Choosing the perfect gift for employees can feel overwhelming.
After all, you must find the right balance between thoughtfulness, appropriateness, and affordability.
Nevertheless, giving gifts to employees can do wonders for staff morale and engagement, making it worth the effort.
This guide includes all the information you need to maximize this marketing strategy, including practical tips and creative gift ideas.
Let’s dive in!
Table of Contents
What Are the Benefits of Employee Gift-Giving?
What Are the Different Types of Employee Gifts?
3 Employee Gift Ideas to Inspire You
How to Set Up a Corporate Gift Program for Employees
Mistakes to Avoid When Giving Gifts to Employees
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Are the Benefits of Employee Gift-Giving?
If you have doubts about investing in corporate gifts for employees, check out the extraordinary benefits this strategy brings to the table.
Lifts employee morale
Gifts make people smile no matter the occasion, which also applies to corporate gifts.
Moreover, employee gift-giving shows you acknowledge and value your team members’ hard work, enhancing job satisfaction.
In fact, according to a Nectar survey, 87% of employees agree that meaningful recognition influences their job satisfaction.
Improves engagement
Company gifts create a happy workplace, where people feel seen, appreciated, and supported.
This positive work environment motivates employees to be more productive and committed to helping your business thrive.
The same Nectar survey found that work recognition increases engagement in 81.9% of employees.
Furthermore, Spencer Romenco, Chief Growth Strategist at Growth Spurt, shares that: “When people feel valued, they bring more energy to the table. This is especially true for remote teams, where personal touches matter even more since there’s no casual office chat or spontaneous interactions to remind them they’re part of something bigger.”
Builds loyalty
Gifts that acknowledge milestones or celebrate achievements create a strong emotional connection between the staff and the company.
Over time, this bond builds brand loyalty, improving employee retention and turning team members into brand ambassadors.
You should also keep in mind that 71% of employees would be less likely to quit their jobs if recognized more often, according to the Nectar survey.
Reinforces company values
Thoughtful gifts show your company’s commitment to inclusivity, appreciation, and respect.
Demonstrating these corporate values in action builds employee trust and improves your reputation as a people-first organization.
Likewise, you can use this practice to reinforce other company values, like sustainability or community support.
Next, we’ll look into the different types of gifts you can choose from.
What Are the Different Types of Employee Gifts?
Before we go any further, we want to give you a rundown of the most common types of gifts for employees.
Traditional gifts
Traditional gifts are timeless, widely appreciated promotional products that fit most workplace environments.
Examples are branded notebooks and pens, personalized t-shirts, coffee mugs, and snack gift baskets.
These swag items are practical and can be used for any special occasion, including work anniversaries and the holiday season.
Likewise, traditional gifts are a safe choice for welcoming new employees or showing appreciation toward remote workers whom you don’t know well.
Modern gifts
Modern gifts focus on practicality and corporate wellness, keeping up with contemporary trends.
Popular gift choices include high-quality tech swag, like Bluetooth speakers and power banks, fitness products, and stylish drinkware.
These modern promo items balance innovation and thoughtfulness, enhancing your team’s daily life inside and outside the workplace.
Eco-friendly gifts
Eco-friendly gifts are promotional products that support environmental sustainability.
These gifts can include reusable items, like water bottles and tote bags, that reduce waste or company swag made from renewable or recycled materials.
By choosing environmentally conscious gifts, you show your company’s care for the planet and encourage your team to embrace a more sustainable lifestyle.
Experience gifts
Experience gifts offer team members memorable activities instead of physical branded products.
For instance, you can wow employees with:
- Spa gift cards
- Event tickets to concerts, festivals, or sporting events
- Access to online cooking, fitness, or business classes
- Adventure experiences, like hot-air balloon rides or escape rooms
These gifts promote relaxation, personal growth, or having fun outside the workplace, contributing to a healthy work-life balance.
Experience gifts work well for celebrating the length of service of senior team members whom you’ve already given every other type of gift over the years.
Likewise, you can offer these experiences as rewards for outstanding work achievements to motivate the rest of the team to strive for excellence.
Personalized gifts
Personalized gifts are promotional materials tailored to an employee’s tastes or interests.
Examples can include golf tournament gifts for golfers, mouth-watering gourmet gift baskets for foodies, or state-of-the-art Bluetooth headphones for music lovers.
This gift category also includes company swag personalized with the team member’s name, an inside joke reference, or a motivational quote.
