Not to know how much Christmas bonus to give

[Firstworlddilemma]

I am a sole trader with 3 members of staff. In line with most small businesses it has been a difficult year. I had to furlough all 3 staff between April and July. One staff member came back in each of July , August and September. The business is now doing OK. I had a good (perhaps even slightly better than normal) September/ October / November, but things are horribly quiet in December. The phone just isn’t ringing.

Staff member 1 has been with me a year but is the most valuable member of staff. She works hard , brings in money for the business and I would hate to lose her. Her family is financially comfortable.

Staff member 2 has been with me 2 years. I am paying for very expensive training. This is a massive opportunity that they would not get elsewhere. Single and financially unstable.

Staff member 3 older, been with me the longest. Reliable but slow. Financially fine.

2 and 3 are easily replaceable but I like them very much and don’t want to!

So to my AIBU. I will give each person a Christmas gift with a value of around £30. I also want to give them a cash ‘bonus’ in their pay packets but have no idea how much to give. I don’t want to make them feel insulted or undervalued - it has been a tough year - but I am anxious that the business isn’t out of the woods yet and I need to be careful to make sure I can keep trading through the first three months of 2021.

I have a ‘pot’ of around £750. I was a not able to do the usual Christmas meal.

1. Should I treat them all equally, if not how should I divide the ‘pot’,
2. Is the pot too small that I risk insulting them so increase their gift to around £50 (max I believe the tax man allows) and set budget aside for next year.

Any advice appreciated.

Sorry my last post was in response to @Mirrorxx

If you want to treat one better you are better off increasing their salary than a bonus, with such a small team an equal bonus seems fair because they are intereliant

@ButtWormHole

Actually...don’t give them a cash bonus. It’s gonna be taxed and meh.

Buy them all vouchers

vouchers are a cash equivalent, and taxable gifts of a nominal value, deemed up to £50, are not. link to a tax guide posted above

Like others have said, you sound like a very thoughtful boss. Sorry that things have been so hard this year . I hope things pick up again after this month.

I work in a larger company and we've had a bit of a mixed year with some on furlough. We're sending a food and drink hamper to each staff member with the budget we would have normally used for the Christmas party. If you can find them (Waitrose and M&S had some good ones around the £50 mark but online stock is a bit low - try locally perhaps) I think that might be a better option than cash. With cash I don't think you can ever win as people read into it too much. It it's generous they'll wonder whether the company is doing better than being made out, if it is modest they might worry/feel undervalued, etc.

You mention the £50 staff entertaining allowance. If rather than a hamper or similar you decide to go with a cash voucher, just check that that's inside the tax rules. I thought I read that vouchers would be treated as cash and so not tax deductible. Remember, if you go over you pay tax on the whole amount and not just the excess!

hive them a bonus based on the performance for the business their financial security is not your concern although all 3 were lucky enough to be furloughed you could say that their bonus

If it were me, I’d split all the money equally and not get a gift - I would add that to their bonus.
My husband works for a large company and they’re not getting anything this year, usually they have a huge Christmas party which is super expensive and they pay for all the hotel rooms and spouses to come too.
Then they have a decent Christmas bonus, a Christmas meal outing on the 22nd and a whole secret Santa thing.
This year nothing and this year that money would have made a massive difference!
All your employees should be treated the same.

Can I jump on this thread and ask if you'd give equal amounts to full or part time? We have one staff that is only 1 day a week so was going to do presents/bonuses proportional, we've never done them before so I have no idea!!