Hawaii Employers Council is pleased to release the results of its 2017 Holiday Practices Survey. The survey was conducted in October of 2017. A total of two hundred forty-one (241) organizations participated this year, providing information on topics ranging from holiday scheduling to holiday parties and charitable giving.
- Holiday Time-Off
Sixty-five participating organizations will provide time off for both Christmas and New Year’s Eve. More than seventy percent (70.8%) of these organizations will provide a half-day off, 20.0% will provide a full-day off and 9.2% will provide a mixed combination of a full-day and/or half-day off.
- Half-Staff Scheduling Practices: Monday - Friday Work Schedule
Half-Staff Scheduling is a practice where half of the staff is scheduled to work on each respective eve, while the other half of the staff enjoys time off.
More than 50.0% of the participating organizations do not plan to offer half-staff scheduling for their Monday - Friday work schedule workforce. However, 11.2% of organizations will offer half-staff scheduling for both Christmas and New Year's Eve, with 0.8% offering this option for only one eve and 36.0% remain undecided.
For participants offering half-staff scheduling, 27.1% will provide a full day off on both Christmas and New Year’s Eve. 18.6% will provide half-day for Christmas Eve with 22.0% providing half-day for New Year’s Eve. More than half of respondents (54.2%) are currently undecided on their Christmas Eve scheduling plans, while 50.8% are currently undecided for New Year's Eve scheduling.
- Holiday Party Practices
Over two-thirds of participating organizations (67.6%) have reported that they will have an organization-wide holiday party this year. A majority of respondents will host the event outside of regular working hours at an offsite location. Nearly half of these organizations (47.9%) will allow employees to bring a spouse/guest to the event.
Alcoholic Beverages
Of the organizations that will host a holiday party, 33.2% will have alcoholic beverages available at the party, 34.4% will not having alcoholic beverages available, and the remaining 10% are currently undecided.
If alcoholic beverages are served at the party, the top five reported precautionary measures organizations will take are:
- Cocktail servers will be instructed to monitor drinking and refuse service to intoxicated employees and/or guests;
- Organization will limit the number of complimentary drinks (through drink tickets or set maximum allowed drinks);
- Organization will provide alternate transportation (Taxi, Uber, Lyft, ride-sharing);
- Organization will limit the time frame for serving alcohol; and/or
- Organization will limit the type of drinks available (i.e., beer and wine).
Community/Charitable Giving Practices
A little over one-third (33.2%) of survey participants report that they will be participating in community/charitable giving this holiday season. More than a quarter of participants (27.0%) do not plan to participate in such an undertaking, and 39.8% of respondents are currently undecided.
HEC conducts a variety of compensation and benefits surveys to provide data useful in developing and administering compensation and benefit plans, and personnel policies. Custom snapshots and comparison reports from our compensation surveys are available, along with customized, proprietary surveys conducted on your behalf. Our Survey & Compensation experts can also work with members on employee opinion surveys to identify gaps between being an employer of choice and being merely an employer. For more information, please contact Cathy Keaulani, Survey & Compensation Services Manager (ckeaulani@hecouncil.org), or Susan Amuro, Survey & Compensation Analyst (samuro@hecouncil.org).