Adding a personal touch can turn a generic gift into a meaningful and memorable one that strengthens relationships and improves employee retention.
Now, let’s look at a few real-life examples of thoughtful gifts.
3 Employee Gift Ideas to Inspire You
We’ve selected three of our best-selling employee corporate gifts to help you understand your options better and get inspired.
Based on our customers’ feedback, these swag items get incredible results:
1. Graphite Dome Computer Business Case
Equip your team for success with a computer business case that will keep all their work essentials organized and safe.
This promo item features a dedicated laptop sleeve, a spacious main compartment, and an office-ready design that will elevate any business attire.
Why it works: This computer business case combines practicality with style, showing employees you care about their professional needs and want them to succeed.
2. iLive Portable Cordless Massage Gun
The iLive portable cordless massage gun is a modern gift that encourages team members to unwind after long and stressful workdays.
The iLive product has six speeds and four interchangeable heads designed to relieve various discomforts, aches, muscle fatigue, and pains.
Why it works: This wellness gift for employees proves that you’re a people-first organization that cares about the staff’s health and well-being.
3. Aviana Gourmet Backpack Cooler
Promotional candy and snacks are traditional gifts that will never go out of style. They are yummy and provide a quick boost of energy during busy workdays.
However, the Aviana gourmet bundle adds a modern twist to your corporate gift with a stylish cooler for carrying lunch to work daily.
Why it works: Employees can share these delicious treats with their colleagues, creating a sense of community and enjoyment in the office.
For more creative ideas, check out our list of 31 gifts for employees for every occasion.
Next, we’ll show you how to set up a gift-giving program.
How to Set Up a Corporate Gift Program for Employees
Setting up a corporate gift program for employees goes beyond just picking swag.
Using our 30+ years of industry experience and customer insights, we’ve compiled a step-by-step guide to help you succeed.
1. Define the purpose of the program
Start by clarifying why you’re setting up a corporate gift program in the first place.
Do you want to boost morale, celebrate exceptional performance, or improve employee retention?
Defining the purpose helps you design an effective gift-giving program and select gifts that align with your company’s values and goals.
For instance, if you aim to retain top talent, you can create a work anniversary gift program to reward senior employees with standout swag for their years of service.
2. Understand your employees
Take the time to understand what matters most to your employees.
Conduct surveys or spark casual conversations to learn about your team members’ interests, hobbies, and expectations.
The better you know your staff, the more personalized and meaningful your gifts will be.
This attention to detail shows employees you genuinely care about them as individuals, not just as money-making human resources.
3. Set a realistic budget
Carefully assess your company’s finances to determine how much you can spend on corporate gifts.
Your budget determines the types of gifts you can offer and their frequency.
For instance, if you have limited resources, you can look for budget-friendly employee gifts and only offer them on special occasions, like Christmas or significant milestones.
Likewise, you can search for holiday gifts many months in advance to buy them at fair market value or benefit from discounts.
4. Select the right gifts
Pick gifts that support your company values and resonate with your team.
Generally, you can rarely go wrong with a fun, practical, and personalized gift.
Still, if you don’t know your team well or own a large company, finding the correct promo item for each staff member can be a nightmare.
That’s why we recommend letting your team pick their gifts.
We’ll help you set up a swag-on-demand gift shop showcasing a carefully curated list of promotional products.
Your employees will choose the gifts they like best and personalize them however they want.
Finally, we’ll print, package, and ship the branded merchandise to the recipient’s doorstep.
5. Partner with reliable vendors
Partner with reliable swag vendors who handle complex logistics for a stress-free gift-giving experience.
Given our 30+ years of experience and A+ BBB (Better Business Bureau) rating translating into the highest degree of transparency and customer care, SwagDrop is an excellent choice.
In addition, you should look for a partner that offers a wide range of high-quality swag, customization options, and efficient order processing.
The good news is that SwagDrop checks all these boxes, and we also offer discounts on bulk orders.
6. Establish a transparent process
Create a clear and transparent employee gifting policy and share it with your staff.
This company policy should include the objectives, occasions, eligibility criteria, and types of gifts team members can receive.
Apart from the physical gifts, you should also mention employee perks, like life insurance or cash-equivalent gifts.
Likewise, don’t overlook the de minimis fringe benefits, like occasional snacks or coffee, which, according to the IRS, are non-taxable.
Transparent communication builds trust and makes everyone feel included.
