Five Christmas incentive ideas for recruitment teams

Christmas incentives for Recruitment Teams can be a tough one. You spend all year trying to come up with new and creative ways to reward and recognise your

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Christmas incentives for Recruitment Teams can be a tough one. You spend all year trying to come up with new and creative ways to reward and recognise your recruiters, and then you need to find a way to up your game for the festive season.

Don’t worry! We’re on hand to share our top five incentive ideas and a couple of things to avoid. With the correct approach, you can build a positive working culture, retain your valued team, and increase your company's productivity in the long run. 


Incentives to avoid

Let’s get the "don'ts" out of the way first.

The latest gadgets

Your team’s partners and family won’t thank you if they win something on their Christmas lists, so avoid the sort of items they may be getting as a gift at home anyway.

Alcohol without a non-alcoholic backup

Alcohol can be a good prize but be wary that not everyone may drink (or be old enough!), so make sure you have a backup just in case!


Christmas incentive ideas for recruitment teams

Extra time off over the holidays

For most recruitment sectors, the Christmas period is the quietest time of the year and while a lot of staff may book time off from their annual leave allowance, most people would be thankful for more time at home in December. 

Why not run a competition where the top 3 performers get an extra day of annual leave?

Or, if everyone hits their target for November, they earn a half-day for gift shopping in December.

Giving your team more time to recharge in December when things are quieter anyway would be an investment that yields great returns, encouraging them to hit the ground running come January. 

Office facilities

This may sound like a boring idea, but hear me out. The office is where your team potentially spend most of their week, so you want it to be a place they want to be.

Try running a poll to find out what facilities your team want in the office.

Common requests might be;

  • Beer/Wine fridge (with soft drink options)
  • Games Console
  • Coffee Machine
  • Ping pong table

Pick one request at a time and set a mission for your team within the OneUp platform. Once the mission is achieved, they get the prize. 

For example - "Earn £XXXX revenue in December to unlock a new Coffee Machine". Once that prize is unlocked, move onto another one and raise the target. By doing so, you can encourage consistent growth in productivity and gradually grow your bottom line.

Event tickets

Adele or Ed Sheeran just announced a new tour? Grab a couple of tickets before they sell out and offer them up as a prize for the top performers of the team. 

Tip: Try not to always measure your top performers by the same metrics – give everyone a chance to win by changing it up regularly. Swap out revenue for percentage growth, or call time etc. 

Bragging rights

Sometimes the recognition is worth way more than any tangible reward.

A trophy or mug with a photo of the winner and the reason they’ve won can be enough to help a team member feel recognised for their hard work. It’s something to keep on your desk and encourage others to want to earn one.

Social events

Most companies will hold parties or social gatherings over Christmas but many won’t run them across the rest of the year.

Similar to the office facilities missions, you could allow the team to work towards goals to unlock future social events like bowling, go-karting or a nice team meal. 


There’s no limit to what you can do to motivate your recruitment teams over the holidays, so be creative! You can read more about effective ways to motivate your team here.

Need more ideas? Get in touch - we help a lot of sales and recruitment teams run incredible competitions and we know what works.

OneUp Sales - building high performance sales teams by increasing productivity, retaining talent, and empowering management across your organisation.

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OneUp Sales
OneUp Sales is a sales motivation & management platform that helps teams to report on, gamify, and visualise their performance data. We work with over 300 sales teams around the world to motivate productivity, drive CRM adoption, and create a culture of success.

“I like that can see everything all in one place. From my own targets, to activity from colleagues, to Team Leagues, everything is simple and easy to use.”

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Leona McPhail
Head Resourcing

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