3 Ways To Build a Better Workplace During the Holidays

Gift exchanges and holiday parties are a workplace staple during the holiday season. However, if you’re looking for some new and inspiring ways to celebrate the holidays at work, we employed some great initiatives here at Zenefits that we’d love to share with you.

This year, the Zenefits team organized three holiday programs that incorporated our mission and values, which are to 1) operate with integrity 2) put the customer first, and 3) make Zenefits a great place to work for employees.

Through these holiday initiatives, our goal was to build positivity and trust amongst our customers and employees, and to give back to our community.

Holiday Gratitude Grams

Gratitude grams were a great way for employees to share thanks with their team members in order to make Zenefits a better place to work for employees. This initiative is based on the concept that the happiness people get from giving to others creates a positive feedback loop – the positive feelings encourage further generosity, which spur greater happiness. As a by-product of expressing thanks for an employee, Zenefits committed to giving back to the community. Here is how we shared the “Gratitude Grams” program with our employees:

• We asked employees to thank up to three co-workers via Google form!
• We highlighted the Gratitude Grams throughout the holidays via a website and on monitors throughout our offices
• The company is donating $1 to a non-profit for every employee recognized.

Holiday update

Zenefits has over 900 employees, and 800 gratitude grams were submitted as of December 19th, 2016.

Showcasing Our Customers via a Customer Holiday Giving Guide

Zenefits’ mission is to make entrepreneurship easier for everyone, so for the holiday season we wanted to feature our retail and non-profit customers in a special gift guide. Here’s how we made the Customer Holiday Giving Guide happen:

• We created a simple submission form that let customers provide all of their information in just a few minutes. The information submitted was used to populate the website gift guide.
• We then emailed customers asking if they would like to feature their products, services, or non-profit mission on a website, which we promoted to customers, website visitors, and through social media. The call-to-action was filling out the submission form.
• We then formatted the submissions into a holiday gift guide on our website and launched a social media campaign during the month of December.

Holiday Update

On Friday, December 16th, we emailed the company’s holiday card to our customers, and it linked to the 2016 Zenefits Holiday Gift Ideas, which included about 150 customers and non-profit organizations.

Customer Treats for Employees

The week before Christmas, our Facilities, Communications, and Customer Engagement teams worked together to delight the Zenefits Team each day with a treat. Some of the activities include:

• Hot chocolate decorating station
• Gingerbread house-making session
• Holiday lunch

Holiday update

A key core value is putting our customers first, so whenever we can, the company purchases food and supplies from our customers. For example – on one day during the holiday week, employees will receive a desk drop, including a sweet treat from Sift Dessert Bar, one of our tasty customer vendors. Even though it’s a small token of our gratitude, we love supporting small business customers!

That sums up three of our holiday celebrations that incorporate our company’s mission and values for 2016. While the initiatives may seem minor in the grand scheme of celebrating the holidays with loved ones, we’re proud of our mission to make entrepreneurship easier for small businesses and think it’s important to express our gratitude to our customers and holidays.  We can’t wait to get creative for 2017’s upcoming holidays, such as Valentine’s Day in February and National Women’s History Month in March. Let us know if you have any good ideas!