Episode 66: Create a Positive Workplace Culture with These Fun Company Holiday Party Ideas

Episode 66: Create a Positive Workplace Culture with These Fun Company Holiday Party Ideas

Brandon Schoen:
Figure out something that you can do to celebrate and reward them, show gratitude and thank them in a personalized way to handwritten thing. Maybe you could recognize certain employees during that time and say, this employee was the hardest worker or achieved X, X, and this and whatever. Just make sure you're calling that out. And I think through that experience and through those bonds that you're building, it's the same thing that you do with customers, guys, but it's like your team. You want your teams to be loyal. You want to have less employee turnover. So how do you do that? You make them feel, you genuinely care about them and you extend grace to them and you extend love and compassion and whatever way you can do to serve your employees and show them like, Hey, we're going to have fun. We're going to be happy together. We're going to laugh together. We're gonna Corby always talks about the office as like the sanctuary that they create. That's like this special place that the ladies come, just bring an element of fun to it, make them laugh and bring some happiness.

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Grow your cleaning business, make more money, have more time. This is the Profit Cleaners podcast with your host Brandon Condrey and Brandon Schoen.

Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Profit Cleaners. You are in the place to be learning from the top 1% of cleaning business owners from around the world to Uplevel your business, take your game to the next level and win. Thanks for joining us.

I'm your host, Brandon Shane, and I'm joined by my cohost spreadsheet. Ninja the numbers magician, the amazing partner of mine that we're growing this amazing cleaning business with and having so much fun. And speaking of fun, we're going to talk about some fun company, holiday party ideas, and just some ways to be building some awesome employee culture. Bring some fun into your business.

Guys, this all centers around the fact that entrepreneurs are going to change the world through customer experiences, how you make people feel. And that is what we're selling. Guys is creating happiness, creating experiences for your customers, for your employees, for the people around you, your family, whoever it might be. But in this case, we're going to talk about in this episode,

just some ideas and some past experiences that we've had in this specific time of the year, the holiday party that we throw every year for the teams and where this stemmed from was our mentor in Denver Corby. He does this every year and always makes it a blast. And it's really fun. We've touched on this a little bit in the past with Corby and the culture stuff,

but we just want to reiterate this time of year, maybe some ideas for you guys and what you can do to create that loyalty, create that happiness, that culture and your employees, and make sure they're feeling like they're part of the team. They're having fun. They're happy. That's what we're getting at. Yeah. So Corby is our mentor. We modeled stuff after him.

So Corby had told us originally that the house party, they usually they do it on a weekday. They cancel the first couple houses so everyone can relax. And then there's, they hand out cash bonuses for the cleaners at the end of the year. And then they do some food. It's at a venue Corby most recently hired a mariachi band, which I thought was really fun to see that they did.

So there's live music there at those shows and probably some dancing and things like that. Yeah. I think they had like a potluck. Then they have a bunch of food was mariachis and music. It was like outrageous, but it was super fun. It was makes you laugh and makes you be like, man, I don't want to be part of that.

That looks awesome. Yep. So we try to duplicate that. So we'll just give you the chronology of how our parties have gone down over the years. I remember the first year that we did it when we were very small, I think we had, it may have only been two teams at the time we went to a local Mexican restaurant and we did it in the morning before work,

we canceled the things. We kind of surprised them like, Hey, we're going to get food. So we went to this restaurant, we booked a little private room there and we all got breakfast burritos. What ended up happening was that it wasn't the let's all sit around and be friends thing that I wanted from Corby's business. A I don't speak Spanish.

And they were some of our employees that don't speak English and B we just all sat around a table and ate breakfast. And people were staring at their phones the whole time. It was odd. We handed out money in envelopes, but we were brand new. I think we gave people like 50 bucks. That was all we could swing back then. People were We're happy.

I mean, anytime we can give a bonus of any type of gift or anything, people are gonna be happy. But yeah, it was a very awkward, we, we didn't really know what we were doing. We were trying to make it fun, but it was like, people weren't really having it. And that culture wasn't really there yet. We were still trying to build that culture in that fun.

Right? Well, we were trying was the point. If we did nothing, it would have been nothing. So the next year evolved a little bit. Okay. Now we'll do it at the office. And we had one of the employees at the time, ran a catering company on the side. So we hired her to cater it with some food.

I think there was a gift exchange and it was really mellow in the office and it was a little bit faster and that one went better. There were more people hanging out and there was some music and it was fun. And I just want to make a side note here, like how we're doing this as normally. And this is how Corby does it too.

Like you actually section off like part of the morning. Like we move all the clean back in the day. So there is no cleans happening in the morning. Like there's time for this party to happen. And no, one's Come in early. They come in at 7 30, 2 or three weeks in advance. We would have told the customers like, Hey, we're doing our annual holiday party.

