Holiday Plans: CIBC/Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post for Publication November 25, 2002

Transcription

1 Holiday Plans: CIBC/Chamber Weekly CEO/Business Leader Poll by COMPAS in the Financial Post for Publication November 25, 2002 COMPAS Inc. Public Opinion and Customer Research

2 Introduction Almost all private sector organizations acknowledge the Christmas holidays in some way, most frequently through a gathering for employees and occasionally through a gift. Most of such gatherings are for adults; they are rarely arranged with the needs of children in mind. A large minority arrange their affairs to allow a week off for employees. The overwhelming majority of organizations consider the holiday a celebration of Christmas. A small minority make an effort to tone down the specifically Christian theological origins of the holy day, striving to give it a generic celebratory character. These are the key findings from the weekly web poll of business leaders conducted by COMPAS for the National Post under Canadian Chamber of Commerce sponsorship. Adult Gatherings the Focus of Celebrations As shown in tables 1 and 2, most organizations maintain the generations long tradition of a gathering but most gatherings today are for employees only or employees and spouses with few gatherings designed with children in mind. A minority of organizations provide extra vacation time, a bonus cheque, or a gift. Meanwhile, a large minority of organizations close for a week during the Christmas period, as shown in table 3. In some instances, employers survey their staff to gauge their needs for time off, and make company plans accordingly, including provisions for skeletal or no staff. Table 1: With an eye on the upcoming holiday, what plans is your organization considering this year? [ROTATE] [CHECK EACH THAT APPLIES] A gathering 72 Extra vacation time over Christmas 38 A holiday bonus cheque 22 A gift 20 DNK/Refused 6 Note: Because this is a multiple response question the total may exceed

3 Table 2: Do the holiday-celebration plans of your organization involve [ROTATE] [CHECK ONE] Employee and spouse or significant other 43 The employee only 32 Employee, spouse, and children 17 No plans 2 All of the above 1 Other 3 DNK/Refused 2 Table 3: What plans does your company have for holiday vacation time? [ROTATE] [CHECK EACH THAT APPLIES] Office closes for one week 43 Staff may buy extra days 19 Office closes for more than one week 14 Other 28 Note: Because this is a multiple response question the total may exceed 100. Cost of Celebrations It was a challenge for COMPAS to elicit and for respondents to provide estimates of the cost of the season to employers. It looks as if the employers represented in the survey spent $ 105 per employee for bonuses, gifts, gatherings, and/or time off. 1 1 How much money does your organization typically budget per employee for celebration of Christmas? 2

4 Multicultural, Multi-religious Makeup of Canada has Ambiguous Effect on Organizations Observance of Holidays A question that elicited much respondent interest and comment relates to the possible impact of the evolving multi-religious character of the country on holiday celebrations. When asked pointedly about possible impact on employers celebrations, the overwhelming majority asserted that the celebrations were unaffected in any way, as shown in table 4. The small minority who acknowledged an impact volunteered that the impact was for the celebrations to downplay their Christian roots, as shown in table 5. Though the overwhelming majority of respondents denied that the evolving multireligious character of the country was impacting on holiday celebrations, many nonetheless volunteered that the tone or character celebrations was being affected: Celebrations are more of the "Festive Season" and less about the meaning of Christmas. We have holiday celebrations, not Christmas celebrations, although they clearly have a Christmas flavour. We have a "holiday" party, not a Christmas party, to observe the traditions of various faiths. Our annual celebrations are no longer directed toward celebrating a "Merry Christmas, this period of the year is now celebrated with a non-religious "Season's Greetings. The multicultural, multi-religious character of Canada makes us more sensitive to the customs and wishes of employees, customers and the public. We prefer to wish people a "Happy Holiday Season" 3

5 Table 4: Has the multicultural, multi-religious character of Canada affected in any way the manner in which your organization observes the Christmas holidays? Yes 17 No 81 DNK/Refused 3 Table 5: IF YES: Please explain Recognize and celebrate all cultural and religious holidays Refer to and celebrate a generic holiday 47 Do not observe or celebrate any holidays 5 Other 5 42 Methodology The National Post/COMPAS web-survey of CEOs and leaders of small, medium, and large corporations and among executives of the local and national Chambers of Commerce was conducted November 19-21, Respondents constitute an essentially hand-picked panel. Because medium and small companies are more numerous in the economy and hence among Chamber membership, the actual respondents in this consultative panel are drawn more from these strata than from the stratum of the largest companies. Because of the small population of CEOs and business leaders from which the sample was drawn, the study can be considered more accurate than comparably sized general public studies. In studies of the general public, surveys of n=169 are deemed accurate to within approximately 8 percentage points 19 times out of 20. The principal and coinvestigators on this study are Conrad Winn, Ph.D. and Jennifer McLeod. 4