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With jingling bells, more and more red surroundings, and Michael Bublé's almost synonymous-to-Christmas background score, the magic of Christmas is brewing slowly. And since the inception of Christmas, if there is one thing that has remained as integral as the Christmas tree in the whole festivity, it is the Christmas gifts for employees. Your workforce is no different, as it emerges from the same social-religious milieu.
Why it’s important to gift employees in Christmas
However shocking it may sound, the truth is that 85% of the employees aren’t engaged in the workplace. It indicates glaringly that the majority of the workforce across the world are either viewing their workplace negatively or only doing the bare minimum to meet the ends, with no emotional attachment.
The situation gets even grimmer when you factor in the fact that 81% of employees would consider leaving their jobs for the right offer, even if they wouldn't be looking for a job at the moment. The worrying thing is, the cost of unengaged employees is astronomically high. In fact, it's high enough to break the economic backbone of a company.
What adds to this lack of productivity is their apparent absenteeism. Disengaged workers show 41% more absenteeism.
The rationale, then, behind the insistence on creating a personal touch with employees is understandable. It spells out the need to make employees feel they belong to the workplace, as disengagement primarily and uniquely stems from the acute sense of non-belonging.
The ideal way to achieve it is to recognize their efforts and showcase gratitude for what they have done for you - and the world is yet to see a fulfilling and joyous tool than gifting for it.
Note that Christmas, easily one of the biggest events on the calendar, is a family affair. After a year’s hard work and deadlines stress, a gifting gesture filled with gratitude, hope, and a general positive feeling can make your employees feel that they are a part of your family and rope in that fabled employee belongingness and engagement.
Prasad Dhamdhere
This Christmas, Gift them the Power of Choice
However deeply rooted they might be in the tradition of Christmas, mundane Christmas hampers, stockings, and chocolate boxes fail miserably in lingering on the minds of the receiver - one of the key motivations behind gifting.
They get consumed and fade into oblivion, albeit after proving useful. Employees need something which will cease to become mere gifts and emerge as souvenirs - a territory that only experience can conquer.
That’s why when people want their gifts to be a mixture of mementos and usable in daily life, giving the power of choice through vouchers is arguably the best christmas gifts for employees
Xoxoday, an ace digital rewards platform, is tailor-made for this “freedom to choose” gifting ideology.
With exciting special offers for the season of reindeers and Santas, you can simply distribute Xoxo Points and Xoxo Links to employees, and the catalog below would give them a chance to redeem whatever pleases their hearts—be it perks, tangible things, or intangible experiences—making it a quintessential joyful Christmas gift sleigh-ride.
Category: Electronics
1. Smart wearables lead the way
Best for: The gizmo-freak who lives for digital bling
With everyone sporting a smartwatch, a health tracker app, and a glass of sugar-plush Frappuccino in their hands, smart wearables are an accessory that people can spend money on but won’t—however, they’d take it for a gift any given day. With plenty of amazing smart wearables under $50/equivalent currencies in the market, it’d make for a great staff Christmas gift.
2. Smart home accessories to show off as a cool employer
Best for: Proving the modern-day comfort for your employees
Alexa’s, Siri’s, and OK Google’s have been the icebreaker for daily conversations with a smart butler. Smart home accessories can do everything from playing music on your audio deck with a command to giving your Roomba an order to clean the spilled cola off the floor. What’s best? They are amusingly inexpensive and make up one of the best Christmas gifts for employees.
Category: Fashion Apparel & Accessories
3. The good ol’ shiny Jumper
Best for: The one with overzealous Xmas spirit
Christmas jumpers are the spirit of the season. These shimmery, bright, and highly visible sweaters coming with beautiful drawings of Rudolph and Santa Claus add it to the fervor and they make for a very proficient Christmas gift to employees. Get customized jumpers made for your workforce and it’d make for a perfect Christmas eve team picture.
