To run an effective company, business owners need all hands on deck. Unfortunately, it's not always easy to keep everyone happy all of the time. When job satisfaction suffers, companies experience higher turnover rates, reduced productivity and lower profits. To combat this, a growing number of businesses are using corporate gifts to improve employee morale.
What Exactly Is Employee Morale?
In essence, staff morale is the collection of feelings and attitudes employees have for their workplace. Whether positive or negative, worker morale can influence a number of critical areas, including:
- Productivity
- Employee attitudes
- Workplace safety
- Daily decisions
- Attendance and punctuality
- Relationships with management and co-workers
With this in mind, it's obvious that good employee morale can drive a business forward, while low morale can hold it back. But how can budget-conscious companies make their workers happier without going over-budget?
Providing Incentives
According to a study by the International Society for Performance Improvement, incentive programs can boost employee satisfaction and performance by as much as 44 percent. For Fortune 500 companies, these incentives might include bonuses, vacations and profit-sharing plans. Unfortunately, for many businesses, these strategies aren't cost-effective.
As they strive to balance employee satisfaction with razor-thin budgets, more and more companies are utilizing corporate gifts to inspire productivity and promote goodwill. Sometimes, these gifts are given regularly to all company personnel. Other times, they are given as part of the onboarding process or as prizes for a job well done.
Whatever the case, there are a number of corporate gifts business owners can use to inspire their staff. This includes small everyday office items, such as pens, pencils, highlighters, notebooks, calendars, folders and memo pads. It can also include tech toys, such as USB drives, chargers, mouse pads and styluses. In many cases, business owners also choose to reward outstanding performance by offering higher-end branded products, such as briefcases, luggage, tools and golfing accessories.
However they choose to leverage them, corporate gifts provide effective, low-cost incentives that help business owners reduce turnover, enhance productivity and improve the way their team feels about the organization as a whole.