Why is it worth investing in gifts for employees?

In times of remote work, open markets, and constantly growing competition, a good employee on board is worth its weight in gold. Recruiting and maintaining specialists in the team has become one of the companies’ biggest and most significant challenges.

HR departments use many different tools to undertake this task, and employee gifts are one.

Why have they become so important, and how do they help companies grow?

Increase your teams' morale

You surely understand that to motivate your employees you need to reward them for their excellent work. Of course, raises and bonuses are the most popular ways to do so, but they are also the most anticipated and often considered a standard.

Employees with more experience know and can do more, so they deserve a better salary. As simple as that.

However, suppose you want to motivate your team a little more. In that case, you should consider a less obvious and more sophisticated approach, and company gifts are a great example. Why?

An out-of-the-box gift is a gesture of goodwill by the employer. If you appreciate an employee in a way that defies standard procedures, there is a good chance they will feel special—appreciated and noticed.

Original gifts increase the team’s morale and encourage further work and commitment.

Corporate gifts and souvenirs complement the standard forms of salary. They show employees that the management considers them something more than just contractors performing a specific activity they’re supposed to perform.

Important note: there is a simple rule in building team morale with gifts: “what you put in is what you get out.” When buying gifts, make sure that they are functional and high-quality. In terms of building motivation, cheap gadgets might be counterproductive.

Check what at BluzUp we understand by “a quality gift.”

Build relationships with the company and between employees

As in the case of motivating employees, money isn’t the only factor that keeps precious people in place. Specialists, managers, and directors who can easily choose between offers from different companies, often expect something more than a fair salary. In many cases, that “something” is the atmosphere at work—a sense of belonging to a group.

Especially in the era of remote work, when co-workers see each other less often, rarely, or not at all.

For this reason, gifts on the company’s anniversary, Christmas gifts, or gifts on a wedding are excellent tools for building a team atmosphere, thus increasing employee loyalty.

Gifts for employees can also become a topic of conversation that binds the team together and builds ties with the company.

A real-life example: one of our clients ordered hoodies and t-shirts with the company’s logo. The employees spontaneously posted joint photos in corporate clothing on social media and marked the company profile on these photos.

The community warmly received these posts; they received many likes and kind comments, including those directed at the employer.

Can you imagine a social media interaction of this kind that happened because of a pay rise? 🙂

Important: corporate gifts will never replace everyday, organic work related to building an atmosphere of teamwork. However, they can be a cherry on top of your regular team-building efforts.

Make your employees the company's ambassadors

Because it’s difficult to find a good employee today, companies look for them in various ways. An excellent method of acquiring talent is encouraging employees to search for potential co-workers among their friends.

As an employer, you can invite your employees to do so by giving them bonus salaries for a successful hire through their recommendation. However, this might as well happen spontaneously, especially if someone likes their job and the management. Such employees will be happy to tell their friends about open positions without extra encouragement.

We like to call them the brand’s ambassadors.

Need an example? Say, on a Friday night, one of your employees wonders which hoodie to wear. So he picks the corporate one he got for Christmas or a birthday, with a small logo on the chest or the back. Then he gets questions about the company and can proudly describe it as an employee-friendly place.

Going out in company clothes won’t be a problem for an employee who identifies with the company. Additionally, them in a corporate hoodie will be an excellent advertisement for the brand, helping to draw the attention of people who are looking for a new job.

Win-win!

Read more about the role of corporate gifts in employer branding strategy.

Save time and money spent on HR activities

At the beginning of the article, we wrote about the importance of keeping your subordinates in the company. So let’s look at it from another perspective: losing a valuable employee is a double cost to the enterprise.

First, you need to spend time and money finding a new person. Second, the company is letting go of business opportunities that could have happened involving someone who has left.

And with each departure, you risk a chain reaction of another person leaving.

That’s why you want to give your employees reasons to stay with the company as long as possible. When employees consider whether it’s worth switching to your competition, they will undoubtedly consider various factors, not only the salary.

For example, if he got appreciated for his work with a gift or not. What did the Christmas packages contain, and what did the wedding gift have? How does he even recall the small grants he got from his company for his birthday or another occasion?

These details may seem unimportant day to day but are crucial when making important decisions.