11 Welcome Gifts for New Employees You Should Consider
Thoughtful welcome gifts for new employees help your organization make a great first impression as an employer and make new colleagues feel welcome to the team. It sets the tone for a positive employee experience. It also reinforces the company culture from the get-go.
Moreover, pictures of these gifts make for excellent employer brand advocacy content. Or it could be part of their testimonials or feedback when they post their employee reviews on Glassdoor.
Whatever your budget is, there are many things you can include in your new employee welcome package. Let’s explore some ideas for welcome gifts for new employees!
Contents
Handwritten welcome note
Noise-canceling headphones
Office supplies
Branded company swag
Cookie arrangement or other goodies
New employee information folder
Employee handbook
Powerbank
Gift cards and vouchers
Books
Office accessories
Tips for the best welcome gifts for new employees
1. Handwritten welcome note
A handwritten welcome note adds a personal touch to the first work day. It doesn’t have to be lengthy. A short message expressing excitement over the new employee is enough. It could also be a postcard with a team picture and welcome messages from other team members. Or it could be a note written on the team’s whiteboard.
Feeling welcomed by the manager and the team helps create a great first impression of the company, which is important to boosting new hire retention. According to Clear Company, organizations with an excellent onboarding process increased new hire retention rates by 52%.
Given that handwritten welcome notes are easy to create, cost you very little, and have a positive impact on your new employees’ experience, they make for an excellent component of your welcome gift.
2. Noise-canceling headphones
If you have the budget, a decent pair of noise-canceling headphones is an excellent gift for your new employees to help them concentrate at work. It blocks out noise in the background and from chatty coworkers or loud neighbors.
Headphones must be comfortable enough to wear all day long and quickly rechargeable to minimize interruptions by charging them halfway through the day. You should also look for something with minimal sound leakage so they can listen to music without bothering their colleagues.
3. Office supplies
Office supplies are the most basic but essential part of the welcome kit for desk workers, whether they work remotely or in the office.
Provide your new employees with office supplies to make their daily work experience easier, such as:
- Notebooks and notepads
- Pens, markers, highlighters
- Post It notes
- Office storage box
- Folders, envelopes, and business cards
- Staplers, paperclips, and scissors
- Office cleaning kit with cleansing wipes, spray for desk and screen, hand sanitizer, cleaning gel
Focus on supplies that your employees truly need to avoid unnecessarily cluttering their desks.
4. Branded company swag
Branded company items are very popular welcome gifts. They help foster a sense of connection, pride, and belonging from the very beginning of an employee’s journey with your organization.
Here are some ideas for branded swag:
- Water bottle
- Company shirt/sweatshirt/hoodie
- Pen
- Mousepad
- Notepad or notebook
- Lanyard/ID Lace
- Tote bag/backpack/laptop bag
- Coffee cup/mug/tumbler
- Insulated lunch bag
- Nameplates
You can make the welcome gifts more special by having them inscribed with the employees’ names. It will also help avoid confusion of “Whose water bottle is this?”
5. Cookie arrangement or other goodies
Cookies and snack boxes provide good nourishment when hunger strikes in the middle of work.
Focus on employee wellbeing and invest in healthy and high-quality snacks like fruits, nuts, veggies, trail mix, granola bars, or beef jerky. Don’t forget to include refreshments like coffee, tea, or juices, which are a staple for many office employees.
If you can, order your cookies or snack boxes from local businesses to support the community while preparing your welcome packages.
It might make sense to ask about allergies and dietary restrictions before considering cookies and snack boxes as your welcome gifts for new employees.
6. New employee information folder
A new employee welcome information folder is a way to communicate what they need to know to new hires immediately. It sets the tone for a good working relationship and helps set and manage expectations.
New employees will appreciate having immediate access to information about the company they’ve just joined:
- Copy of the new hire message
- CEO welcome letter
- Paperwork and forms
- Organizational structure
- Personal information worksheet
- Insurance and retirement
- Contact information for HR and other departments
- Pre-onboarding survey
It is also helpful to include information about the company culture is like:
- How employees communicate with each other.
- How the company celebrates achievements and milestones.
- How the management recognizes and rewards performing employees.
7. Employee handbook
Compared to the welcome kit, the employee handbook contains more comprehensive information about the company, such as its history, mission, vision, and values.
It also discusses the company’s different policies and regulations, such as:
- Employment conditions
- Compensation and benefits
- Attendance and time off
- Working conditions and hours applicable to onsite/remote/hybrid staff
- Work performance
- Business policies and procedures
- Communication
- Antibullying and anti-harassment
- IT
You don’t have to print out the employee handbook for every new employee, but make sure to show them where they can find it.
8. Powerbank
Working while traveling is hard enough without constantly worrying that your devices – phones, tablets, laptops – are just about to die.
What’s more, with handheld devices and smartphone apps becoming essential tools for mobile and deskless workers, running out of battery life can give employees headaches. While the power of the devices increases, so do the power demands on the battery.
This ongoing power problem has made it crucial for workers to have a trusted backup power bank. Look for options with decent capacity, ideally at least 10,000 mAh.
