Do's & Don'ts of Your Social Committee at Work

I’ve been responsible for social events at two different jobs and the most important thing is to respect people’s time.

That also means your fellow social committee members and management.

When you have events outside of work hours, respect peoples personal lives and the proverbial “work/life balance” and don’t question people with other obligations.

There is also a delicate balance between having casual events that are work related and not creating a meeting like feel or having a free for all.

The next most important rule for being on the social committee is stay within your budget. I learned this the hard way when for a while on a committee I was on where we had to raise our own money. No joke, we had bake sales and other events to raise money for our events.

But even when you are on expense account, keep track of everything and don’t fall into the trap that “the company is paying for it”. Have a plan, create a budget and stick to it.
And if you ever have had the company give you extra money once (which is awesome), don’t expect it twice.

Another important rule is to always check not only with management but with human resources (HR), before planning an event. It’s not always fun (and it may take time), but you need that approval. Get it in front so you are not trying to explain yourself or have to cancel (or change), an event later.

Its fine to ask the employees what they want for events but let them know to be reasonable and they you are not Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or Hugh Hefner.

If you have a social committee, you probably you have a member of the management team on the committee. As important as it is to have their approval, you have to keep the balance of the committee and not let them take over. Nor do you want to run over them, it’s sometimes tough to agree on events but work through it and take multiple meetings if you have to.

Also be upfront about your events (to the employees), and what will take place, if you do not truthfully tell people what will happen they may feel “duped” or that you don’t know what you are doing and then you’ve lost their trust.

Also in line with that if you have raffles or giveaways, don’t include members of the social committee and management should be removed as well. Trust me, you don’t want anything to appear “rigged”, or that the social committee treats itself well or caters to management. Your mission is to have events for the other workers.

Its fine if management or the committee wants to thank each other (for working on an event), but don’t do it under the premise of something that is for the other employees, that again breaks the trust and people won’t want to participate in your events.

There will be events that people won’t be excited about and don’t want to participate in and whether it’s because of workload, stress or just don’t want to be bothered. You have to “sell the event”. But don’t nag or be pushy about it, this is where creativity comes in.

You may have to go to people to ask about attending but be cool about, nagging them or making them feel like “you have to go” won’t help. Instead focus on the event and what will go on and they will “miss out”, if they don’t participate.

And even when you do get a good turn out, you may never get 100% participation, it happens, hopefully your co—workers can help you by raving about your event to any holdouts you may have.

Email is both your friend and foe, when announcing an event it’s important to use more than email. We all get lots and lots of email and it can get overlooked, so have a physical presence (i.e. friendly reminder either a poster and/or just tell people), and let people know what you have going on, but again, don’t be pushy.

When it comes to food at events check with all participants on food allergies, vegetarians, vegans and have options for them. Also make sure to have an accurate headcount. Yes that does mean for people that don’t respond you may have to go “hunt them down”, but check with them down nicely and explain why you need their response.

Social committees often break the monotony of work and take care of the celebrations we have as well.

It’s the job of the committee not to burden employees with more stuff but to give them a break, so even when things may not be great, give them a break and partake in what have planned, trust me they worked hard on it and you will probably have a good time too.