Roughly nine in ten Romanian employers plan to award Christmas benefits to their staff this year, according to a new survey conducted by leading online recruitment platform eJobs. The findings show that 89.7% of employers have prepared holiday perks for December, while 10.3% reported having no budget available for this purpose.

As in previous years, cash bonuses remain the most common type of holiday reward. 60% of surveyed employers said they will grant financial bonuses ahead of Christmas, 48% plan to organize an end-of-year team party, and 44% will offer gift vouchers or shopping cards. 

Another 36% will distribute Christmas product baskets, 8% will give extra days off, 4% are preparing prize raffles, and an equal share will award holiday vouchers, the same survey said.

A third of employers allocated between RON 201 and 400 per employee for Christmas benefits, while 28% set aside between RON 401 and 600. Another 28% will spend more than RON 1,000 per employee.

Compared with last year, 84% said benefit values remain unchanged, while 8% increased their budgets and 8% reduced them.

“Even though 2025 has been a complicated year for many companies, marked by the impact of economic and fiscal changes, we see that most employers have decided not to cut their Christmas benefit budgets. The main reason cited is that these benefits help motivate and retain employees. They have become accustomed to this end-of-year tradition, and removing it could lead to dissatisfaction,” said Ana Călugăru, Head of Communications at eJobs.

“Interestingly, 12% use this method to reward performance, while 4% say they are offering it to compensate for not being able to provide salary increases this year,” she added.

According to the same survey, employees’ preferences reflect employers’ choices: 81% said they would most like to receive cash bonuses, followed by gift vouchers (32%), paid days off (28%), Christmas baskets (17.2%), and team parties (15.6%). 

When asked what they consider an appropriate value for a Christmas benefits package, 38.1% indicated over RON 1,000, while 35.7% preferred a range between RON 500 and 1,000. Only 6.6% believe this year’s benefits will be higher than last year’s.

More than half of employees (52.3%) said they would feel underappreciated if they received no Christmas benefits. Another 26.6% would be disappointed but understanding given the economic climate, 11.1% would not mind if they receive sufficient perks throughout the year, and 10% said the decision would have no negative impact.

The survey was conducted in November and included responses from 115 employers and 950 employees.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Uladzimir Liubamirski/Dreamstime.com; AI generated)