Nearly two-thirds of US companies will have in-person holiday parties in 2023: survey

With the 2023 year-end holidays fast-approaching, many U.S. companies say they will have holiday parties for their workers. 

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of U.S. companies will do face-to-face festivities this year, according to a survey from Challenger, Gray & Christmas. 

"Despite companies approaching the end of the year cautiously due to the economy, they are ready to celebrate with their teams, according to our findings, and want to do so in-person," Challenger, Gray & Christmas’ Andrew Challenger said in a statement.

The outplacement firm said the 65% represented "the highest percentage of companies holding in-person holiday parties" since 2019, prior to when the COVID-19 pandemic began and prompted many companies to start using remote work. That year, three quarters of companies indicated they did so. 

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The share of companies with 2023 holiday party plans has risen 7.4 percentage points compared to 2022, according to the survey. 

Work parties to ring in the holidays during business hours appear to have gained popularity, with more than half of companies (58.1%) saying they were scheduling theirs for "during" or "near" the end of workday this year, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said. 

Meanwhile, 35% have theirs slated for after work or on the weekend, the survey showed.

A majority indicated they would keep the holiday celebrations in the company this year and not allow workers to bring their loved ones. That share came in at 55.4%, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. 

On the other hand, over one-third will be open to spouses and families, per the survey.

Although companies do tend to have their own plans for how much money they will put toward their holiday celebrations, Challenger, Gray & Christmas found the budgets of most – 66% – will stay flat. For 33% of companies, they will splash out more.

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Only a small share foresee themselves cutting their resources to put on their parties, the survey found.

While many employers have intentions of throwing in-person holiday gatherings, the share of those with virtual celebrations on the calendar rose slightly from 2022, going from 2% to 3.9%, according to the Challenger, Gray & Christmas data. The outplacement firm suggested that the increase was probably linked to remote and hybrid work. 

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed over 28.75 million full-time people at work engaged in remote work to some extent in November. Of those, roughly 13.44 million did so for "all hours" of their jobs that month, while 15.31 million had some sort of hybrid arrangement.

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Some 102.83 million full-time people at work did not do any telework last month, according to the BLS. 

Employees at nearly 10% of companies, the survey found, will not get a party this holiday season.

Challenger, Gray & Christmas puts out the survey on a yearly basis. This year’s involved over 200 American companies and took place in November via online survey.