Russian companies have begun to more frequently abandon New Year’s corporate events

More than 1,000 people participated in the study, including employees and representatives of companies from various sectors of activity, the newspaper clarifies.

The results of the RSHU survey showed that the number of companies that do not intend to hold a New Year’s corporate party in the outgoing year increased by 10 percentage points compared to 2023 and accounts for 20% of the total number. This also includes undecided companies (9%). The three most common reasons for rejection are the lack of this tradition in the company (31%), cost optimization (30%) and donating the vacation budget to charities (24%), writes Vedomosti.

Elena Usharova, a consultant in the Leadership Development practice at Ward Howell, confirmed the existing trend to Vedomosti. According to her, this year “the market is divided into two parts.” The first category of employers replaces corporate parties with Christmas trees for employees’ children or allocates small budgets for department-wide New Year’s celebrations. The second are the companies that finished 2024 with good results, so they can afford to organize a full-fledged corporate event.

The general director of the event agency Communicator Creative Events, Egor Dobrogorsky, told the publication that this year the price of a New Year’s corporate party is on average 40% higher than last year. The price increase affected all traditional components of the New Year’s holiday: rent, food, alcohol, sound and lighting technical support. According to him, an event for 500 people in a 5-star hotel will cost approximately 10 million rubles.

In this sense, many companies have decided to postpone New Year’s corporate events from December to January. According to a study by RSHU and Get Experts, the number of such companies increased from 6% in 2023 to 17% in 2024. Another 6% of companies celebrated the New Year in November, while last year “there was no respondent of this type,” the newspaper clarifies.

For example, the company Medical Technology Park (MTP) decided to postpone the New Year’s event from December to February 2025. According to the company’s human resources director, Tatyana Grigorenko, the employees themselves asked to postpone the corporate event, since in December begins the period of closing annual contracts, during which employees “only dream of resting.” Grigorenko also explained the transfer as an economic benefit for the company, since venues for holding events in February are cheaper than in the period before the New Year.