[Jewelry making - Article 01159] - [Orchid] Christmas party at the store this year

[David Geller]

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Ways to liven up your Christmas party at the store this year

    The annual Christmas part for many a jewelry store is a nice night
    out for the staff-dinner and maybe too many drinks. I just wanted to
    share some of the ways we rewarded the employees at Christmas time,
    particularly during the Christmas Party and during December.

    Being a custom store (doing over 1.8 million-3/4 of it coming from
    our price book) we always worked late into the night during December.
    Although the sales staff didn't stay late like the jewelers did,
    everyone worked hard. So we rewarded them.

    We arranged with a local masseuse to have all employees receive a
    massage at their office. The jewelers especially enjoyed and NEEDED
    this. There were a few folks who never had one and were uncomfortable
    with trying something new. If these were females we opted for a
    manicure instead, which is still a great stress reliever.

    It's also a good idea to plan into your schedule TIME OFF for
    everyone during the week so employees can go shopping for the
    holidays too, without asking you when it's convenient for them rather
    than the store. Plan ahead.

    The Christmas party was a PARTY. With 16 employees, almost all
    bringing spouses and dates, we wanted to bring friendship to those
    who never met. So Renie devised a get acquainted game.

    She met everyone at the door when they came to the restaurant. In
    her hand she had 3x5 cards and a roll of scotch tape. Each card had
    the name of a famous person. Could be a politician, singer, movie
    star, actor-dead or alive. Without you seeing who it was she taped
    the card to your back. Everyone had one.

    Your goal was to go to SOMEONE ELSE in the room and ask 3 questions.
    You can ask 100 questions, but only 3 at a time to one person at a
    time.

    Questions that can only give a YES or NO answer, like:

    "Is this person a male?"
    "Is this person in movies?" 

    We had gift certificates for movies, dinners, manicures, etc. The
    first 5 people who could guess what was on their backs got the
    prizes. Great fun way to get to "smooze" with everyone.

    After dessert we had games. One game we had was "Last person
    standing". This is where I started a story and had 6 employees stand
    in the front of the crowd. You've played this I know. I'd start the
    story:

    "Once upon a time there was this jeweler who had a small rabbit. One
    day the rabbit escaped from his pen and was running when all of a
    sudden."

    Then I'd point a finger at someone and they had to flawlessly pickup
    from there 

    ".he fell into a mighty whole where he saw thus huge."

    And at that point I pointed to another employee who had to instantly
    pickup the story from there and carry on.

    Anyone who couldn't carry on or floundered was OUT! leaving five
    people. It continued on and the winner received a nice prize too.

    The end of the evening we awarded TWO trophies with $300 in cash
    attached to the bottom.

    The first trophy was HIGHEST SALES YEAR TO DATE. This was awarded to
    a sales person with the highest total sales.

    The second trophy took prior work. We had the 1st week of December
    for all employees by secret ballot to vote for whomever they thought
    was the most valuable employee in the company. Some years it was a
    sales person, some times it was a jeweler, and a few times it was an
    office staff. It let one person be recognized for being a team
    player. I tallied them up and got the trophy engraved in advance of
    the Christmas dinner.

    The next day back to work both employees proudly displayed their
    trophies.

    Christmas bonuses were given out separately, closer to Christmas
    Eve.

Have a great season.

David Geller
Director of Profit
JewelerProfit, Inc.
510 Sutters Point
Atlanta, GA. 30328
(404) 255-9565 Voice
(404) 252-9835 Fax
david AT JewelerProfit.com

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