Unwrap the secrets to successful team holiday gifts: thoughtful choices, budget tips, and the lasting impact of appreciation in the workplace.
As December rolls around, it’s stressful enough buying holiday gifts for your friends and family. Yet HR leaders are often tasked with ordering gifts for anywhere from dozens to thousands of employees – people with different tastes, backgrounds, and maybe even geographic locations.
I’m CEO at Goody, a corporate gifting platform used by more than 15,000 companies. We deliver gifts to hundreds of thousands of professionals every holiday season – providing us with a mountain of data on what HR teams are sending, and what employees really want.
That’s why I’m delighted to share some top tips on team holiday gifts with the TroopHR community.
But first, I’m here to tell you one thing:
As CEO at a gifting startup, I love asking my team members about the best corporate gifts they’ve ever gotten.
What’s fascinating is how they’ll light up with memories of a surprise gift they got a decade ago. They’ll pull swag or tech items out of their closets – stuff they no longer need but can’t let go of for sentimental reasons.
Then I ask about Visa cards or end-of-year bonuses they’ve received. They look at me with puzzlement. Sure, they’ve been awarded these over the years, and appreciated them at the time. Yet all the specifics have faded.
When it comes to giving thanks, it’s striking how thoughtfulness – not budget – is what rises to the top.
The obvious answer is that it’s the nice (and maybe expected) thing to do. It shows your team members that you value them and appreciate their year of hard work.
The more compelling answer is that holiday gifts are best for the company as well.
By December, employees’ stress levels are often peaking. January is the top month of the year for employee turnover – a moment when employees look at their roles and ask, “Am I ready for another year here?”
Meanwhile, the vast majority of employees say they want a reward from their company at the end of the year, according to SHRM.
Think about the costs associated with even one case of turnover (1.5 to 2X the employee’s salary). I find those costs are generally far greater than what a company will spend on holiday gifts for the entire staff.
Cash bonuses and holiday gifts should not be viewed as mutually exclusive.
Here at Goody, many if not most of our clients provide some type of end-of-year cash bonus to their teams in addition to thoughtful holiday gifts.
In terms of morale impact, $50 spent on a gift takes you further than $50 spent on a bonus – a finding established by psychologists and behavioral economists. And unlike a cash bonus or Visa gift card, the right holiday gift can stick around for years, providing a lasting reminder of your appreciation.
The average amount spent per employee per gift (before shipping and taxes) typically looks like this:
As you may expect, contractor-based or highly regulated industries tend to spend less per employee. Whereas certain sectors – like VC firms or flourishing tech companies – might spend a lot more.
During the planning process with your team, you should be sure to ask:
Americans waste $15 billion on unwanted holiday gifts every year, and I can only imagine how much of that is from corporate gifting.
Trying to find one gift that everyone will want? We all know that’s impossible.
With Goody, we offer three basic ways to send flexible gifts that employees can swap or choose for themselves:
For U.S. employees, the tl;dr on the tax implications of employee gifts is:
Now, I’m not a tax expert. You should always consult with your finance team.
What I can say is that Goody’s clients typically give physical holiday gifts – not gift cards. In part, so they don’t have to give their employees a tax bill for their generosity.
That’s one reason Goody’s Gift of Choice is so popular: You can set an amount and let your employee choose any physical gift they want. So it’s as flexible as a gift card, but more thoughtful and less likely to be a taxable event.
Even though Goody offers gift cards, I really don’t recommend them as your sole holiday gift. Partially because of the taxation rules above.
Mainly because they aren’t that thoughtful or lasting.
Consider using them to complement your physical gift. For example, send an Amazon gift card bonus in addition to a more thoughtful holiday gift.
In the pre-pandemic past, HR teams would ship huge boxes to the office, create a makeshift swag closet, and painstakingly distribute gifts to employees’ desks.
These days, with most companies hybrid, your best bet is to sidestep shipping and logistics entirely.
With Goody – and many other digital gifting platforms – the gifts ship directly to employees’ home addresses. You don’t need to distribute at the office, worry about remote employees, or even collect shipping info. Employees provide shipping info themselves when they accept your gift.
It’s vital to celebrate international employees in tandem with your U.S. team.
Yet for a busy HR lead, it’s hardly a good use of time to track down local gift brands in Spain or Australia. There are two alternative approaches that really scale:
1. Send digital gift cards to local brands in your recipient’s own currency
2. Send physical gifts or swag cross-borders
If you’re interested in learning more about this topic, check out Goody’s step-by-step guide to sending international corporate gifts.
