Transcript
2020 Guide to employee gifts
Introduction
Employee gifts show gratitude. They celebrate milestones. They congratulate teams for accomplishments.
For something that holds so much importance, choosing the right gift can be incredibly difficult. To help you solve that problem, we’re going straight to the source. We surveyed administrative professionals who often take on the role of selecting employee gifts for their organizations.
Through this survey, we learned a lot about employee gift-giving patterns and answered frequently asked questions including:
- Who receives employee gifts?
- Who gives employee gifts?
- When do organizations give employee gifts?
- How much do organizations spend on employee gifts?
- What are the challenges in selecting employee gifts?
Based on these findings, we’ve pulled together employee gift-giving ideas to help you make the most of your employee gifts in 2020 and beyond.
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Giving employee gifts: showing employees you care
When an organization gives an employee a gift, it makes a statement: We’re glad you’re here.
Nearly every employee gift also presents unique challenges: What gift should we give? How much should we spend? And who handles the research, distribution and decision-making process?
To discover how and why organizations give employee gifts, we went directly to the source, surveying hundreds of administrative professionals across the country to ask them how they make their gift-giving decisions.
In this e-book, you’ll learn about the gifts organizations give their employees. We share which kinds of gifts they give the most, when they give them, how much they spend, and what challenges they face in the process.
We hope that you’ll learn something you can apply to your organization. Consider it our gift to you!
Kevin Lyons-Tarr, CEO, 4imprint, Inc.
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Gift-giving
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Gift-giving: Who receives employee gifts?
- 36.4% — All Employees
- 29.1% — One Department or Team
- 15.5% — Multiple Departments/Teams
- 15.2% — Individual Employees
- 2.1% — N/A or Don’t Know
- 1.8% — Other
Gift recipients
Twice as many gifts were given to all employees vs. individual employees.
74.7% of respondents give employee gifts.
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Gift-giving: Who gives the gifts?
- 51.9% — The Organizations
- 28.0% — Manager supervisor
- 6.7% — CEO
- 5.9% — Not Specified
- 4.2% — Other
- 3.3% — N/A or Don’t Know
The gift giver
More than half of staff gifts given are “from” the organization.
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Gift-giving: When does your organization give employee gifts?
- 62.3% — Holidays
- 44.4% — Organization meetings
- 36.6% — Anniversaries
- 36.0% — New Hires/Promotions
- 30.1% — Individual goal achievements
- 27.2% — Organization goal achievements
- 24.3% — Birthdays
- 8.8% — Other
- 0.8% N/A or Don’t Know
Response totals exceed 100% because respondents were asked to provide multiple answers.
Reasons to celebrate
The holidays are the most popular occasion for staff gifts.
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Gift-giving: What portion of the employee gift process do you coordinate?
- 63.2% — Ordering
- 58.3% — Recommendations
- 47.1% — Distribution
- 45.9% — Research
- 39.3% — Decision-making
- 7.4% — None of the Above
- 2.9% — N/A or Don’t Know
Response totals exceed 100% because respondents were asked to provide multiple answers.
Roles of administrative professionals in gift-giving
Almost two-thirds of administrative professionals are responsible for ordering and recommending gifts.
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Decision-making
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Decision-making: How much will you budget per gift for an employee?
- $10 or less — 14.2%
- $11-$25 — 30.5%
- $26-$50 — 25.9%
- $51-$100 — 15.5%
- $101+ — 7.1%
Responses of ‘N/A or Don’t Know’ were removed.
Employee gift budgets
Almost half of organizations spent $26 or more on each gift.
1 out of 14 companies spends more than $100 per gift.
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Decision-making: How much will you budget per gift for an employee?
- Less in 2019 — 14.2%
- Same as 2018 — 31.8%
- More in 2019 — 30.1%
- N/A or Don’t Know — 17.6%
- Other — 6.3%
Changes to employee gift budgets: 2019 vs. 2018
Almost one-third of companies spent more on employee gifts than they did in 2018.
