How to celebrate like Xero during the festive season at work

The office end of year party is the latest event to be put on hold by COVID-19. Many companies around the world have opted to call off their party plans altogether in response to lockdowns and people restrictions. But in a year like no other, some companies are determined to give their employees something to smile about.

Companies are leveraging technology to find new, innovative ways to keep-up employee morale over the Christmas period. One such company is Xero, the small business platform, which kicked off its "Surprise and Delight" campaign in early December.

Xero’s Surprise and Delight campaign saw the company issue a unique virtual payment card loaded with an end of year bonus to every employee in Australia. With their cards, employees can make a donation to a chosen charity, host their own COVID-safe team get-together or just buy something nice for themselves and their families from a small business.

To do this, Xero teamed up with Weel, an all-in-one spend management tool that helps businesses instantly issue virtual corporate cards, control spending and automate expense reporting.

“It was really important for us to do something special for our employees as we close out what has been a really tough year,” said Mark Peard, Head of Market Development at Xero. “Weel made this so easy. From a single platform, we’ve been able to instantly issue more than 800 cards across the country and set a card limit for each employee to spend against.”

Ranked by Forbes as the world’s most innovative growth company and amassing more than 2 million subscribers, it’s no surprise that Xero has been able to find a way to delight its own staff in such challenging times. However, the Surprise and Delight campaign is about more than just delighting Xero’s own staff - it’s about supporting Australian small businesses. Employees are being encouraged to spend Weel cards at pubs, restaurants and retail stores, putting money back into local communities.

“It’s been a turbulent year for small businesses. Xero Small Business Insights shows us small businesses were hit twice as hard by the COVID-19 pandemic than big businesses. With the help of Weel, our team is looking to show their support for small business this festive season and we hope it goes some way to ending the year on a brighter note.” Mark Peard said.

If you’re looking for a way to surprise and delight your staff this Christmas whilst giving back to your favourite local businesses, we’d love to help. Weel is offering 3 months free to all new businesses to help them instantly issue Christmas bonus cards to staff anywhere in the world. Sign up today or learn more about Weel's virtual corporate card and expense management platform by booking a demo.