Welcome Gifts for New Employees

Three women sitting at a table smiling.

Congratulations! After months of virtual interviews and time spent vetting potential recruits, you’ve finally found the perfect individual to join your team! 

Hiring can be difficult, especially amid The Great Resignation. For employers, trying to attract and retain quality talent can feel much more challenging than it did in previous years. 

The reason? 

Employees want to work for organizations that offer career opportunities for development and personal growth. They want to work for a company that appreciates their work, values their insights, and respects their contributions. To put it simply, they want to become part of a team that supports and empowers one another.

If this sounds like your brand then the best way you can convey your company’s unique culture is to help new employees feel welcome and part of the team.

Why Is This So Important?

According to a study conducted by The Society for Human Resource Management, 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for 3 years if they experienced great onboarding. Other research suggests that successful onboarding can improve employee retention by 82%.

Ready for the bad news? Only 12% of employees say their organization does onboarding well? Furthermore, it’s reported that 58% of organizations admit that their onboarding process is solely focused on paperwork.

How to Make New Employees Feel Welcome

It’s pretty clear that in order to attract and retain the best employees, you need to ensure they experience a strong connection with your brand—starting day one!

We recommend setting them up with a new hire welcome box!

What Is a New Hire Welcome Box?

Whether you’re meeting a new employee in-person, or virtually, a welcome box is a smart, easy, and impactful way to welcome a new individual to the team.

Most employees are familiar with receiving their new email address, company software, computer equipment, and all the essentials they need to do their job. And these are important items to make sure they have access to, especially on the first day! 

But imagine getting a special gift you didn’t see coming? Something that demonstrates the company’s investment in your future and shows they appreciate you being here.

Small gestures go a long way. And they set a precedent for how your company values its employees.

Building a New Hire Welcome Box

When it comes to designing a welcome box, you get to decide what goes inside. Below, we’ve listed a few tips to help you choose the right items to create more impact!

Brand Guide/Employee Handbook

In order for your employees to connect with your brand, they first need to know your company’s core values, mission statement, and brand messaging guidelines. 

And with anything new, there will be questions. To help support new employees as they make this exciting transition, be sure to include your employee handbook that includes information on PTO, holiday pay, benefits, company policies, etc.

It’s good practice to regularly review your handbook each year to ensure it still reflects your company’s current practices/policies. The worst thing you can do is provide them with outdated information that leaves them feeling lost and confused.

Be sure you also provide them with personal information they’ll need to perform their responsibilities, including new email address, credentials, phone number, point of contact for questions, etc. Give them the tools they need to feel empowered!

Technical Equipment

If your employees are working remote or on a hybrid schedule, make sure to send them any technical equipment (or set it up) before their start date. 

There is nothing worse than starting the first day without the tools you need to be successful. It makes most people feel like an afterthought or worse, an outsider to the company.

Branded Swag

Okay, now the fun part! You can curate a fun welcome box using branded company merch. We’re talking retail apparel, like Nike and The North Face, featuring your company’s logo design, travel mug containers, earbuds, water bottles, mouse pads—you name it!

You can add in some personalized items, too. For example, if you know your new employee loves dogs, why not include a branded dog collar. Does your employee spend her free time at the lake? Why not give her a pool float to relax on during the weekends!

Whatever you choose, make sure it aligns with your brand and is a good fit with your employee’s values. At Foxtrot Marketing Group, we can help you choose the best welcome kit items that uphold your brand’s integrity.

Need more inspiration?

Check out these fabulous examples of new hire kits from real-life organizations.

Red-colored welcome box to its new employees.

Ogilvy & Mather gives an on-brand, red-colored welcome box to its new employees. The welcome box offers a short book by David Ogilvy, The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness and his popular eight habits, as well as a notebook, metal slinky, USB, and pencil.

Welcome package containing a mug, calendar, ear buds and logo.

Nike’s welcome kit includes functional items bearing their iconic logo: a cup, a calendar, headphones, and a pin in a minimal design.

A desk with various books and swag with brand names printed on the front.

Salesforce makes their new hire box fun and playful. Their welcome kit contains books, stickers, a gift certificate, a name tag, and a toy gun!

Gift basket containing chips, soda, a coffee mug and t-shirt.

If you’re a CPG company, it’s wise to include your own product in your welcome kit. PepsiCo gives its new employees a branded mug, a t-shirt, and a basket full of their beverages and chips.

Let Your Employees Customize Their Welcome Kits!

Why not let your employees do the choosing. We offer custom digital storefront solutions, where employees can pick and choose the branded merch they want.

We can also help you set up a “spotlight” feature that allows you to send both new and existing employees credits to use at the store. You can attach a special message with each credit, such as “Welcome to the Team!” or “Great job on that sales pitch.”

Branded items give your new hires a sense of belonging right away. They also demonstrate that you value them.

Discover how we can help you create, customize, and drop ship new employee welcome boxes to your office building or to remote employees’ front doors! We offer quick turnarounds, competitive pricing, and in-house apparel decorating to make the process fast, easy, and most importantly, fun!

To get started, contact us today!

More Onboarding Tips for New Hires

In addition to creating custom gift boxes for new hires, here are a few other best practices for onboarding:

Send a Welcome Message!

Include a handwritten note in your welcome box, or have the entire team sign a welcome card! This way, your new hire knows that everyone in the company is glad to have them join the team.

Be sure to also send a personalized, individual email to the employee outlining how excited you are, their strengths, and what stood out to you during the interview process. 

Stay Connected!

Whether your company works in-person, remotely, or in a hybrid environment, human connection is an important aspect to welcoming a new employee. Therefore, a good portion of the first week should be set aside for bonding with the team.

Schedule meet-and-greets with leaders and key members of the team. If possible, plan a welcome lunch or maybe a happy hour to help your new hire feel more comfortable in and out of the office.

New hires should also be a part of key meetings early on, so they can feel involved and see how the team works together.

Ask for Feedback

Finally, be sure to ask your newest employees about their onboarding experiences. What did they like? What would have been more helpful? What didn’t make sense? Take this feedback into consideration when onboarding new hires in the future!

For more tips and strategies, be sure to stay connected to our blog!