Employee Incentive Gifts: How To Do Them Right

All employees want to feel that they are valued. Rewarding your team members with custom corporate gifts results in greater engagement from your staff, improved morale, and increased job satisfaction. These factors make the corporate environment more pleasant, resulting in greater productivity among your hard-working employees.

How to Incentivise Employees with Custom Corporate Gifts

Corporate gift boxes are a great way to show your appreciation for the work performed by your staff. Whether you’re rewarding a single team member for their particular contribution to a project, or the entire building; a corporate gift box is an ideal way to go about it.

You might also consider allocating some of your branded merchandise budget to corporate thank you gifts, welcome gifts for new employees, business anniversary gifts, seasonal gift boxes, travel gift boxes, events gifts, or work anniversary gifts.

With a selection of branded promotional products or unbranded gifts, along with a personalized message inside, corporate rewards are the perfect present to recognise hard work among your staff.

What is an incentive gift box?

• Corporate gifts sent to reward employees for their work or behaviour are known as incentive gift boxes.
• These business gifts can include a variety of promotional products or unbranded goods and are a fantastic way to show appreciation for your staff.
• Like all corporate gifts, incentive gift boxes can be tailored to the gift recipient, including a personalized message inside.
• Alternatively, if you’re looking to give rewards to multiple colleagues (perhaps for completing a joint project) you can order in volume. This is also the best solution for any company that has a large workforce and regularly provides incentives of this kind as part of its employee benefits.
• Many companies provide business gifts to their staff when welcoming them to the company, as a retirement gift, or for work anniversaries. Incentive gifts are an ad hoc way to reward employees for their contributions to the office. There doesn’t need to be a special occasion to justify these gift boxes – they are simply a way to recognise the achievements of your staff.

What are some reasons to gift an employee incentive box?

There’s nothing set in stone when it comes to rewarding your staff with quality corporate gifts. While some companies have incentive schemes in place as part of their employee benefits, even these tend to be guidelines, rather than binding rules.

If you feel that a member of your staff has gone above and beyond for the business or for one of your customers, or that they’ve made it through a challenging period in their lives, these are all reasons enough to present them with a care package or gift box from the company.

These are just some of the popular reasons for which our clients have created bespoke corporate gifts for their staff…

• Learning new skills. As a boss, you should always encourage your staff’s personal development. Learning a new skill is an admirable achievement and, if it’s something that benefits the company and the individual, so much the better.
• Adopting a new role. Moving to a new position in the company – whether a promotion or a sideways move into a specialist role – deserves recognition. Whether a farewell from their current team or a welcome from their new manager, gifts or other rewards are a great idea.
• Resolving customers’ complaints. Sometimes clients can be difficult and your staff is in the firing line. Being able to respond to irate customers and resolve their issues calmly reflects well on your company. Show your appreciation for such excellent service with one of our gift ideas.
• Completing a project. Sometimes incentive schemes are there for the whole team. If you’ve all been working to get a major project completed on time, why shouldn’t you give your staff some recognition when they bring it in under deadline?
• Recognition of hard work. Acknowledgment of a job well done can seriously boost productivity among staff. Incentives for going above and beyond don’t just make the recipient feel good – they are an excellent way to inspire other staff to put in additional effort.
• Being a good teammate. Most people are happy to support their colleagues in the workplace, but some go the extra mile and spend much of their working week with their colleagues, becoming friends in the process. Rewarding this behaviour demonstrates the importance that your organisation places on teamwork.
• Having a bad time. These incentive schemes aren’t just there to reward positive behaviour. They can also show your team that you care about them outside of the usual corporate metrics. If your member of staff has recently suffered a bereavement or a serious illness, show them you’re thinking of them with a personalised care package.
• Life events. Good colleagues celebrate one another’s major life events. From significant birthdays and anniversaries, to the birth of a new child, weddings, and more, let your employees know that the company is thinking of them with an appropriate gift.

What makes a good incentive gift box?

The great thing about sending corporate gifts as an incentive to employees is that they can be tailored to suit your needs. It allows you to recognise even the smallest achievements among your workforce, so that they feel valued for the services they provide.

If a member of staff has worked a few late nights to get a project completed on time, you can send them a thoughtful gift today. Perhaps an insulated aluminium water bottle, complete with company branding?

For bigger achievements, like securing a major client or record-breaking sales, there are larger and more impressive incentive gift boxes to suit. From office plants and notebooks to clothing, drinkware, and more, there is something to celebrate every kind of achievement.

As a nice touch, you can even include a personalised note thanking the member of staff in question.

Best corporate incentive gifts for employees

Seven Top Tips for Doing Incentive Gift Boxes Properly

• Keep it personal. Personalised gifts show that you have put some thought into the process. While your staff might receive the same or similar branded items in their gift boxes, a personalised note goes a long way to making the presentation feel special and significant.
• Private or public? Some employees love being the centre of attention – others really don’t! Knowing which category your gift recipient falls into is important. If they’re an extrovert, they’ll probably enjoy a public announcement in front of their colleagues. If not, you might be better sending your gift to their home and announcing it in a corporate newsletter.
• Choose the right items. We have plenty of bespoke promotional items you can include in an incentive gift box. Including enough variety for you to put together a corporate gifting package that actually means something to the recipient. If they love cooking, we have aprons, oven gloves, and bottle openers. If they like long walks on a weekend, we have rucksacks, travel bottles, and outerwear to choose from. Whatever their passion, we have something to match it.
• Ask a colleague. As a manager or boss, it’s not always possible to know all of your team’s interests, but that’s no excuse for a half-hearted gift. Take the time to speak to the recipients colleagues or line manager to find out what they’re into and get their ideas on what will make the perfect gift.
• Let the gift match the achievement. Good work deserves recognition, but incentive boxes should match the scale of the achievement in question. Negotiating a major contract with clients that will boost your cashflow for the next ten years deserves a significant reward. For helping a new teammate settle into the office, a smaller one would be in order. Just be sure to keep your scale consistent.
• Keep things fair. Of course, when you start handing out corporate gifts to your staff, you need to make sure they are of a comparable value. This is particularly true if you intend to present these gifts publicly. A sending platform like Award Shops can help here, creating branded incentive boxes for various occasions that you can distribute accordingly, knowing nobody will feel short-changed.
• Use a sending platform. Many companies enjoy incentivising their staff with corporate gifts and, as they see the benefits it brings, begin doing so on a more regular basis. Sourcing gifts, packaging, and wrapping materials for each individual can be both expensive and time-consuming. By working with a sending platform, you can leave those details to us.