According to a survey of 1,096 UK employees carried out by bonus and incentives provider One4allRewards.co.uk, IT and telecoms bosses who give out bonuses in December are less likely to see staff being poached or looking elsewhere.

More than half of the workers in this sector said having received a bonus or gift from their boss recently would prevent them from looking for a new job.

And almost the same number would be less likely to accept a new job if offered one if the same had happened.

And with workers being more likely to look for a new job in January than any other month of the year, December bonuses couldn’t be timed better for staff retention purposes.

What’s more, happily, the research revealed that workers welcome receiving a bonus from their employer more in December than at any other time of the year.

Alan Smith, UK managing director at One4all Rewards, said: “It’s interesting to see just how far a token bonus can impact on the loyalty of those in the IT and Telecoms sector. Even if you consider the amount of money that can be lost through recruitment costs when a member of staff resigns – never mind the softer negative impacts, and knock-on effects that employees leaving can have, regarding morale in the workplace – it is something that is worth investment."