9. Gift cards and vouchers
Gift cards are excellent when you don’t know just yet what your new hires like or need. It allows them to choose the stuff they really want.
Moreover, employees can enjoy the shopping experience gift cards provide, contributing to employee satisfaction. They are affordable, simple, and easy to distribute.
You can choose gift cards for a local coffee shop or restaurant. You can also go for an online or e-commerce store like Amazon, where employees have a wide range of choices.
Similar to gift cards, vouchers are also an affordable and lovely gift to new staff. There are also plenty of voucher selections like vouchers for staycations, weekend trips, meal subscriptions, or dinners at fancy restaurants.
10. Books
Giving books to your new hires show you are invested in their growth and development.
Buy books related to their business or industry. Choose selections that will help them excel in their role or increase their expertise.
Some companies give their employees an ebook reader like Kindle; you can also consider that and preload it with books.
11. Office accessories
There are many accessories and gadgets that can make the lives of desk workers, whether in-office or remote, easier and more pleasant. We’ve listed a couple of ideas below.
Wireless mouse
A wireless mouse is a good gift for newly-hired workers who work with their laptops a lot, like engineers, architects, graphic designers, and artists. It’s easier to use because it’s smaller, more portable, and takes less space on the table or desk.
Blue light glasses
Blue light glasses are a good gift idea for remote workers. They are great for people who spend long hours in front of the computer, like web designers and software developers.
Blue light glasses soothe eye discomfort and fatigue, thus alleviating blurred vision and headache.
Laptop microphone
A laptop microphone might also be a nice welcome token for work-at-home employees. A decent laptop microphone produces excellent sound quality, which works best when taking calls, having online meetings, and leading virtual presentations.
Laptop stand
A laptop stand offers a comfortable and ergonomic way to raise your laptop, reducing neck strain and promoting healthy posture. Many of them easily fold in a flat position for easy storage and transport.
Monitor stand
Like a laptop stand, a monitor stand will be appreciated by new staff who likes to multitask with two screens. It allows you to position your monitor in a way that prevents neck strain and helps maintain proper posture.
USB drive
When it comes to welcome gift selection, many employees find that USB drives hit the right combination of affordable, practical, and memorable.
It’s common for people to have the information they want to keep secure, private, and easily accessible. They would also prefer to keep it digital rather than in paper format.
USB flash drives provide an excellent physical way to keep information safe. Moreover, they don’t require an internet connection, which is ideal for workers who travel often and sometimes experience connectivity problems.
Standing desk mat
A standing desk mat is a good accompaniment if your employees like standing desks at home or in the office. It provides support and comfort for the feet so employees can work standing longer and lower aches and pains, which means higher productivity.
Ergonomic keyboard
Ideal for people who have concerns about posture or suffer from arm, wrist, or shoulder pain, you can gift new employees with an ergonomic keyboard.
An ergonomic keyboard goes well with an ergonomic or wireless mouse for an excellent work-from-home or in-office setup.
Tips for the best welcome gifts for new employees
Consider employees’ needs
When thinking about the welcome gifts for new employees, consider what would make their time at your company more pleasant. Or what could help them be more productive?
For example, headphones may not be the best gift for a receptionist because of face-to-face interaction with office guests, while deskless workers don’t need an office cleaning kit.
Avoid purely decorative gifts that are more likely to be disregarded or thrown away.
Personalize the gifts
Receiving personalized gifts makes a person feel special. So if you can, personalize them per individual, team, or department.
Consider employees’ preferences wherever you can. You can ask questions during preboarding to uncover some of those. For instance, if an employee has a particular hobby, you can give them something related. Like if they like watching movies, you could give them cinema tickets. Or, if they consider themselves a tech geek, give them Amazon vouchers.
Instill the company’s core values
It’s vital to start your new staff off on the right foot. By communicating core values effectively, companies can help ensure that new employees will strive to embody these from the first day forward.
With that in mind, consider your core values with your gift selection. You can decorate the company-branded swag with the text of the organization’s mission or vision statement.
Or you can choose items that might be presented with an explanation of the organizational value they represent. For instance, one of your company values is independence and autonomy, and you allow remote working; a power bank, laptop bag, Bluetooth headphones, and laptop speaker are ideal gift items.
Make your welcome gift packaging attractive
An attractive package makes the welcome gift more appealing. It’s best to use company branding on your wrapping paper, paper bag or box or put your gifts in a branded tote bag.
Select gifts with DEIB in mind
If gifts vary across departments, ensure they’re all of the same value. Also, keep gifts gender-neutral and unpolitical. Keep in mind the different ethnicities, backgrounds, and cultures.
As much as possible, avoid excluding any groups of people. For example, some people might not appreciate getting a bottle of champagne as their welcome gift.
It’s a lot to consider; however, you can uncover a lot by engaging in conversations with employees and getting their feedback.
Get employee feedback
Talking about feedback, you can include a couple of questions about the gifts in your onboarding/new hire satisfaction survey, such as:
- Did they find them helpful?
- What would they add?
- What would they change?
Analyze the feedback and see what you can improve.
Over to you
You don’t need a large budget to welcome your new employees in a memorable way. Adding a personal touch and providing them with something that could improve their daily work experience goes a long way.
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