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Decision-making: What challenges do you face in choosing employee gifts?
- 67.8% — Finding creative gift ideas
- 49.0% — Finding gifts within my budget
- 46.4% — Finding something employees will like
- 10.0% — Logistics (ordering, delivering)
- 7.9% — Other
- 4.2% — N/A or Don’t Know
Response totals exceed 100% because respondents were asked to provide multiple answers.
Challenges in choosing employee gifts
More than two-thirds of organizations say finding a unique gift for employees is the biggest challenge.
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Employee gift trends
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Employee gift trends: What types of employee gifts has your organization given?
- 76.2% — Apparel
- 61.5% — Drinkware
- 54.8% — Food/candy
- 49.8% — Gift cards
- 35.1% — Technology
- 10.0% — Other
- 1.3% — N/A or Don’t Know
Response totals exceed 100% because respondents were asked to provide multiple answers.
Popular gifts
Four out of five of the most popular gifts are imprint-ready.
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Top rated — The most frequently chosen promotional employee gifts:
- Logo apparel – Page 16
- Logo drinkware — Page 18
- Logo notebooks/journals — Page 20
- Logo totes/bags — Page 22
Employee gift trends: Which promotional products have you used for employee gifts?
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#1 — Logo apparel
- Most-offered employee gift
- Most-offered promotional product given to employees
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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TIP: Giving new employees apparel on their first day can help them feel like part of the team.
- Silk Touch Performance Sport Polo #118761
- Crossland® Soft Shell Jacket #120156
“Great jacket! Everyone was happy with them.” -Kita from Cornwell
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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#2 — Logo drinkware
Nearly two-thirds of organizations give drinkware as an employee gift.
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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TIP: Give employees something they don’t already have. Look for unique drinkware options.
- Refresh® Pebble Tumbler with Straw #138131
- Sherpa Vacuum Travel Tumbler and Insulator #139237
“My employees loved these so much…” -Brandy from Merrillville
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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#3 — Logo notebooks & journals
Almost half of respondents have used logo notebooks or journals as employee gifts.
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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TIP: Pair notebooks with pens for a bonus branding opportunity.
- Afton Custom Notebook with Pen #143914
- Mini Memo Book with Flags and Ruler #116481
“This was a good item and printing looked very nice.” -Brenda from Grand Island
“These were super handy and everyone loved them.” -Cheryl from San Bernardino
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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#4 — Logo totes & bags
Almost half of organizations give logo totes and bags as gifts.
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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TIP: Employees will appreciate a bag that matches their work needs.
- 4imprint® Heathered 15″ Laptop Backpack #147856
- Crosby Lunch Cooler Tote #150209
“Perfect backpack for our team!” -Amy from Los Angeles
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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Employee gifts are a great way to show appreciation.
Employee gift trends: Uses and ideas
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Methodology
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Data collection methods
In an effort to better understand how and when organizations use employee gifts, 4imprint surveyed Administrative Professionals Conference attendees in September 2019 and an online survey panel in October-November 2019.
Of the 343 respondents, two-thirds (239) gave staff gifts. Unless otherwise stated, the data that appeared in this e-book is based on these responses.
Methodology: Respondent demographics
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Respondent industries
- 19.2% — Education
- 16.3% — Government
- 12.6% — Healthcare
- 10.0% — Nonprofit
- 6.3% — Manufacturing
- 5.0% — Small Business
- 30.5% — Other
Organization size
(by employees)
- <10 — 3.3%
- 10-249 — 33.5%
- 250-999 — 16.3%
- 1,000-4,999 — 18.8%
- 5,000+ — 28.0%
Methodology: Respondent demographics
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Share your employee gift ideas.
Got a great promotional employee gift story? Tell us! Email it with your photos to 4ideas@4imprint.com.
©2020 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved.