choosing the corporate global Christmas card for the organisation I was working in.

Sounds like an easy task, right? Err, not quite.

The guidance I was given, in order to appeal to a global audience, was that the virtual and paper card couldn’t say Christmas, couldn’t feature anything religious, couldn’t include snow as many parts of the world are hot at that time of year, couldn’t include images like Christmas trees, stars or anything overtly Christmas-like.

Oh and it also couldn’t feature our competitor’s colours, which were gold and red.

Not as straight-forward as I first thought…

After countless hours of searching and running the potential cards past a group of employees, I came up with something that fitted the bill (globes which hinted at being baubles but not quite, with the words ‘Happy Holidays’), but it was an interesting excerise and certainly taught me about communicating appropriately with a global workforce.

Cancelling Christmas?

In recent years it’s certainly been a challenge for comms pros to keep morale up when budgets are being slashed. You may be in the middle of or working through a change project and the timing to ‘have some fun’ may be awful.

Being seen to spend money on Christmas celebrations when people have lost or are losing their jobs for example, is just one challenge the festive season can bring.

I’ve worked in more than one organisation that had to cancel the Christmas festivities after inviting everyone. The impact on employee morale? I’m sure you can imagine…

However you don’t need to spend lots of money to create ways for employees to celebrate and mark the occasion.

For years I’ve marvelled at the santa hats, advent calendars and chocolates that have been delivered via agencies to in-house teams and I’m sure I’m not alone in wondering how much they cost and thinking through how to deliver that same sense of surprise and delight on scaled back budgets in-house to employees.

Based on my experience working in-house for more than a decade, I thought I’d share some top tips about Christmas comms.

Feel free to add your own by commenting below or Tweeting me @AllthingsIC.

How to survive the festive season (Tweet this)

  • 2Plan, plan, plan – identify what it is you want to achieve, and determine your approach, channels, timeline and budget
  • If you don’t know already, talk with employees to see what expectations are, particularly if you’re new in role
  • Work alongside other departments to pool resources and ideas e.g. Facilities and HR
  • No/low budget? Look at what was done last year to see if you can use previous content to get you started
  • If you’re expected to organise something for the whole company, can every department contribute financially?
  • Use existing methods of communication rather than buy something new e.g. turn the menu Christmassy if you have one
  • Encourage employee participation e.g through competitions, creating videos, speed-networking events etc
  • Make decisions that are applicable and acceptable locally as well as globally – be mindful of culture and customs in your organisation
  • Don’t create a ‘them and us’ Head Office vs other offices/location scenario
  • 3If you have a network of comms champions, now is the time to really use their eyes and ears (and hands!) to deliver Christmas cheer
  • Remember those who can’t take part. E.g. if you run a 24/7 operation and host Christmas parties or events, be sure to find ways to include and thank those employees who will be working
  • Seek out freebies – for example I spotted this online Advent calendar today via artist Moose Allain (pictured) that can be downloaded and filled in
  • Post-Christmas ensure you review what you did and capture any feedback or thoughts to help you prepare for the following year’s festivities
  • Be creative, have fun and enjoy!

Got something to add to the list? Do let me know. If you’re planning an event do see the information sheet @theICcrowd produced based on feedback from internal comms pros via Twitter.

Talking of the crowd, we’ve released tickets to our 2 December 2015 Christmas drinks in London, sponsored by Alive with Ideas! Keep an eye on @theICcrowd on Twitter or add your name to the waiting list..

What is your organisation doing to mark the holiday season? If you have a story or top tips to share, you’re welcome to comment below or get in touch.

Post author: Rachel Miller

First published on the All Things IC blog 21 November 2013. Republished 18 November 2015.

Comments

  1. John Kay says:

    A couple of observations from Oxford University Press:
    Check what your Facilities teams are doing so you’re not duplicating effort (you really don’t want to be sorting out more than one 30ft Christmas tree)
    I signed up to perform in the OUP Christmas show – now in its 40th year. I know this isn’t an option for everyone, but it’s really helped me find out a bit about the culture of my new employer, and discover what peple think informally about certain channels (Yammer, for insance). Plus I get to dress up and make a fool of myself on stage.

  2. Hi John, thank you for your comment. Good point re: giant trees! I hope the show goes well, do share pictures if you can, Rachel

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