The 20 Best Corporate Gift Ideas Your Coworkers Will Gush Over
As the leader of your company, you care about generating profits, streamlining operations, and keeping your margins healthy. Those are, after all, the metrics by which you can measure your company’s financial success.
But here’s one secret only great leaders know:
To achieve amazing results, you also have to focus on the health, happiness, and well-being of your people.
That’s why showing appreciation and gratitude are so important in a successful business environment. Your people provide the backs on which your company is built, so your job as a leader is to make sure those backs are strong and your employees feel validated, heard, and appreciated for their hard work. Doing this consistently will boost morale in your company and lead to lower turnover rates, higher job satisfaction, and better productivity.
There are lots of ways to show appreciation, one of which is gift-giving. But what makes a truly great corporate gift? Opinions will differ, but in our experience, the best corporate gift ideas are ones that instantly make you think, “Yeah! Billy will love that!” or “That reminds me! Sharon said she really wanted a new ___!”
With that said, here are some of our favorite go-to ideas that always bring a smile to our faces in the Firefly office.
Corporate events provide the perfect opportunity to get everyone together for a gift-giving good time! Contact Firefly Team Events to plan your perfect company gathering.
Best Corporate Gift Ideas To Make Your Team Feel Valued
As much as your employees might love yet another set of stress balls (🙄), chances are those stress balls will end up pushed to back corners of desks or shoved in desk drawers.
That’s why consumables feature so highly on our list of great corporate gifts. Your team will use them up, enjoy them, and then dust off the crumbs or throw the empty gift cards away, having thoroughly appreciated their gifts.
With that in mind, our first suggestion is…
1. Food
Most people love special treats.
However—the trick with gifting food is to double-check any dietary restrictions, allergies, and personal preferences before you order anything. If Susan is a diabetic who is allergic to tree nuts, she probably will not enjoy a bakery-fresh box of frosted almond cookies.
With those guidelines out of the way, here are some of our favorite ways to use food as a fun gift:
- Treating sugar-lovers to a box of cookies or chocolate bars
- Ordering in a catered lunch
- Surprising someone with their favorite flavor of boba tea
- Keeping everyone motivated with Personal Pizza Fridays
- Bringing in complimentary doughnuts or snack packs when the team has done great work
- Taking the whole team out for a nice dinner
- Providing soft pretzels on big game days
2. Clothing
Not many folks wear company-branded items outside of work, which means few people have company clothes to wear to team events. Providing some fun shirts, hoodies, hats, or other items before a major company gathering can help promote cohesion and a sense of belonging.
3. Donations
Some people just aren’t that into “stuff.” For these folks, often a donation to the charity of their choice is a great way to show you care without cluttering up their lives with physical objects.
4. Pet costumes
Who doesn’t love a dog in a goofy outfit?
If this doesn’t make your team happy, you might want to look into why they’re all emotionless robots. Kidding! (But still…)
5. Gift cards
Gift cards get a bad rap, but they’re actually the perfect solution when you know where someone likes to shop or eat but you aren’t exactly sure what they want specifically. Choose your gift cards carefully, and you can surprise your employee with the shopping spree or free meal of his or her choice.
6. Personalized stamps
Did you know you can order personalized stamps with people’s faces on them? Give your employees their own “stamp of approval” and watch the laughs roll in. If your workplace isn’t the right environment for funny face stamps, you can also order personalized, professional stamps with names and monograms.
7. Coffee
Boost productivity and enable your employees’ caffeine addiction with an order of high-quality coffee. Even better if you can personalize the gift further, for example with this travel coffee set for camping and hiking enthusiasts.
8. Thank-You Boxes
Nothing says “Thank you” like a box of gifts that literally says “Thank you.”
Show deliberate appreciation for good work as part of your gift-givingIt’s one thing to come into work on a Monday and find a box of your favorite cookies from corporate on your desk. But it’s quite another experience to receive that same thoughtful gift with a little note that says,
This signals to the employee that what they do at the company matters. This boosts loyalty, increases job satisfaction, makes workers happy, and improves the likelihood that they’ll stay in their jobs for the long haul! |
9. Fun Crafts
If it’s been a while since your favorite crafty employee has made a set of customized unicorn ornaments, show her you support her endeavors with this unique kit. You can, of course, choose more “normal” crafts as an alternative, but we think unicorns are way more fun.
10. Cocktails
Though we’d hope their jobs don’t actually drive your employees to drink, you can still get them some interesting adult beverages for their next party!
11. Silly Mugs
Lighthearted, coffee-bearing receptacles can go a long way toward making Monday mornings a little less bleak.
12. Sunglasses
Heading to the beach for your next company retreat? Why not gift some stylish shades to your team beforehand?
13. Trophies
Recognize your hardest workers with fun-to-display trophies!