4. Loungewear galore
Best for: The work-from-home hustler
It’s always the advice from fashionistas across the globe that something that can be slept in makes for the best gift. Loungewear is all about that. As it’d be abrupt (or pretty amazing) to get your teams matching PJs with your organization’s logo on it as a Christmas gift, they can always shop for their kind of stuff from a myriad of brands by grabbing a gift voucher through Xoxoday.
5. A 360-degree closet overhaul
Best for: Anyone who still dresses like Tom Hanks
This isn’t as expensive as a Christmas gift to employees as it sounds. A closet overhaul could become a great team-building activity. What has to be done? The organization can distribute gift vouchers with a substantial value as a Christmas bonus and in that value, one has to overhaul a part of their daily getup. Watch people turn up with new kicks, four new shirts for the weekday rotation and some might go for new bling.
Category: Travel and Tourism
6. Send them flying with Air Miles
Best for: The ones who’ve got “wanderlust” in their Instagram bio
Since most millennials use their hard-earned savings on travel and by gifting them air miles, the organization can fuel their aspirations. Air miles make one of the great Christmas gift ideas for employees and one can save a lot of money on travel with them. Plenty of airlines offer e-gift cards that have air miles in them.
7. Two words: Cruise trip!
Best for: Anyone who isn’t hydrophobic
Telling your employees that they can use their Christmas gift points to opt for a cruise trip sounds like a prank, but it’d make for a great Christmas gift if it can be done—and it can be done. At Xoxoday, we’ve got plenty of cruise ship vacations that’d make the prospect of Christmas in the sea lucrative and real.
8. A weekend getaway to brace them up for new year’s
Best for: The hard worker who badly needs a break
Most post-Christmas plans involve a vacation—a way for the working personnel to unwind away from emails and conferences. One of the best holiday gift ideas for employees would be a weekend getaway where they can plan their perfect weekend at a resort, cherish good food, and come back 100% recharged.
9. A myriad of adventure trips
Best for: A group of office-BFFs to enjoy
Be it skydiving, bungee jumping, laser-tag, or simply a Cabela’s expedition—give your workforce the freedom to choose their experience in the form of an adventure trip which would be the perfect retreat from daily walks of hustle and bustle.
Category: Home & Living
10. Set up your employees’ Christmas fireplace at home
Best for: The warm embrace of a homely little Christmas
Every year, a makeshift fireplace becomes a centerpiece to the Christmas theme, and with families hitting the shopping malls for the mantelpieces and stockings, what’d be a better way to get the Christmas vibes going than sending over a beautiful and sober mantelpiece as a Christmas gift to employees?
11. Gift your employees a remote workplace upgrade
Best for: The remote hustler who literally works from the couch
This holiday gift idea is especially for your remote workforce—a remote workplace upgrade generally includes a monitor, an ergonomic chair, and a desk if not present. Although it’s a good practice to offer your employees a stipend for remote work upgrades, they can surely be given as a gift. Imagine a shiny chair and monitor wrapped in red, right in front of you.
12. A little something for the furry buddies
Best for: The fur mommies and daddies
When Christmas comes to town, there’s always a cat or a dog in the picture with a red hat on. With a special mention for the little furry buddies that make our place feel like home, keep a few chew-toys and some uni-pet jumpers on for distribution as staff Christmas gifts.
Category: Gift Vouchers from Online Stores
13. Ease your workforce’s gifting jitters
Best for: It’s Christmas-- this one’s best for everyone!
Xoxoday is the ultimate place to get gift vouchers and send them over to others. As gift cards are a very prominent commodity in the gifting segment in today’s time, and the fact that post-holiday debt is racking up people, an organization can ease the workforce’s jitters if Xoxo Points could be distributed and redeemed for gift cards—the codes of which can be shared as a gift.
