For holidays, office parties returning

His observations are backed up by a new national survey that shows that holiday office parties, after hitting a 10-year low in 2009, once again are in vogue.

A little more than three out of every four companies will be holding some sort of holiday or year-end celebration, which is a 9 percent jump from last year’s 67 percent, according to the Bureau of National Affairs, a D.C.-area corporate analyst group.

But they’re not necessarily lavish affairs.

“Companies are going for more lunches rather than big dinners,” said Arceneaux. “While the celebrations are coming back, our calendar isn’t completely booked like before the recession. I’d say we’re hitting 70 percent of what it used to be.”

Matt Sottong, a director of surveys and research for BNA, said that his company has been tracking business practices since the 1950s, and first started watching office parties in the 1970s.

“We have a lot of data on this going back decades,” Sottong said. “What we’re seeing now is that employers are feeling a bit more confident about the future. They’re spending more, but not going overboard.”

Kevin Guthrie, a vice president and general manager of Atlanta-based Lodestone Solutions, a data and information company for the health care industry, said they’ve scaled back their holiday parties in recent years.

“We took our employees out for an afternoon at a nice restaurant,” he said. “In years past, we’ve gone so far as to rent out a hall and hold a big function. But, with times being what they are, we couldn’t do it. We can’t spend like we used to.”

He didn’t have an estimate on the cost, but his company took about 125 employees to the Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant in Dunwoody.

“The costs can add up, so we wanted to be cautious,” Guthrie said. “But we really think that doing something for our people over the holidays can mean a whole lot.”

The BNA report, which was released Nov. 30, surveyed executives and human relations personnel at 300 companies nationwide from Sept. 20 through Oct. 3. The companies ranged from manufacturing businesses, hospitals and corporations to government agencies and nonprofit companies.

The survey also showed that year-end gifts and bonuses given by those same companies was up to 41 percent in 2010, an 8 percent increase this year over 2009.

Restaurant owner Kevin Drawe said that he doesn’t know if it’s a sign that the economic thaw is really on its way or if business managers are feeling it’s time to be more generous.

He just knows it’s a tradition he and his business partners — who own Atkins Park Tavern in Atlanta and Smyrna, as well as Ormsby’s on Howell Mill Road — have upheld without fail for the past 20 years.

“Every year, especially in the last couple years, my partners and I look at each other and ask, ‘Can we do this?’ ” he said.

“We’ve cut back some years, but we go ahead and hold a big party,” he said.

Drawe said all three restaurants were shut down on the afternoon of Dec. 5, even though this is their busy holiday season.

This year, they gathered after 6 p.m. at Ormsby’s with about 150 employees and about another 150 guests to eat, sing and celebrate.

“The best part is that every employee is given a raffle ticket, and we give out presents to everyone,” Drawe said.

The big gift was a flat-screen television. Other gifts ranged from electronics and computer tablets to gift certificates to stores and shops — and all were handed out by a Santa Claus.

The tab for the party was easily $10,000, and the gifts probably cost another $4,000.

“They work so hard for us all year, we wanted to do something,” he said.

Not every company is that generous. The BNA survey said that of all companies holding parties, 89 percent of them will pick up the whole tab, which is the same rate from last year, but only 52 percent of those allowed employees to bring a guest.