When it comes to alcohol and staff Christmas parties, we have 6 rules we strongly recommend our clients follow. They are:
Rule #1
Unless you have staff who are trained in the responsible service of alcohol or you are planning to engage professional caterers, DON’T hold your function onsite. Whether it’s a social function or performing their work, you are responsible for the health and safety of your staff. At Christmas parties, that obligation covers:
- If they are drunk, fall over and injure themselves
- Drink driving
- Behaving poorly towards other staff
- Anything else that can happen
That’s why we recommend you hold your staff Christmas party at a venue.
Rule #2
If family fun days in the park are more appropriate for your organisational culture, DON’T serve alcohol for the same reasons as above. If you get objections, simply emphasise it’s a family fun day so serving alcohol wouldn’t be appropriate.
Rule #3
When serving alcohol at a staff Christmas party, food and the party’s duration go hand-in-hand. If you are planning a Christmas party that lasts less than 2 hours, serving canapés is acceptable. However, if you are planning a longer staff Christmas party, you need to provide a full meal and NEVER let your staff Christmas celebrations go beyond 4 hours. There’s too much potential for things to go wrong!
If limiting your end-of-year party to 2 hours seems cheap, make it a lunch and close the workplace for the rest of the day. Staff will love having time off to do Christmas shopping or run errands in work time, especially if you hold the staff Christmas party on a Friday afternoon.
Rule #4
Even when the venue has staff trained in the responsible service of alcohol, you need to offer soft drinks at a 50-50 ratio. If the weather is hot or you are planning activities such as dancing or sport, tip the drinks ratio even higher for soft drink options.
Rule #5
Being a leader means your alcohol consumption needs to be extremely moderate. In addition, you need to ensure you and your management team can step in at any time should an incident occur. We call it, Having a Plan B.
Plan Bs should cover everything from:
- How to get staff home if they have too much to drink
- What to do should an incident occur (and in our experience, that might be anything)
- Intercepting or intervening before unacceptable behaviour occurs
- Checking on the welfare of a staff member if you have any concerns
Rule #6
NEVER give staff leftover alcohol (including unopened bottles) at the end of the party or place money on the bar tab when you leave because you are still responsible for staff behaviour and safety. For your protection and the safety of your staff, you need to be present for the duration of the event and ensure all alcohol consumption is restricted to the event itself.
Everyone wants a happy Christmas and new year
The end-of-year staff Christmas party should be a time of celebration and appreciation for their hard work throughout the year. That’s why we strongly encourage every client to follow these 6 rules when arranging a business function with alcohol.
If you have any questions, or receive any pushback from staff, get in touch with us.