Welcome, professionals one and all. This is Corporate Gifting 102: For Employees. If you missed Corporate Gifting 101: For Clients, you can check it out here. Similarly to a client gift, the reason why you’re going through this process is to genuinely thank your employees and/or team members for all their hard work.

Though this is less tactical than a client gift, you should still put thought into making it meaningful. Your people work hard for you, so let’s get in the holiday spirit and make them feel appreciated! And it doesn’t hurt that employees who feel appreciated and engaged in turn perform better. It’s a cycle of respect and appreciation.

And in order to perpetuate this cycle, here are your Do’s & Don’ts for thoughtful internal gifting:

Do Let Your Culture Shine

Focusing on individual people’s interests and finding them the perfect gift, though fun, is just not possible at this scale. Your time is valuable, and there’s sadly not enough in the day. So, instead of getting granular, focus on your culture as a whole.

Company culture is a shared experience that everyone is ideally supporting and living into, so it still makes a lot of sense to approach large-scale personalized gifting (oxymoron? maybe. or maybe not anymore.) in this way. Here are a few employee appreciation gift ideas based on different cultures:

• If you have a tight knit team that likes to socialize, the gift of experience is probably the way to go. Spend that gifting budget treating everyone to a nice dinner or happy hour, or take half a day to go to an ‘Escape the Room’ or other fun activity together.
• Is your culture a little more buttoned-up? Nothing wrong with that! In this case, everyone would likely enjoy something practical, like a nice notebook/planner or helpful tech accessories like extra charger or adapters.
• If you’re a hip, artsy crew, maybe try thinking outside the box- like painting a wall in your office white (or install a chalk wall for continuous fun) and let everyone contribute to a mural!
• Send a Greetabl! They’re personalized for everyone, and are guaranteed to bring about a surprise smile from your staff. Get more info on our holiday options if you’re interested!

Do Think About Value / Don’t Add to the Clutter!

Yes, this one is a half-do-half-don’t, but we promise it’s not as tricky as it seems! Let’s break it down:

Do- Provide your people with something they will actually enjoy and find useful.

Don’t- Clutter their desk/cabinets/life with random junk they don’t need. Better to not give anything than to give some useless, branded trinket that has no function in their real life other than a dust collector. (sorry, that was harsh, but it’s only because we love you)

As with client gifts, refrain from slapping your logo on things willy-nilly. It doesn’t add value and in fact might detract from an otherwise thoughtful gift.

Go Forth & Gift

You are clearly already a boss in your career, and now it’s time to gift back to the people who help make your dreams and goals possible every day.

Well, gifting grasshopper, you’re ready now.