14. Tumblers
Before you fall for the drink-tumbler cliche, search for a high-quality option that your team will actually love, such as a YETI.
15. Pickles
Not everyone loves pickles, but some people are crazy about them. If Bob always winds up eating everyone else’s sandwich pickles when your team goes out to lunch, he might enjoy a variety pickle-of-the-month subscription.
16. Succulents
While most plants are just another thing your employees will have to be responsible for (everyone hates accidentally neglecting and killing a gift plant), succulents are low-maintenance, cute, and nigh indestructible.
17. Meat
If your team is mostly vegan, you can skip this one. But for the meat lovers out there, you can’t go wrong with a giant box of steaks and seafood.
18. Nerd Merch
18. Nerd MerchSuper-fans love adorning every facet of their lives with merchandise from their favorite imaginary world. If you’ve got a Star Wars fan in your midst, try this fun stormtrooper whiskey decanter.
19. Chia Pets
If you thought Chia Pets were just a 90s thing, think again. Bring back this nostalgic trend with a Chia Pet of Richard Simmons, Bob Ross, or even Weird Al.
20. Novelty Items
Let’s say you’ve made it through this list and nothing has sparked your interest yet. Maybe the person you’re buying for already has everything, or perhaps you’re just looking for something really out of the box.
When you’ve completely run out of ideas, you can always turn to this trusty electronic yodeling pickle. At the very least, it’ll be good for a laugh at your next team meeting…
Tips to remember when sending out a batch of corporate goodies
Mix up the gifting schedule
If you’re dating someone new and they only text you hello in the morning and goodnight at bedtime, are you going to feel appreciated? Probably not, because those texts are the bare minimum your date can manage to keep the connection open. But if your dashingly handsome (or stunningly beautiful) date sends little tidbits throughout the day—jokes, little heart emojis, great memes, or whatever floats your boat—you’ll get miniature doses of the warm fuzzies all day long.
Similarly, many people—especially if they work for amazing companies that give thoughtful and awesome corporate gifts on a regular basis—come to expect something in the mail or on their desks around Christmas and birthdays. These gifts are appreciated, certainly, but they don’t generate that “Hey, we’ve been thinking of you!” sense of surprise.
That’s pretty much what you’re trying to achieve by sending your coworkers, clients, and vendors gifts throughout the year. Remember to hit all the important holiday dates, of course, but keep in mind that random, thoughtful presents when the recipient is least expecting it can feel more meaningful in the moment.
Some of the best corporate gifts aren’t expensive at all
It’s not all about how much money you spend. Truly, it’s the thought that counts.
If you can brainstorm a meaningful gift that the recipient will enjoy, chances are they won’t care if you spent less than $25 on it. In fact, a $5 personalized pen with an employee’s favorite catchphrase on it—sort of like an inside joke for the workplace—would mean far more than a $50 gift card to a fancy steakhouse that the person doesn’t even like.
So, if the cost of sending gifts is a major roadblock, you don’t have to get bogged down by the dollar signs. You’ll get far better results if you put some real thought into your gifts and make them small but meaningful than if you just throw money at the situation and hope at least some of your employees enjoy their 15th insulated coffee mug with the company logo.
Keep gift-giving fun
In addition to mixing up your gifting schedule and trying your best to personalize your presents, you can also vary the ways you distribute those gifts to keep things interesting.
Think of fun, special ways you can sneak gifts into your employees’ lives:
- Have an office party
- Do a company giveaway
- Raffle something off in exchange for participation in an event
- Leave little goodies on people’s desks
- Host an awards ceremony to publicly appreciate your employees’ strengths
- Include gifts at the end of your next team-building event
- Plan a competition with prizes for the top five participants
- Go big with a corporate-sponsored vacation for your team
Remember to send your clients and vendors tokens of your appreciation as well.
It doesn’t matter what type of company you have or how much revenue your clients have generated; showing clients respect and appreciation is just good business. Plus, it’s fun to make people happy.
And—ulterior motive alert—clients who receive gifts are more likely to view your company in a favorable light. This can make all the difference when something goes wrong down the line. Let’s face it: mistakes happen, the economy isn’t great right now, and dissatisfied clients have all the reason in the world to discontinue their relationships or shop around for something better when they have a negative experience.
But if you’ve built a solid relationship over time, with trust, communication, and little tokens of appreciation, your clients and vendors are more likely to stick around through thick and thin.
Boost team morale and show appreciation with a fun team-building event or gathering.
The pros at Firefly Team Events will help you make sure your event goes off without a hitch.
You bring the thoughtful gifts and we’ll book the venue, take care of setup and takedown, provide an engaging emcee, and handle basically everything else you probably don’t feel like doing. Firefly is your one-stop-shop for bringing your whole team together, getting everyone laughing and having fun, and showing everyone that you really do care, even if you are the boss in their daily lives.