14. Take care of their essential shopping needs
Best for: Anyone who cooks at home (and especially the ones who don’t)
With grocery shopping being an inevitable expense, the organization can always take care of their employees’ daily needs with vouchers from grocery stores and these come in real handy in the Christmas season. It’s indeed one of the most usable holiday gift ideas for employees.
Category: Restaurant, Food & Drinks
15. A bottle of wine to finish the Christmas puzzle
Best for: The lavish wine enthusiast amongst you
Wine is the missing centerpiece to the Christmas table and is generally the guests’ responsibility. What can be a better Christmas gift to employees than putting that bottle of wine on the table?
16. A coffee boost to satiate their caffeine cravings
Best for: The one who can’t talk to anyone else without some joe
Nothing keeps your workforce happier than an amazing latte on the way to work or ordering in a big pitcher of Frappuccino that’s on the house. The working class spends almost $2000 every year on their coffee cravings and you as an organization can bring this number down by sponsoring their daily caffeine dose.
17. A Christmas feast that’s worth building an appetite
Best for: The one who eats everything that’s left on the Xmas potluck
The best Christmas Ideas for employees is a Christmas eve dinner, but since that looks highly unlikely, a team-building activity can be planned for employees in the form of a virtual Christmas feast. This can be achieved by sending out gift vouchers to your employees as a Christmas gift which can be redeemed at their favorite eateries. What’s next? Get on a virtual dinner and have your Christmas eve dinner!
18. A drink or two on the house
Best for: Anyone who drinks
Almost all Christmas Eve workdays end with a pint in the nearby brewery or a benevolent co-worker saving the day with a bottle of wine and there couldn’t be a more perfect way to get in the vacation groove. Sponsor them all (except the designated driver) as the perfect Christmas gift for employees that came early.
19. Reduce the chef’s burden by ordering in
Best for: Ones who can’t stop ordering online
Gone are the days when every dish at the table was made from scratch. People prefer ordering in eggnogs and pies alike - but how does this come out as a Christmas gift idea for employees? Distribute gift vouchers from places like GrubHub, Postmates, UberEats, and more. Check out the full list down below and make your employees go “This pie was sent as a gift from my boss”.
Category: Beauty, Health & Wellness
20. Nothing beats the sweet smell of perfume
Best for: Anyone who doesn’t get teased for their body odor
Although electronic gadgets are slowly catching up as the ideal corporate Christmas gifts for employees and friends alike, a good bottle of perfume has never failed to deliver. With every individual sporting their fragrance, a place like Sephora or Walmart might be an amazing avenue for your employees to choose their kind of spray.
21. A spa-luscious Christmas weekend
Best for: The ones who really love to get pampered
Self-care is detoxifying and something about getting oneself pampered in a spa with a haircut or a full-on grooming session can set one up nicely for Christmas and when they come back after the New Year. Salon and spa vouchers have been the best Christmas gifts for employees, and we take special care of them.
22. Beauty & Skincare gift vouchers never go to waste
Best for: Your workspace to have that sweet scent of moisturizer in the air
With skincare products costing a fortune now, employees will cherish if they can get those for- celebrities-only products as gifts. Check out all the options for leading skincare and beauty brands and gift them to your employees for Christmas.
The Gift of Giving: Charity
Every religion has the same underlying message, albeit in different languages and times: Help the needy. Staying siloed in your personal life and celebrating festivals within the four walls of your own house, thus, goes against the true and spiritual meaning of holidays.
The truth is festivals are for caring for others as much as they are for pampering oneself. And letting your employees donate through charity can bring them closer to that actual spirit.
It rings with so much universality and acceptance that Consumer Reports emphatically point out that donation to charity could become a bona fide Christmas present.
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In a nutshell...
With only 15% of employees actively engaged in the workplace, employers should constantly hunt for opportunities to appreciate their valuable employees with joyous gifts and rewards. And no event is a bonafide global one than Christmas. The only thing that you need to ace is the right gifting platform which will give you three things: Plenty of gifting options, easy to set up and run methodology, and measurable KPIs.
