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Last week, Coldwell Banker Warburg hosted its brokers and guests at Barlume, a newly opened New York City restaurant, where they could sip on a signature cocktail, enjoy some food, and dance to music curated by a DJ. About 150 people attended the soirée, making it the largest party the company has held since the Covid-19 pandemic, according to Kevelyn Guzman, regional vice president at Coldwell Banker Warburg.
“People want to connect with others. They want more parties,” Guzman said. “They want more networking opportunities. People have been asking us for that.”
This year, 64% of companies planned to have in-person holiday celebrations, matching the amount in 2023, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement and coaching firm. That’s up from 57% in 2022 and 27% in 2021. However, it is still short of 75% of the companies that held parties in 2019.
While the percentage of companies hosting holiday events remains the same, some affairs may be less festive. Nearly one-fifth of companies (17%) said they were spending less on holiday gatherings this year. That is double the amount that cut back in 2023. Moreover, 2% of companies reported that economic pressures pushed them to nix holiday parties altogether.
It is understandable. Roughly 40% of companies laid off staff this year, up from 28% in 2023.
“With economic uncertainty continuing to shape decisions, companies are balancing workforce needs, budget constraints, and efforts to maintain traditions like holiday celebrations,” said Andrew Challenger, senior vice president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, in a press release announcing the survey results.
Guzman said the company’s party boosted people’s moods and benefited their mental health. She added the benefits stemmed from employees having more time to spend time with, compliment, and thank one another. “There is a part of this that I think is critical for your mental health and how you feel about yourself and the work that you're doing to hear that from the people that you work for every day that maybe don't have the time to tell you [they appreciate you],” Guzman said. “This environment allows that to happen.”
To that end, PAE Engineers holds an annual party because in engagement surveys, its employees said that what they like best about the firm is their colleagues, according to Shiloh Butterworth, the company’s chief people officer.
The company has a few offices around the country and each decides how it wants to celebrate.
“Our employees have shared overwhelmingly that the thing they love the most about our company is our people, and and we find that our people are our greatest asset by far,” Butterworth said. “What we’re trying to do is we’re constantly trying to leverage our greatest asset in putting our people around one another. It’s a very, very rare time when we get to bring that whole group together in one place and truly just celebrate one another for all of the successes that we had over the previous year.”