Traci Berg

Companies More Likely to Throw Holiday Parties and Give Perks This Year, CareerBuilder Survey Reveals

CareerBuilder releases list of the most unusual gifts received from co-workers

CHICAGO, December 6, 2011 – Workers can expect more holiday cheer in the office this season, as companies offer more perks (bonuses, parties, gifts) than last year. The CareerBuilder survey was conducted between August 16 and September 8, 2011 and included more than 4,000 workers and more than 2,600 employers.

Bonuses: Four-in-ten (40 percent) employers plan to give their employees holiday bonuses this year, up from 33 percent in 2010.  Among this group, 73 percent are planning to give the same amount as last year.  Fourteen percent plan to provide a greater bonus than last year, while 13 percent plan to provide a smaller bonus.

Parties: Fifty-eight percent of employers are planning a holiday party for their employees this year, up from 52 percent in 2010.  Thirty-six percent of workers say they plan to attend their holiday party this year.

Gifts: Three-in-ten (30 percent) employers plan to give holiday gifts to employees, up from 29 percent in 2010. 

Holiday presents in the office aren’t just from corporate.  Twenty-two percent of workers say they plan to buy holiday gifts for co-workers this year, with the same amount planning to buy their boss something. The majority (79 percent) of workers say they plan to spend $25 or less for each holiday gift they buy for the office. Thirty-eight percent plan to spend $10 or less and 12 percent plan to spend less than $5.  

When asked to share the most memorable gifts received from co-workers, workers said:
•       a zombie figurine
•       a keychain that shouts expletives
•       bacon of the month club
•       a ceramic snake
•       a clock that meows three times on the hour
•       a hand-painted landscape on a toilet seat
•       a glass high-heel shoe filled with dish soap
•       mustache scissors
•       a whip
•       a 12-pack of cola

“Employers have been working hard to build back their businesses over the last year and this holiday season are planning to reward their biggest asset – their people – with a few holiday perks (bonuses, parties, gifts),” said Rosemary Haefner, Vice President of Human Resources for CareerBuilder.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,696 hiring managers and human resource professionals and 4,086 workers (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) ages 18 and over between August 16 and September 8, 2011 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With pure probability samples of 2.696 and 4.086, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/-1.89 and +/-1.53 percentage points, respectively. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®
CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract their most important asset - their people. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors, 1 million jobs and 40 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world’s top employers, providing resources for everything from employment branding and data analysis to recruitment support. More than 9,000 websites, including 140 newspapers and broadband portals such as MSN and AOL, feature CareerBuilder’s proprietary job search technology on their career sites. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com