Organising a staff party: the evening in four blocks

Organising a staff party looks simpler than it is. Book a room, sort the snacks, add music, done. In practice, at half past ten you have a room with three departments in three corners, exactly where they sit in the office. Below is how to prevent that: how to structure the evening, themes that do and don't work, a realistic budget and a timeline that keeps you from running out of time.

A staff party is not the same as a staff outing

People often use the two interchangeably, but they are different briefs with different pitfalls. A staff outing is usually held during the day, takes half a day, and has an activity at its core. The group is often clearly defined: a department, a team, or the whole company if it's small. Everyone knows why they're there.

A staff party is an evening, often for the whole company, and regularly with partners invited. Food and drink are the core, not an activity. There's no obvious reason to talk to someone from another department. And the group is more mixed than at any outing: from the intern to someone who has worked there for thirty years, with partners who don't know anyone.

If you're looking for ideas for the daytime instead, the article on staff outings is the better place to start. This article is about the evening.

Start with the occasion, not the venue

The first question most organisers ask is where it's going to take place. That's the second question. The first is why this party is happening.

A party held because it happens every year lands differently from a party held because there's been a difficult year, or because two teams have merged, or because you've moved into a new building. The occasion doesn't need to be big and there doesn't need to be a speech about it. But it does set the tone, who speaks, how long that takes and whether the programme can be heavy or light.

In practice: write the occasion down in one sentence before you book anything. If you can't, the party probably won't be about anything for the guests either. A more compact party with a better programme is then often money better spent than a big party with no direction.

The real problem: everyone stays with their own department

This is the pattern that threatens every staff party. People arrive, look for a familiar face, and stay there for the rest of the evening. By the end, admin has talked to admin and field staff to field staff. The party was fun and changed nothing.

That isn't a matter of too little drink or too little music. It's a matter of structure. Without a reason to talk to someone else, nobody does. With a reason, almost everyone does, even people who say they're not up for it.

The cheapest fix is a set-up that breaks up the existing groups: mixed teams for a game, or tables that aren't seated by department. That costs nothing and does more than a more expensive band.

The evening in four blocks

A staff party that flows almost always has the same structure. Four blocks, with the peak in the third.

Block 1: arrival and the first half hour

This is the most fragile moment of the evening. People trickle in, there aren't yet enough guests to carry an atmosphere, and anyone who's early stands awkwardly with a drink in their hand. Arrange something small here: a photo moment, a welcome drink that's handed out rather than collected, someone who introduces people to each other.

What you shouldn't do here is start the programme. The late arrivals miss it, and the early arrivals feel the best part has been and gone before everyone was there.

Block 2: the shared moment

One moment when everyone looks in the same direction. A short speech, a thank-you, an announcement. Keeping it short is the whole advice here: five to ten minutes. Anyone who talks longer at a staff party loses the room, even if it's interesting.

This block does more than inform. It marks that the evening has properly begun, and it gives the organisation a face at a moment when everyone is listening.

Block 3: the activity

This is where the party is made or missed. One element of 45 minutes to an hour and a half in which the room does something together. No longer, because then it becomes an obligation. No shorter, because then it doesn't get going.

What matters is that people end up in a different mix from the one they arrived in, and that something happens that they're still talking about the week after. It doesn't have to be spectacular. A quiz with questions about your own organisation often does more than an expensive act, because the content is about them.

Block 4: the free evening

After the activity, nothing more is needed. Music, drinks, chatting. This is what most people come for, and it works better if something has come before that gave them something to talk about. A room that has just done something together talks differently from a room that has only been drinking all evening.

Staff party themes that work

A theme isn't compulsory, but it helps. It gives the evening an identity, it makes the invitation more concrete, and it gives people something to talk about before the party.

A theme connected to the company

The strongest theme comes from the organisation itself. The year the company started, a product everyone knows, a move, a milestone. It works because everyone in the room gets the reference, and because it's impossible to copy from somewhere else.

