Give gifts to everyone and don’t play favorites. – This means that you have to give gifts from your assistant to the utility. Treat them all equal. If you plan to give different items to each of them, the value should only be within a couple of dollars.
If you are giving gifts to selected few, be discreet. – If in case you only plan to give gifts to a chosen few like your assistant, few clerks, and the receptionists, do not tell everyone about your plan. Keep it silent and hand your gifts when no one else who can see; it may be out of the office. You can be charged with favoritism if you are not careful enough.
Be fair to everyone and consistent. – A personalized gift to one employee means personalized gift to all. Do not give special gift to someone and a uniform token to the rest. Doing this will create negative feedbacks against you.
Choose appropriate gifts – There is a thick line that divides the appropriate gifts from the inappropriate ones. However, even if it may seem so hard to cross this border, there are still some who want to test the un-chartered terrain. Leave that task to those who want to take the unnecessary risks.
For your employees, make sure that what you choose as a corporate gift suits the person. Be safe and use common sense. You know very well that the gift items you can give to your wife/husband are different from the gift items you can give to your employees.
Also, your diabetic employees should not receive chocolates or cookies; your overweight employees should not receive clothes that will not fit them; and so on.
Avoid gender discrimination – Of course, you will choose your gift according to gender but make sure that you treat each of them equally. Do not buy a $50-gift for men and a $10 gift for women. Keep it equal. Better yet, choose an item that will suit both men and women and give it to all.
A gift is different from a party – Do not think that once you have given your employees a party, you have already given them your gift. A party is a party; a gift is a gift… plain and simple.
Take gift returns easily. – Receiving returned gifts may be quite an embarrassing experience but make sure you do not go ballistic that would end that employee an added figure in the unemployment rate. You will only scare everyone if you do that. Keep them comfortable and appreciate their honesty.
Take into account the important matters – Do not just give what you want; give what is right. Consider your employees' religion, ethnicity, health, personal ethics, cultural background, etc. Make sure you take note of these things so that you avoid hurting your employees in the process or having your gifts returned.
Work related Gift items should be avoided – Any corporate gift item not related to work is very much appreciated since your employees are not compelled to use it at the office or where you can see it.
Don’t give double-meaning gift items – "Idiot guide to counting from one to ten correctly", "better understanding about work and professionalism", "easy guide to lose pounds", "book on Labor Code", and anything of the same sort can insult anyone. These items must be avoided at all cost.
Corporate award and gifts are great for mostly everything, including the marketing of your company. It is also good for maintaining working relationships among people in your businesses while keeping the expenses relatively smaller than acquiring new allies. This does not imply though that your corporate award and gifts must be limited only to people you have established relationship with. As we have already said, it can also be used to promote your company to other customers or to new clients.
Selecting personal gifts are difficult enough. And despite of this hurdle, this still not enough to warrant that your gift will be appreciated the way you expected it to be. Thus, it is often hard to brainstorm on what you can give while maximizing the budget you have set for it. Nevertheless, one thought should always be kept in mind- a corporate gift, more specifically an award, is a measure of your appreciation to your valued employees, workers, clients, customers and those people who participate in your company's growth.
On the other hand, corporate awards and gifts can also be used as a source of motivation for increasing the sales via giving rewards to your top performers and business teams and units after meeting and exceeding their pre-set goals. This way, it works pretty much like an incentive for a work well done.
Whether you choose to give corporate gifts and awards to your employees and workers or to your clients, you still must observe specific gift etiquettes. Central to this is the timing and appropriateness of giving the gifts.
The Appropriateness of Recipients
To whom will you give the corporate gift? Is it to the boss, to company owner, to a typical workman or an officemate? Each workplace hierarchy should be given varying levels of credit. It's good if everyone is treated equally in a working place regardless of their position. But the truth is, we give much credit to higher standing colleagues than those with lower positions. On the other hand, close friends in the working place are also given much credit than ordinary, day-to-day coworkers.
Economically-wise, you must also take into thought how much you are willing to spend for an award or gift through maximizing the budget and giving enough justifications on the relationship you have with the receiver. You would not give a $50 corporate award and gift to a million-dollar investor, would you?
All companies have varying policies regarding corporate awards and gifts. It is best to check on this first before attempting to send something out unless it is a personal gift from you to a friend in unit.
The Timing
Occasions must also be taken into consideration when sending a corporate award or gift. This is much like thinking of what to give for a birthday celebrant or an anniversary party. There are again, various considerations that you must mull over to fit your gift into the occasion.
Corporate award and gifts for the commemoration of specific major events- These include major holidays, company anniversary, birthdays of the company figures, or simply a special event in the company's life such as the founding and great achievements of sorts.
Corporate award and gifts for company social events- Whatever your company's choice of event is, there certainly are some gifts that would matched the stuff. Say, golf corporate baskets, awarding of tickets and special treats to specific gatherings, get away surprises and others.
Celebration of specific events- These include maternity celebration, retirement, long services leave, staff birthdays, team building events, an a lot more others.
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