Receiving a Diwali gift during this festive season is something most staff in India based organizations look forward to. Many organizations do so as an annual exercise irrespective of the state of the economy and most vouch that it does have a positive impact on engagement. Or at least in how staff perceive the organization and its health. Diwali, the Festival of Lights is an auspicious occasion for Indians, especially the Hindu community.
However giving such gifts can also be a double edged sword. Navya, the internal communicator at ReadyServe Ltd discovered it the hard way while she went about the exercise of communicating the gift at her organization.
After earmarking funds for the Diwali gift Navya went about discussing gift ideas and sought help from her procurement team. She mailed people she knew within the organization and got gift options for the budget she identified. Leaders in her organization wanted a say in the gift and gave suggestions on the potential categories that might interest staffers. Some were against making the gift a practice and setting expectations among staff while others were keen to continue the practice.
After many months of sourcing and negotiations the team finally managed to get a vendor who could deliver the gifts for 5000 staff in 3 weeks. Since the gift was procured in bulk the vendor provided a significant discount per piece which worked out to be an excellent deal. Navya crafted a suitable message from the CEO to accompany the gift. Each gift was packed neatly and kept ready for distribution.
However, as soon as the leader announced the news of the gift distribution many curious employees went online to check the product on e-commerce sites and began evaluating the cost and making judgments on the company’s intentions.
Here is a sample of what employees posted on the intranet as a discussion:
Vinod: “Hey, I browsed Tick Tock’s website and noticed the gift we are getting is available at a low cost! I am not sure why the company is giving us such a product.”
Vikram:”You have a point. Rather, they should give us a bonus in our salaries.”
Neha: “I think the product may not be the same as what we are getting. Has anyone seen it?”
Vinod: “I haven’t seen it but the image online looks similar to what the CEO shared. It is very disappointing”
Since ReadyServe had an open culture employees felt comfortable airing their concerns openly on the intranet but this discussion was taking a different turn. Navya’s hard work seemed like a waste of her time. People were trashing the product and making judgments without context.
- What can Navya do to reverse what looks like an internal communication crisis into a positive story?
- How can she ensure that employees get the right context?
- What can ReadyServe do better next time to ensure such scenarios are averted?
Please share your thoughts here.
For the next time Navya can make sure not to disclose the item in the gift wrap before employees get it and keep CEO’s message only to revolve around good wishes for the year and it should not talk about the gift at all. This will help in NOT building fancy expectations of the employees.
ReadyServe can make sure just run a survey or polls with few options which company has shortlisted with in their budget and ask go with the majority polls and feedback.
Or just keep multiple shortlisted items of same cost value and give them the option to order any one of the item for themselves as Diwali gift.
Happy Diwali!
Hi Aniisu,
The immediate thought that comes to my mind is that Navya could always do a simple employee poll/survey before even approaching the leadership/stakeholders with options to finalise the gift item. Intranets today are seldom used as powerful employee engagement tools. Either organisation are so heavily loaded with information that the basics slip away or they are just not aware. I strongly believe in participation at all levels for any organisation that truly believes employees are their key assets. At the end of the day, it’s all about people and we are doing it for them. Thus, employees participate in the decision making process and then leadership also weighs and measures their choices and settles with the best option in every one’s interest.
Regards,
Sameena Khanam
Excellent inputs Aashi and Sameena. Your thoughts on involving employees in the process of gift selection makes a lot of sense.