11 creative employee gift ideas that your staff will actually love

Choosing the right corporate gift for employees is not always easy. After all, gifts for employees are primarily about showing appreciation and thanking them for their great work. The gift should therefore be within budget, creative, and, above all, well received by the employee. Here you can find out why employee gifts are important, get inspiration for various original employee gift ideas, and learn what to look for when making your selection.

Here are the 11 most original ideas for employee gifts

1. The experience voucher for employees

Vouchers can be real wish fulfillers. With the employee voucher, recipients can choose from more than 10,000 experiences in Germany and Austria. Cooking classes, painting classes, pottery classes, outdoor experiences, tastings, and much more. No matter what your employees are passionate about, this gift card is sure to delight everyone and broaden their horizons.

2. Personalized employee gifts: A backpack

Backpacks are not only useful employee gifts, but can also look really good with a great design. Make sure the backpack offers enough space so that it can be used for both leisure and business trips.

3. A dose of mindfulness for everyday life

Whether it's yoga, meditation, intuitive painting, or personal development, mindfulness classes can offer a welcome break and contribute to employee well-being. Just escape from everyday life and really switch off.

4. Coffee voucher

No more bad coffee? How about a voucher for a barista course so that employees can master the use of the portafilter machine in the office? Or a gift card for the popular café next door, where people like to stop for coffee after their lunch break.

5. Voucher for a cooking class

Want to bring some excitement back into the kitchen? A cooking class allows employees to embark on a culinary journey and learn useful cooking tips so they can become professional chefs at home. Cooking class gift cards are the perfect gift for foodies and amateur chefs among your employees and are guaranteed to be more creative than a cookbook. Discover {nrEvents} creative cooking classes.

6. Useful Bluetooth gadgets

For example, there are simple gadgets that help you find lost items. Incredibly helpful when you've misplaced your keys or for your luggage on business trips.

7. Give books to employees as gifts

Most books contain knowledge and are therefore a valuable gift! Here, you can choose something based on the employee's interests: whether it's a history book, a travel guide, a book on personal development, an exciting biography, or even a vegan cookbook.

8. A tour to discover the city's culinary highlights

A culinary city tour allows you to get to know the city from a whole new perspective. It combines culture with visits to extraordinary restaurants and authentic insider food spots.

9. Gift voucher for food deliveries

Sometimes it can be a lot to go to the supermarket after work and do the weekly shopping. That's when a grocery delivery service comes in handy! Be sure to check in advance whether the provider offers delivery service in the region where the employee lives.

10. A plant

Does your employee have green fingers? Plants are probably one of the most common gifts given to employees. However, it's best to make sure that the plant is easy to care for so that the recipient can enjoy this green and sustainable employee gift for a long time to come.

Tip: Do you find giving a plant as a gift too boring? How about a plant course where you can learn how to care for plants, make unique wreaths, or create your own plant terrarium?

11. Noise-canceling headphones

Sometimes it gets really loud in the office, and the right beats in your ears can help you concentrate better. The best part is that noise-canceling technology makes it easy to block out background noise.

Tip: Is your employee musically talented? In a music workshop, they can show off their rhythm while drumming, learn the basics of the ukulele, or rediscover the city on a silent disco walk.

Why are employee gifts worthwhile?

Company gifts are not only a nice gesture, but also an opportunity to show appreciation to employees, increase their motivation, and strengthen employee loyalty.

Why employee gifts are worthwhile:

• Employee motivation: Rewarding success has been proven to increase employee motivation. In a survey conducted by the Statista Research Department (2017), 66 percent of employees stated that employee gifts increase their motivation.
• Loyalty to the company: Gifts that come from the heart and are memorable bind employees to the company in the long term. In a survey, 68 percent of employees stated that great employee gifts would make them more likely to stay with an employer (Runa, 2022).
• Work-life balance and stress reduction: Some gifts, such as experience gifts, can offer employees a balance to their everyday working lives.
• Gifts strengthen the sense of belonging: Shared gifts—such as employee gifts at Christmas—strengthen the sense of community among employees.
• Stronger identification with the company: Employees associate the gifts with the company and feel a stronger sense of belonging as a result of the appreciation.

Original employee gifts not only bring joy, but also promote employee satisfaction and productivity.

Choosing employee gifts – what you should keep in mind

Whether the employee gift is for a birthday, Christmas, anniversary, or as a thank you, when choosing a gift, you should always keep in mind what the recipient would enjoy. It's best to choose a gift that will leave the employee with fond memories and is useful at the same time.

When selecting gifts for employees, it is important to ensure that no one is excluded from the well-intentioned gesture. For example, not all employees celebrate the same holidays. Some employees do not eat meat, dairy products, or drink alcohol. When selecting a gift, make sure that it will bring joy to every employee and evoke positive associations.