A recent article in HR Grapevine has come up with lessons that HR professionals can learn from their favourite Christmas films. Here are their key takeaways:
Home Alone - Emphasises the importance of diligence and clear communication to prevent team members from being "left behind."
Elf - Highlights the value of celebrating individuality and inclusivity to boost creativity and innovation.
Die Hard - Stresses the need for crisis management skills, quick thinking, and having an emergency plan. (this is down to HR Grapevine, apologies if you don’t approve of it being a Christmas film!)
A Christmas Carol - Underlines the importance of empathy, generosity, and creating a positive workplace culture.
Love Actually - Advises on managing office romances with clear policies and sensitivity.
The Grinch - Encourages initiative-taking engagement to prevent employee disengagement.
The Santa Clause - Highlights the importance of effective succession planning.
It’s a Wonderful Life - Emphasises the need to recognise and celebrate employees' contributions.
The Polar Express - Stresses the importance of building trust and belief in leadership.
As a bit of fun (😊) we thought we’d add a few more and examine how they impact workforce management, shift planning and time & attendance.
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation - Emphasises the significance of balancing work and personal life to prevent burnout, communication, crisis management, employee recognition and teamwork. It also shows the importance of being flexible and adaptable when things don’t go as planned.
Miracle on 34th Street - Encourages belief in your employees, prioritising customer needs to build loyalty, how effective communication is a requirement for resolving conflict, and the importance of leading with integrity to inspire and motivate your team.
Gremlins - Simple, the importance of doing things at the right time!
Edward Scissorhands - A bit obvious perhaps but, the importance of embracing diversity and inclusivity, adapting to peoples’ needs with empathy and understanding.
The Nightmare Before Christmas - Offers several lessons, Jack Skellington's desire to bring Christmas to Halloween Town highlights the importance of being open to new ideas and change. The confusion in Halloween Town shows the need for clear roles and responsibilities within a team. Jack's creative approach to Christmas emphasises the value of innovation and thinking outside the box, and all throughout the film it is clear that there is the need to understand and respect different cultures and traditions in a diverse workplace.
Deck the Halls - Shows how healthy competition in the workplace can drive motivation and innovation but also the need for employees to balance work commitments with personal life, especially during the holiday season. The eventual cooperation shows the value of teamwork and collaboration to achieve common goals and the importance of effective conflict resolution strategies to maintain a harmonious work environment.
And for those who are very up to date, number 1 on Prime Video at the moment is Red One, where the Head of Security aka The Rock, shows the importance of the role of strong leadership in guiding and motivating a team to collaborate, with the ability to adapt and innovate whilst demonstrating effective crisis management skills.
Of course, many Christmas films offer valuable lessons in the importance of planning co-ordination and having the right skill in the right place at the right time. The logistics, effective shift planning and role allocation is without doubt important to ensure all toys are delivered on time, across multiple time zones, worldwide.
"Although the seasonal aspects may heavily suggest Annualised Hours contracts for Santa and his helpers, I'm not so sure that the shift length on Christmas Eve wouldn't cause one or two issues with working time regulations!"
Please feel free to let us know any further film suggestions and the lessons we could learn from them….
