Fruit cake or cash? Survey tracks employer gifts

A holiday ham? A three-pound fruitcake? A cash bonus? Those are among the choices that employers wrestle with when they mull over what kind of gift to give to the help during the holidays.

To determine the gift-giving habits of employers, the HON Company, an Iowa-based designer and manufacturer of office furniture, conducted an online poll of 830 adults from across the country. (A pie chart that the company used to illustrate survey results appears above this post.)

The HON Company said in a press release: "According to the survey, most companies (54 percent) offer a cash bonus at the holidays; 22 percent offer a gift certificate, and nearly 20 percent put supper on the table – with 5 percent offering a holiday ham, 4 percent giving a turkey, and 9 percent providing other food items (i.e. fruit baskets). Yet while nearly 75 percent of employers do provide some sort of holiday incentive, a surprising 24 percent follow in the steps of Mr. Scrooge and don’t give any gift at all."

After conducting such a survey, HON felt compelled to be fully transparent about its own gift-giving history.

The company noted in its press release: "For more than 60 years, HON has given out a holiday ham. In fact, in 2009, HON will provide more than 4,000 hams to its employees around the country."
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)