The Holiday Practices Survey was conducted in October 2022 with 175 organizations participating and providing information on topics ranging from holiday scheduling, holiday parties and charitable giving.

Holiday Time Off

Christmas and New Year’s will fall on Sunday this year. For employees that typically work a Monday - Friday work schedule, most participating organization will observe the holiday on Monday following the holiday.

Eve - Time Off (Paid Leave)

Slightly less than one-half, 46.2%, of the participating organizations will be providing paid time-off for Christmas and/or New Year’s Eve.  Of these organizations which are providing paid eve time off, 51.9% will provide half-day off, 38.9% will provide a full-day off and 9.2% are undecided at this time.

Paid 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.

Three-fourths of participating organizations, 75.0%, do not plan to offer half-staff scheduling for their Monday - Friday work schedule workforce, while 14.0% remain undecided. Over ten percent of organizations will offer half-staff scheduling for both Christmas and New Year's Eve, and one participant will offer half-staff scheduling for one eve only.

Of the 44 organizations that are considering offering half-staff scheduling, 11.1% will provide a full day off for Christmas Eve and 11.6% will provide a full day off for New Year’s Eve, 22.2% will provide half-day off for Christmas Eve with 23.3% providing half-day off for New Year’s Eve.  The remaining respondents are currently undecided on their Christmas and New Year’s Eve half-staff scheduling plans.

Holiday Party Practices

As the State returns to normal and businesses continue to move toward pre-pandemic times, social gatherings are making a significant comeback.  This year, nearly one-half, 47.4% of participating organizations will be having a holiday party as compared to only 11.4% in 2021, which reflects a significant increase of 36.0% compared to last year. One-fourth of the participants, 24.0% are still undecided at this time.

Of the organizations having a holiday party, one-half will host the event outside of regular working hours. Over two-thirds, 67.5%, will hold the events at an offsite location and 41.0% will allow employees to bring a spouse/guest to the event.

Alcoholic Beverages

Of the participating organizations, 25.1% will have alcoholic beverages available at the party, 22.3% will not have alcoholic beverages available, while 24.0% are still undecided at this time.

If alcoholic beverages are served at the party, the top five reported precautionary measures organizations will take are noted below from highest to lowest responses received:

• Cocktail servers are instructed to monitor drinking and refuse service to intoxicated employees and/or guests
• Organization limits the type of drinks available (i.e. beer and wine)
• Organization provides alternate transportation (Taxi, Uber. Lyft, Ridesharing)
• Organization limits the number of free drinks (through drink tickets or set maximum allowed drinks)
• Organization limits the time frame for serving alcohol

Twenty-six percent of the survey participants reported that COVID-19 has affected the organization’s Holiday Party Plans for 2022.  The following are details of the changes shared by participants:

Bonus in lieu of party
Employee only event, no guests
Grab and go options instead of holiday parties. (With gift bags, pupus and/or provide rest of day off)
Holiday Party is cancelled
Limit number of seats per table with a staffed buffet line
Not able to secure venue since outlook was uncertain
Onsite lunch during work hours instead of an outside event
Provide a holiday bento to staff and virtual games
Smaller gatherings with catered food and assigned food servers
Social distancing & masks policies continued
Socially distanced holiday breakfast, bonus distributed and accolades shared.
Team outings encouraged during the holiday season in lieu of holiday party.
Thanksgiving Imu Event to start the holiday season.
Undecided
Venue changed to outdoor event

Community/Charitable Giving Practices

Slightly less than one third of the survey participants, 30.3% report they will be participating in community/charitable giving this holiday season, which decreased slightly when compared to 30.8% reported last year. Over one-fourth of participants, 30.9% do not plan to participate in charitable giving and 38.9% of respondents are currently undecided.

Only 15.1% of participating organizations reported that their community/charitable giving has been directly affected by COVID-19, which is a slight decrease from 15.4% reported last year.

Hawaii Employers Council conducts a variety of compensation and benefits surveys to provide data useful in developing and administering compensation and benefit plans as well as 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 member companies to design opinion surveys to identify gaps between being an employer of choice and being merely an employer. 

For more information, please contact Dawn Mitchell, Manager, Surveys & Compensation Services at dmitchell@hecouncil.org or Susan Amuro, Surveys & Research Analyst, at samuro@hecouncil.org.