The Do’s and Don’ts of Employee Gifting

Giving employees gifts can be a great way to celebrate their contributions, loyalty, and achievements. If you run a business, you should do everything you can to show your employees that you care about them. Showing employees that you care can motivate them to work harder and even increase their overall productivity.

If you are new to employee gift-giving, you need to learn about the dos and don’ts. It is easy to make mistakes when you are giving gifts to employees, and these mistakes can damage your reputation and even make workers believe that you have favorites. 

This post will explore the do’s and don’ts of employee gifting and tell you everything you need to know about it. 

Do’s

Knowing what the do’s of gift-giving are can be difficult if you have never actually given gifts to employees before. Educating yourself about them can help you to avoid offending anybody. You probably don’t know that, according to https://www.pfrcorporategifts.com/, you can give gift certificates to employees for a variety of different holiday meats. Giving employees a turkey for Christmas is a much more thoughtful gift than company-branded merchandise. Thoughtfulness is, without a doubt, the most important thing on this list. Here are some others you need to know about: 

Personalize Gifts

No matter what you give your employees, make sure to personalize gifts. Personalizing gifts shows that you bought a gift exclusively for the employee you plan on giving a gift to. There are many different ways of personalizing gifts, from including thank-you notes, which will be covered in the next section, to giving the recipient a gift that aligns with their hobbies or interests. 

Send Thank-You Notes

Sending a thank-you note with gifts can be a good way to let your employees know that you appreciate them. Make sure that you handwrite any thank-you notes. The worst thing you can do is send a digitized thank-you card because this is bound to offend your employees. It takes no more than a few minutes to write a card out by hand, so make sure that each and everyone you send is written and signed by you. 

Set a Consistent Budget

For all of your gifts, set a consistent budget. You don’t want to be accused of favoritism. If you spend more on certain employees than you do on others, you are inevitably going to be accused of it, however. If you do not know how much is a good amount to spend on gifts, consider getting in touch with a corporate gift-giving consultancy service and asking them for their help. They should be able to help you to settle on a comfortable amount. They may also be able to help with other aspects of corporate gift-giving. 

Give Practical Gifts

Try to give practical gifts. The more practical gifts are, the more appreciated they will be. If you are able to, ensure that gifts align with employee interests. Knowing what your employees’ interests are shows that you are a caring employer that actually takes time to learn about the people who work for them. 

Be Mindful

Finally, make sure that you are mindful. Don’t give employees things that could offend them. If, for example, you have Jewish employees working for you and you send out feast certificates as gifts, you need to make sure that the meat certified by the certificate is kosher. Mindfulness goes a long way and will prevent you from needlessly upsetting or offending employees. 

Don’ts

The don’ts of gift-giving need to be followed. Sending an inappropriate gift to your employees can ruin your reputation. Even if you are nice to employees, they will still gossip. Gossiping is part of human nature, and we all do it. Giving employees something negative to say about you is a surefire way to ruin your reputation. Even minor slights can spread like wildfire and you can be labeled a bad boss. You need to keep your reputation as positive as possible. Here are the don’ts you need to watch out for: 

Avoid Being Personal

Avoid being overly personal. Seeming too personal can blur the lines and make employees think they have a better relationship with you than they actually do. Then, when you inevitably need to enforce the rules and act in the capacity of a boss, employees may not take you seriously, or they might think you are needlessly cruel to them.

Don’t Give Offensive Gifts

As stated earlier, mindfulness is important. The gifts you give should never offend your employees. Failing to research gifts can lead to you offending your employees. If you do not have the time to research employees, get in touch with your HR department and ask them to do it for you. They will be able to find out everything there is to know about specific employees, their lifestyles, hobbies, and interests. 

Don’t Brand Your Gifts

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is branding gifts. Nobody wants to receive company merchandise as a present, no matter how much they love their jobs. When people go home, the last thing they want to see is the logo of the company they work for on a mug or a T-shirt. Personalize gifts without branding them. The only time branding is acceptable is if you are sending a thank-you card on paper with your company’s logo printed on its header. 

Avoid Thoughtless Gifts

Thoughtless gifts should be avoided. The last thing you want is for employees to see you as thoughtless and inconsiderate. An example of a thoughtless gift, as already mentioned above, is giving a non-kosher meat certificate to an employee to celebrate their work anniversary. Put time, thought, and consideration into each and every gift purchase.

Skip Generic Gifts

Skip generic gifts. Giving employees generic gifts makes you look like you don’t care about them and that you rush the gift-giving process. Every single gift you give should look like it comes from a place of love, affection, and kindness. 

Employee giving isn’t always easy. If you are new to it, you need to do everything you can to research and learn about your employees, so you can give them the right gifts. Giving them thoughtful gifts like meat certificates for holiday feasts is a way to show employees you care not just about them as individuals, but also their families. This can improve your bond and relationship with them.