7. Encourage employee feedback
Give employees the chance to offer feedback on the company’s gifting program.
After all, your staff can provide valuable insights into what works and what needs improvement.
Based on this feedback, you can refine the gifting program to meet employee expectations better while showing that their opinions matter.
8. Evaluate the program’s impact
Regularly assess your gift program’s effectiveness to ensure you’re allocating resources appropriately.
On the one hand, you can send anonymous gift satisfaction surveys to your staff to get honest feedback.
On the other hand, you can look for post-gift peaks in productivity and engagement or shoutouts about the gifts from employees on social media.
If you don’t notice any changes, it’s time to adjust.
9. Embrace diversity
Always consider your employees’ cultural background, including their traditions and potential restrictions.
Otherwise, you risk offending some of your team members or offering gifts they could never use.
By respecting cultural differences, you create an inclusive and happy work environment where everyone can thrive.
10. Foster a culture of continuous recognition
Don’t limit recognition to company swag and employee benefits.
Instead, encourage managers and team leaders always to say thank you and acknowledge big and small achievements during weekly meetings.
This ongoing recognition creates a positive and supportive environment and can even increase productivity.
According to the Nectar survey, 77.9% of employees would be more productive if recognized more often.
Before we go, we want to share some of the most common mistakes you must avoid.
Mistakes to Avoid When Giving Gifts to Employees
Before you start planning your employee gifting program, consider the most common mistakes business owners make and avoid them.
Offering generic gifts
Generic gifts come across as impersonal and don’t make employees feel genuinely appreciated.
Instead, a thoughtful, personalized gift shows you put time and effort into recognizing your team’s hard work, strengthening your bond.
Choosing gifts of different value or quality
Offering members of the same team gifts of different value or quality can create feelings of favoritism or resentment among your staff.
Gift consistency makes everyone feel equally appreciated, creating a sense of fairness and unity within the workplace.
However, the value of the gift should be higher for senior employees to keep them engaged while motivating the rest of the team to strive for more.
Overlooking practicality
Impractical company gifts are often hidden in the back of a closet or thrown away, wasting money.
Choosing promotional products that team members can frequently use or wear shows you understand their needs and want what’s best for them.
Neglecting presentation
Cheap or ugly packaging can diminish the excitement of receiving a gift and can make people feel like you don’t care about them.
Meaningful presentation shows attention to detail, turning even a small gift into a memorable employee experience.
Last-minute planning
If you start searching for corporate gifts one week before Christmas, you won’t have much left to choose from.
Many high-quality products will be out of stock or will be way over fair market value, and the gifts will probably never reach you in time for the holidays.
So, always plan ahead, no matter the occasion.
Now, it’s your turn.
Tips, tricks, and inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
Over to you!
Giving gifts to employees is all about showing genuine appreciation and creating a positive work environment.
By following our guide, you can create a successful gift-giving program that will lift employee morale, drive engagement, and strengthen relationships.
Browse our SwagDrop shop for one-of-a-kind gift ideas and start ordering swag today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some of the most common questions our clients frequently ask.
Q1. What are the main reasons to give gifts to employees?
Some of the main reasons to give gifts to employees include:
- Showing appreciation for significant work achievements
- Boosting engagement and retention by celebrating work anniversaries
- Enhancing new employee onboarding
- Lifting employee morale with holiday or birthday gifts
Q2. What are the tax implications of employee gifts?
Employee gifts can have tax implications depending on their value and type. Generally, de minimis fringe benefits (low-value gifts) are tax-free gifts, while cash or gift cards are taxable. We recommend consulting a tax professional to ensure compliance and avoid unpleasant surprises.
Q3. How can I give employee achievement awards?
If you want your employee achievement awards to have a big impact, you should organize an annual awards ceremony. Recognize individual contributions with personalized trophies or certificates and exquisite gifts. Give a heartfelt speech to make the recognition more meaningful and inspire others to excel.
Q4. What is an employee gift policy?
An employee gift policy provides guidelines for offering and receiving gifts in the workplace. This document ensures that all corporate gifts are inclusive, appropriate, and aligned with the company’s values.
Q5. How do I provide employee gifts as tax deductions?
To provide employee gifts as tax deductions, you must choose low-value products classified as de minimis fringe benefits. Keep records of all gift-related expenses and check local tax rules for specific guidelines. Remember that cash equivalents and gift cards usually fall under taxable income.