It’s common practice for employers to give out employee gifts to show appreciation to employees who go above and beyond – and this significantly impacts the workplace. But since there are too many options available – from food vouchers to celebratory cakes and gadgets – employers often have difficulty deciding what to give to their best employees.
If you share the same dilemma, here we’ll present some of the best employee gifts you can give your employees for the month of hearts!
Office Equipment
Employees need the right office equipment. How else can they provide the best customer service if they’re unequipped or continuously use outdated office equipment?
Office equipment is a fool-proof employee gift idea for employees. These will help them do more during the day while reducing the amount of time and effort they spend on tasks.
To determine which office equipment to give, think about your employees’ daily responsibilities. But if you’re looking for something generic but that can serve as a motivation booster, check out promos from Costco, Argos, and Aldi offers this week to get the best deals on air purifiers, in-ear headphones, lamps with Bluetooth speakers and many more other electronic devices.
Department-Specific Software
A business comprises different departments, and each will require different software to function properly. Ensure that these departments perform at their best by giving them software made especially for their tasks.
– Marketing team:
Surprise your marketing team with screen recording software. with screen recording software. the team can create how-to guides for customers, collaborate with other teams, and design memes that can be used for social media marketing.
– Recruitment team:
Make it easier for the recruitment team to find and onboard the best talents by giving them access to video hiring software. This software enables recruiters to conduct video and audio interviews and make digital assessments, improving the team’s recruiting and acquisition strategies.
– Accounting team:
Managing invoices will become a breeze when your accounting team has access to an invoice generator for Google Sheets. This is a great gift idea as it helps the team reduce errors, reduce time preparing invoice for different customers, organize records, and automate the sending process via email.
Desk Plants
Adding certain items in the workplace can motivate employees to work harder – like plants! Besides adding more appeal to the space and boosting employees’ productivity levels, plants reduce stress, sickness rates of employees, noise pollution, and energy use.
Ensure that your employees will love your gift by choosing easy-to-grow plants. Plants that are guaranteed to thrive in office areas are peace lily, bamboo, cast iron plant, and ZZ plants. Even employees born without a green thumb won’t have any problems caring for these plants!
Spa Day Essentials
Employee burnout is a cause for concern because it affects the workplace in many ways. For one, burnout has negative health impacts, which can cause the business to spend more on healthcare.
Let employees know you don’t want them to experience burnout by giving them spa day essentials on a Friday. Depending on your budget, you can give a employee gift box packed with high-quality scrubs, scented candles, and soaps or offer them vouchers to the nearest spa.
Encouraging employees to relax is beneficial to the workplace. According to research, relaxing increases creativity, motivation, and attention span. It also allows the human brain to generate better solutions to problems faster.
Continued Educational Opportunities
Employees always thirst for personal and professional development, especially the younger workforce. Giving gifts focused on continued education is the best way to feed this drive. If the budget allows, consider giving your employees a subscription to an educational website or subsidizing their tickets to a workshop. You can also provide them with books and other materials to help them progress in their roles or departments.
Extra Vacation Day
You don’t need to spend a lot to show how much you value your employees; giving them an extra vacation day is enough. This simple and affordable gift idea is what most employees crave as it allows them to relax at home and spend more time with their loved ones.
Giving an extra vacation day is a great way of thanking an employee for exceeding expectations. Encourage the recipient to use their vacation day however they like. To make this gift more special, include gift cards for coffee, a streaming service subscription, or a shopping spree.
Host Take Your Pet to Work Day
Looking for ways to make the workplace fun without preventing employees from working? Allowing employees to bring their pets to work might be the perfect gift idea on a particular working day! Research indicates that having pets in the workplace nurtures productivity and reduces stress. It also improves your branding, especially in the eyes of pet lovers.
Decide how often you will allow employees to take their pets to work. Will you do it daily, once a week, or once every quarter? Giving your employees a chance to take their pets to work shows how much you appreciate them (and their pets).
Choose-Your-Own-Gift Card
There’s only one person who knows what your employees want – and that’s your employee! Let your best employees choose what to receive on a special holiday by giving them a Choose-Your-Own-Gift card. Giving this gift card is an excellent option, especially when gifting several employees, as it saves you time and effort from thinking about what everybody wants.
Choose-Your-Own-Gift cards are delivered straight to your employees’ email inboxes and can be used to purchase items from different vendors, such as Amazon, Nordstrom, and Chipotle.
Remember to add a note to the gift to encourage employees to buy something that’ll motivate them. This will also make the gift more personalized and enables you to connect with your employees.
Give the Best Gifts
Whichever gift you decide to give to your employees on a special gifting day, make sure to emphasize why you’re gifting them in the first place. When employees know their hard work qualifies them for rewards, they’ll have more reasons to perform better.
Also read: Essential Strategies to Improve Workplace Culture
