With
the final countdown on to Christmas, Bennett Hay, a leading workplace
hospitality specialist, has seen an 18 per cent increase in its clients hosting festive
celebrations in-house.
The increase can be seen as proof that this year’s office party has taken a new
slant due to hybrid working.
Pre-pandemic,
the capital’s party season traditionally focused on evening events with
Thursdays and Fridays at a premium from the end of November until December
23rd. However, the rise of a new Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday hybrid routine
has seen a trend for in-house festive celebrations with the company bash now
also being used as a way to incentivise a full team back to the workplace.
Over
the past 24-months many of Bennett Hay’s landlord and corporate clients have
reconfigured their buildings to help balance work and lifestyle demands as well
as to respond to changing daily footfalls:
- Clients have created flexible
spaces with club like service levels to appeal and attract employees back
- Food and drink experiences are
increasingly a focal point with cafes, bars and all-day dining providing
the backdrop for a day in the office
- Adaptable office design, that
allows for spaces to be reconfigured and re-styled based on their use and
purpose is order of the day whether spaces are being utilised for
ideation, town halls, client events and now the company Christmas party
“Today’s
corporate is drawing on employee engagement programmes to embed their culture,
drive community and to help retain their people”, said Zoë Watts, Bennett Hay’s business development director. “Many of these engagement
strategies focus on employee health and wellbeing including the shared
experience of food and drink to create a rich, dynamic company
culture.
“In the
last six weeks we’ve seen a marked increase in seasonal events used as a means to
get the workplace back in full swing. Today’s office is the nucleus to network,
engage and create so it makes sense for an organisation to capitalise on
the of mid-week influx with a thank you lunch or evening reception,” she added.
The
need to reward and thank teams is at an all-time high as companies seek to
assert a company-wide cultures and as the war for talent wages on.
Watts added: “2022’s demand highlights that companies want to celebrate
their employees’ commitment, but the rules of party planning have been tweaked
to reflect new routines. We’re seeing a new iteration of the ‘office party’ –
an event that is quite literally in the office! Many of the clients we work with
have significant atriums and communal spaces and it makes sense to bring the
company dynamic to life in the focal point of the building and at a time when
people expect to celebrate. It’s trend for 2022 and no doubt will have a
new nuance next as the workplace turns another chapter.”