A theme that suggests clothing without demanding it

Clothing makes a party visibly different from an ordinary drinks evening. But a theme that requires a costume costs you the people who don't like that. A theme with a colour, a decade or a simple accessory works better: those who want to can go all out, those who don't won't stand out.

What usually doesn't work

Themes that have nothing to do with the group and are purely decorative rarely give you more than the cost of the decorations. Themes that assume a particular taste, for example around one style of music or one film, also exclude part of the room before the evening has even begun.

Activities that suit a party

Not every activity works in the evening. Anything sporty or messy suits a daytime outing, not a room full of people in smart clothes. What does work at a staff party has three qualities: you can join in without changing, you can get started without explanation beforehand, and you can take part even if you'd rather not be at the front.

• A quiz with your own content: rounds of general knowledge, mixed with questions about the organisation and colleagues. Works from around 15 people to well over a hundred. See the pub quiz page for how we set that up.
• A TV-style game concept: familiar game formats in which teams compete against each other, with a host who keeps the pace up. Strong because everyone already knows the format and no explanation is needed. See TV-style game concepts.
• A murder mystery dinner: a story that unfolds between courses, with the room gradually joining in. Fits well if there's a meal anyway. See the murder mystery dinner page.
• Life-size board games: familiar games at full size, with the room itself forming the pieces. Works well if there's space and the group wants to move around a bit without it turning sporty. See life-size board games.

The common thread: the activity should fit the party, not interrupt it. A programme that feels like a compulsory number in between drinks works against you.

What a staff party costs

Costs fall into two parts that are often mixed up: catering and venue on the one hand, the programme on the other. The first category is usually the biggest amount and depends entirely on the choices you make about food, drink and room hire.

For the programme part that we provide, these are the guide prices:

• From €195 for a compact element: a quiz or game of an hour for the whole group, with no bespoke content.
• Between €550 and €1,250 for a custom programme: content written for your organisation, your own design, equipment and hosting.
• From €1,250 for large groups or a full-evening programme with several elements.

What mainly sets the price isn't the group size but the amount of customisation. A quiz with 200 participants and standard questions costs less than a quiz with 30 participants where half the questions are about their own organisation, because writing those is the work.

There are separate rules on the tax side of a staff party, including through the Dutch work costs scheme (werkkostenregeling). That's a job for your accountant or payroll administration, not an event agency. Check before you fix the budget, because it can affect what you book under which heading.

Timeline: what to arrange when

The bottleneck is almost never the programme. It's the date and the venue.

• Four to six months ahead: fix the date and secure the venue. For a party in November or December this needs to happen in the summer, because that's when venues fill up first.
• Two to three months ahead: decide the format of the evening. Partners or not, theme or not, what time it starts and ends.
• Six to eight weeks ahead: confirm the programme. This is enough time for a custom concept, including gathering the content that has to come from the organisation itself.
• Four weeks ahead: send the invitation, with a clear answer on whether partners are welcome and what the dress suggestion is.
• One week ahead: send final numbers to the venue, and supply the last content for the customised parts of the programme.

Five mistakes that cost you the evening

1. Too much programme: three elements in a row turns a party into a meeting with music. One good element is enough.
2. Starting the shared moment too late: anyone giving a speech after half past ten is talking to a room that's already elsewhere.
3. Unclear arrangements about partners: this causes more hassle than any other detail. Put it in the first invitation, not in a follow-up email.
4. A programme that assumes enthusiasm: if taking part means going on stage, a third of the room drops out before it begins.
5. No agreed ending: a party with no clear end point fizzles out rather than finishing. A final moment, however small, sends people home feeling good.

What you get from this

A staff party that sticks doesn't need a bigger budget than one that's forgotten. The difference lies in three choices: an occasion you can name, a set-up that breaks up the usual groups, and one element in which the room does something together.

We build that element to your brief and run it ourselves on the night itself. Have a look at the page on staff parties for the options, or tell us what kind of company you are and what the occasion is, and we'll talk it through with you, with no obligation. If it's December you're planning for, also have a look at the Christmas drinks page.