So we need to move you to a different spot or whatever. And everyone's always fine with that. It usually works out just fine. So the next year, Brandon and I bought these wrapping paper suits at target. They're like the suit version of an ugly sweater. And we had them tailored, actually took them to a tailor. So they fit. And that one was funner.

That was a bigger one. There was a gift exchange and, you know, hoots and hollers. And we came down from upstairs in our little suits and stuff. And so that was cool. But then it was like the same thing. So this year we actually asked the employees if they wanted a holiday party and everyone said no. And the reason that they said no was that our trainer had assumed that it was going to be on a weekend and told them that it was gonna be on a weekend.

And everyone said no. And I told her, like, we're doing it, I'll put you in charge, but we're going to do it during the week. Just like we've done every other time. It will be totally fine. I was like, that's where we hand out. Well, we give cash. Like we give a hundred, $150 in envelopes to all the cleaners get thank you for the year because it's under the 10 99 threshold.

It's just an expense on the company. So it's totally fine. So this year we gave right now a budget 200 bucks, do what you can. So here's what she came up with. And I think this is great the way she put it together, because it's not how I would've done it. I would've called a bunch of vendors and it would have cost four times as much range as user personal network.

So with that money, I think it was a thousand dollars. Actually. She has purchased a bunch of door prizes. So it's like a makeup kit and have this and have that and a hairdryer and some stuff. And these are things that she knows the employees slash won, and we're playing a bunch of silly games during this party. It's going to be semi inside,

outside for social distancing reasons these days, but we're going to play. It was like ring toss with a bunch of corn hole boards lined up. So the further one you get in the bigger prize you win. Reyna got a pin, yada. So we have a pin yadda that's stuffed with hand creams and things like that. It's not like candy. It's like things that adults would like.

So we're going to do a. She got some tables and chairs that are going to get set up back there. She got a caterer who's coming in and doing tacos. So not breakfast tacos, like I would have gone out and tried to find with eggs and stuff. Nope. Just straight Mexican food, which is going to be delicious. I'm sure.

I think we're getting some horchata in there. We're going to have some music going on on a speaker, not alive music, but it's just a couple hours going to hang back. We'll hand out cash in envelopes. Again, they get some food, some lasts will be had at the games. And when people swing at this pinata and it's not a huge thing to do,

but I do think it's fun if you do it right. I want to hear all the latest news from Profit Cleaners. First, want to make sure you don't miss out on our next courses and some amazing discounts. We'll be sure to follow at Profit Cleaners on Instagram and sign up for emails on Profit Cleaners dot com. People have the dreaded corporate holiday party where someone drinks too much and hits on you or whatever.

Like this is not that it's in the morning. It's relatively quick. They get some breakfast and some cash. And then they head out for the day and have a good work day. And we told them that we really appreciate what they do, that they really make the business come together. And you want to show them that they're not just machines and a cogs in a machine they're integral to the whole thing and you want to treat them.

Absolutely. And some of the things we usually do handwritten cards and everyone signs them. And thank you a personal message from the staff for every one of the teams and we'll get better every year. I'm sure carby, who's been doing this now almost 20 years when he's got live musicians and mariachis and bigger caters and other stuff going on. I mean, that's obviously,

you know, much bigger and they've grown to this advanced version of it. We're still trying to make ours better and better and better. But I do think that's a huge key as we let re-enact run with it this year. And we're different than, you know, if you're in Australia or somewhere else in the world, you might have a different labor pool.

So you got to know your culture and your teams and your employees and what they like. A lot of our employees that show up do speak Spanish. So we got to cater to the Hispanic culture and a lot of the native culture that we have here in, in New Mexico that would mean they do like a certain type of food. And a lot of times the one brand and I come at and stuff like this,

it's like, well, we think we would want these kind of breakfast burritos, but actually like you're saying, they want this type of specific food or something that we had never even had heard of. Right. And we tried to do this just on a side note. We tried to do this another time with like a healthy snack box. We wanted to bring like healthy snacks into the office and it totally blew up in our face.

Cause it's like everyone wanted, I don't know what it was brand new was like this special box that was like all these like special Mexican chips. I wonder if they're still out there, there was this company called SnackNation I think is what it was called. And they were aggressively advertising on a bunch of podcasts that I listened to. So we signed up with them and what it was is you got a little cardboard display rack in there and they're a Silicon valley company,

right? So their whole approach was we'll send you healthy stuff. It's going to be like organic chips and this and that. And we did it for a while on a trial, it was affordable. It was totally doable. We were just trying to let the employees know that we care about them. And finally, one of them was like, listen,

this is great, but can you get us the stuff from Mexico? And I was like, what are you talking about? So she came in with a list of things that I have never even seen in my life. These are things that you get at like a Mexican convenience store, the Mexican equivalent of like bugles. And it's all these weird Andes that have spices in them and stuff.

