End of the year not only means closing the books on another success story for your organization, it also means receiving a vast array of gifts from vendors to celebrate the holidays. How you handle this cornucopia of gifts, however, is just as important as how you manage your organization day in and day out. Leigh Buchanan, editor-at-large for Inc. Magazine, offered several suggestions in the Dec. 2007 issue.
Before the gifts begin to arrive, remind all of your executives that none of the gifts should be considered as personal ones, even if they fall under the dollar threshhold for your organization's Ethical Code for gifts. Anything received must be shared with the entire staff. Emphasize that this means no one can "cherry pick" an item or two out of gift baskets before sharing. In fact, when baskets arrive, Buchanan suggests physically carrying the basket around the office, starting with the lowest paid person, and allowing each to take out something.
Remind your executive team that since they make substantially more than your rank and file employees, there is no need for them to lead the charge since they can easily afford to buy these items for themselves.
When gifts arrive that are designed for sharing (like large bags of cookies or large boxes of candy), make sure everyone receives notice about their availability at the same time. Broadcast emails work great.
The key is that end of the year holiday gifts are for the entire organization. Managers who grab the goodies first will lose the goodwill of their teams very quickly.
For vendors who feel obligated to give their key contact a gift, we do have a suggestion. Give them a copy of a business book. The best holiday gift I ever received was "It's Your Ship" by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff. To this day, I still remember the company and the Account Manager who gave it to me (York International-now a part of Johnson Controls and Tom Michael).
Our book would make a wonderful gift; and if you buy enough copies, we can even place your company name on the cover saying "compliments of....." For more information on bulk orders, look on our home page under Clients and Partners.