
Employee engagement is critical in motivating and retaining valuable talent, and work-from-home teams may be feeling isolated and cut off from their colleagues while this drawn out lock down continues. When it comes to engaging your employees, it is amazing what a positive impact giving your staff a thoughtful gift can have. Being tangibly appreciated is encouraging; it helps to create job satisfaction while building relationships and creating happy moments and memories.
There are many gifting occasions that can be leveraged to create positive employee touch points. Here are eight occasions you can make use of to appreciate and reward your employees by giving them a personalised gift or specially tailored experience:
1. Thank you gifts
Saying thank you to employees for a job well-done is known to have a positive and long-lasting impact on productivity. Giving your employees a thoughtful thank you gift, tailored to their personal taste, is an expression of your appreciation that will strengthen relationship bonds and have the knock on effect of creating a workplace culture that embraces communicating gratitude.

2. Performance rewards
Regular employee performance rewards allow you to recognise top performers in front of their peers, which helps to motivate performance excellence and encourage loyalty. Hosting a celebration for the recognised employees can be accompanied by a personalised gift. In fact, if the gift is seen to be desirable, employees may be encourage to try and earn the next award.

3. Long service awards
Long-service awards are considered to be one of the most important forms of employee recognition, because they reward staff for loyalty to the business. In 2018, a study by online magazine Employee Benefits found that employees are more likely to value bespoke, personalised rewards over money as recognition of their continued commitment.
4. Care packages
The rise in remote work makes creating employee touch points all the more important. One of the best ways to reach out to and encourage remote employees is by sending them care packages made up of gifts to make them feel good, promote healthy living and show that you are thinking about them.
5. Snack packs
There is currently a trend in cultivating employee-happiness – free food and snacks. You may have the need to cater for a hybrid or online employee event – or perhaps your staff deserve a random treat to make them feel special. Snack packs are a great way to enhance a virtual event in place of the lunch that would have been served in-person. And, they are an any-day winner at making employees feel appreciated.

6. Internal employee event swag bags
Employee events are an important element of an internal marketing campaign when you want to treat your employees with the same care and attention that you treat your clients. Adding an employee swag bag makes online employee events more interactive and is a cost-effective way to engage your employees’ hearts and minds toward building a productive and happy workforce.
7. Internal product launches
Treating your employees as if they were your customers empowers them and results in them being more invested in the success of your business. Taking the time to launch new products and services to your employees, like you would with clients, will ultimately boost sales and customer satisfaction.
Treat your staff to the same PR drops and goodie bags that you would at a client product launch.

8. Year-end gifts
At the end of 2021, we are likely to be faced with a holiday season that, once again, is devoid of year-end parties and the usual team festivities. And yet, there is every reason to thank employees for their adaptability, tenacity, hard work and dedication over a tough twelve months. Thoughtfully curated gift boxes, based on each employee’s interests and tastes, are sure to make your employees feel “seen”, listened to and appreciated.
Giving your employees gifts openly recognises and appreciates them for their dedication and hard work. By giving your staff the opportunity to specify their tastes and interests and by giving them an appropriate, customised gift you are doing way more than just thanking them. You are indicating that you value who they are and empowering them through the opportunity to choose for themselves. In this way, customised employee gifts become one of the most powerful employee engagement tools in an employer’s toolbox.