So I did go down a rabbit hole trying to find someone who would do it and it never materialized for us. So it was the right idea. It was the wrong product for our company, for our employees. That it's just not what they wanted. So we were just throwing money away and you'd find like, I remember one time it was unsalted unroasted peanuts,

which are like the healthiest for you, but nobody touched him. That was what was left at the end of the month. So in the end we canceled it. And we, I think we bought them nice water bottles instead, but just try and keep those things in mind from a company culture perspective. So throw a holiday party. We want to get in the habit.

I think in the future of doing something around the anniversary of the company. So that's the 5th of July. So it's like our personal independence day is when we started that company. So I want to get to the point logistically if we can pull it off where we take a whole week off and everybody gets paid vacation and everyone takes some time off. And just thank you for being here.

Thank you for doing this for the company. We'll see if we can ever pull that off from customers, not liking, having cleaning for a whole week every year. You just want to have it that week. But anyway, these are things that you can keep in mind. It's not all numbers and profit and expenses. Sometimes you got to have some fun and give away some money and you don't get anything monetarily out of doing something like this.

But you get to see a bunch of people, smile and have fun. You have some good food together. You know, it's your little group, it's your tribe. That's eating together like that. As a thing that humans have done for a long time. And I think it's cool to be facilitate Absolutely it's that experience you're creating. And it can be in any way that you see fit for your brand and your company,

whatever resonates with your people, right? But figure out something that you can do to celebrate and them and show gratitude and thank them in a personalized way to a handwritten thing. Maybe you could recognize certain employees during that time and say, this employee was the hardest worker or achieved X, X, and this and whatever. Just make sure you're calling that out.

And I think through that experience and through those bonds that you're building, it's the same thing that you do with customers, guys, but it's like your teams, like you want your teams to be loyal. You want to have less employee turnover. So how do you do that? You make them feel like you genuinely care about them and you extend grace to them and you extend love and compassion and whatever way you can do to serve your employees and show them like,

Hey, we're gonna have fun. We're gonna be happy together. We're gonna laugh together. We're gonna, you know, Corby always talks about the office as like the sanctuary that they create. That's like this special place that the ladies come and they leave their home issues and their home life behind whatever problems are happening. And they can come to the safe place where they can do their job and they can be happy.

And that's, you know, another layer of it is you want it to be this amazing place that this amazing environment that you create and the structure you set up for your, your teams that really allows for that to happen. And I think just in seeing us do that over the years, even just the coffee truck that we have every month at the company meetings and things like that,

just seeing that congregation, like everyone's out breaking bread or drinking something together, hanging out, talking, it brings that community about, and it brings that experience. And if your employees know that you care about them and they feel that, and they feel that not just through paying them well, but you're also going above and beyond to take care of them in other ways.

And that goes a really long way. And that's what we're trying to do with our customers all day long. We're going to be doing another episode about that really soon guys, about creating amazing customer experiences and how you can do that more and more, but how can you do that with your employees? So that's what we're talking about here. So if you haven't already put together something like that,

a holiday party or a new year's party or something just to celebrate people and just thank them for their hard work and bring that solidify, that loyalty with your teams, then that comradery, I mean, they're working together all day long anyways, like going through the trenches together, working hard. So just bring an element of fun to it, make them laugh and bring some happiness.

That's what Corby always talks about. I love that element. So if your teams are happy, your customers are going to feel that. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So there you go, guys, that's our culture employee, little blurb for the holiday Christmas party, whatever you want to call it, but take it back and run with it. See what you can come up with.

Or, you know what, after this hit us up on Facebook, did you find this interesting, leave us a comment somewhere that says, this is what we do for our holiday party. And this is why it's so cool. So that would be really interesting to see. Absolutely. And as always guys, a little housekeeping to finish off the show,

if you're getting any value out of this show, guys, that we're going to have lots more value in the future. But if this show or any of the past shows has helped shift perspective, given you new knowledge, new strategies, new ideas, maybe made you laugh, whatever it is, just share the value, you know, pay it forward and share the show.

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let you guys know how grateful we are for you. And as we close out 2021, just share with you guys. We're so grateful for you. We're thankful for all the emails, all of the messages you write into us to share how we're impacting your business and your lives and helping you grow. So yeah, that impacts us in huge ways. Every single one of you super important to us.

And we want to make sure we're all on this chain together. So thank you guys for being with us on this journey and until next time, keep it clean. Thanks for joining us today. To get more info, including show notes, updates, trainings, and super cool free stuff. Head over to Profit Cleaners dot com and remember, keep it clean.

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Thanks for joining us today. To get more info, including show notes, updates, trainings, and super cool free stuff. Head over to Profitcleaners.com and remember keep it clean.