Creating a memorable and meaningful employee onboarding experience is equal parts art and science. A well-thought-out welcome gift can profoundly impact a new employee's first impression of an organization, setting the stage for a positive and engaging journey. However, it’s important to have processes in place to make getting your employee welcome gifts in the hands of your newest team members to make the experience easy and efficient for everyone involved.
Let's explore innovative welcome gift ideas and strategies to help you create memorable onboarding experiences that get new team members excited about their new role, while saving HR and employee experience teams time and money.
The Power of a Memorable Welcome
A thoughtful welcome gift for new employees is more than a nice gesture; it's a crucial part of making a great first impression and setting the tone for a positive employee experience. It also serves as an early reinforcement of the company culture. As a bonus, it could also lead to some external brand building. Many Gift Better Co. clients have seen their new hires share a photo of their onboarding gift on social media to announce their new role.
Innovative Welcome Gift Ideas
- Tech Gadgets: For tech-savvy new hires, consider gadgets that enhance productivity or add a modern touch to their workspace.
- Health and Wellness Kits: Reflecting a focus on well-being, health and wellness kits can show care for employees' holistic health.
- Cultural Immersion Items: Gifts that echo your company's culture or location can immerse new hires in the organizational ethos from day one.
- Customized Learning Materials: Providing professional development resources, like online course subscriptions or industry-relevant books, demonstrates an investment in their growth.
Integrating Gifts into the Onboarding Experience
Welcome gifts should be seamlessly integrated into the onboarding process, making them a memorable part of the new employee's initial experience. This could involve a team welcome event where gifts are presented, incorporating them into an engaging onboarding activity, or, if you’re part of a remote-first company, sending the gift alongside the technology that a new team member will need to get started on their first day.
From a process perspective, having a step in your onboarding workflow to send out an employee onboarding gift is a great starting point for making sure that it's not forgotten. But you can take it a step further, like CIRA did, by pre-purchasing gifts from Gift Better Co. and having them sent out by our fulfillment team on-demand.
Tailoring Gifts to Reflect Company Values
Customizing welcome gifts to mirror your company's values is key. Whether it's eco-friendly products for a sustainability-focused company or innovative tech gadgets for a forward-thinking firm, the gifts should resonate with your company's ethos and the recipient's preferences. CIRA’s Canadian-themed onboarding gifts communicate how important it is to support Canadian businesses. Learn about how they partnered with Gift Better Co. to overhaul their onboarding process here.
Gift Better goes out of their way to ensure they understand their customers' needs and their customer service is always on point. They've saved us time and money, by truly listening to our requirements and then coming up with creative, sustainable and mission-aligned solutions.
- Sanita Alias, VP, People Culture, and Brand, CIRA
Measuring the Impact of Welcome Gifts
Implement feedback mechanisms, like surveys or informal check-ins, to gauge the effectiveness of your welcome gift strategy. This feedback can provide insights into the reception of the gifts and their impact on new employees' perception of the company.
Getting Started
Revolutionizing the employee onboarding process with innovative welcome gifts is a strategic approach that can significantly enhance employee engagement and company culture. By thoughtfully selecting gifts that align with your company's values and integrating them into a comprehensive onboarding experience, you can create a lasting positive impression for new hires. If you'd like to get a head start on curating the perfect employee onboarding gifts and creating seamless systems to get them in the hands of new team members, connect with us to chat!
