Give This Holiday Season To Receive Employee Engagement

It’s been a long year filled with hard work for your employees. As 2013 approaches, it’s time to show your workers just how much you appreciate all their efforts over the past year. The holiday season can be a great time to show how much you value them with some holiday cheer and some gift-wrapped perks. After all, who doesn’t like presents?

Giving gifts, even if they’re not big ticket items, can really help to boost your employee engagement and help with morale. Employee engagement increases because employees see gifts as a small token of the company’s appreciation for their efforts put in throughout the year.

Here are a few good gift ideas, ranging from those you can put under a tree to perks your workers will love. Give these to your workers this holiday season in order to show employees you notice their hard work and dedication:

Additional Vacation Time
Perhaps one of the nicest ways you can say thank you to employees is by giving them a little bonus vacation time. If your company isn’t one of the places toying with unlimited vacation policies, then it’s a good bet workers would love a little extra time around the holidays, perhaps in order to take that trip to Europe they’ve been dreaming about. By gifting some extra paid vacation days, you’ll be telling workers you trust their judgement and ability to regulate their schedules.

You’ll also allow them to take the time off they need to recharge their batteries, coming back into the office ready to solve problems and face new challenges. Your workers will come back from their sojourns refreshed, which means in addition to improved employee engagement your company will also benefit from fresh ideas and increased creativity.

A Little Tech
It can be hard to buy a gift everyone in the office will enjoy since most workplaces are a mix of personalities and interests. You might have an employee that is into underground indie music while another dreams of joining a ‘cheese of the month’ club. It’s too hard and awkward to get everyone a specialized gift, and it can get you into some tricky waters if these gifts are different prices.

Ours is an increasingly technological society. From mp3 players to video interviewing, technology is involved in almost every aspect of our daily lives. So it’s a good bet that getting your workers a techie gift this holiday season will be welcomed with open arms.

If you have some money to spend and want to give employees a nice present, give the gift of tech. You might consider a tablet, a smartphone, or even a nice mp3 player. Everyone in the office is likely to appreciate the gesture- and better still, get good use out of the gift. While reading a guilty pleasure on the beach, they’ll remember their beloved e-reader came from the company. These tech gadgets can work to improve employee engagement all year long.

Office Goodies
The economy is tough, which means you might not have the money to buy everyone a brand new iPad mini. Instead, use the same logic to get your employees a gift they’ll be likely to use everyday.

Give the gift of office goodies and you’ll be giving something useful that won’t exactly break the bank. Perhaps it’s a nice business card holder, a coffee cup with the company logo, or a branded sweatshirt. Whatever it is you choose, make sure it’s high quality and something employees enjoy using.

The holiday season is a great time to give to your workers in order to receive the gift of employee engagement. Your employees work hard all year, so this winter, make sure to give them a token of your appreciation.

What are some ways you can increase your employee engagement with giving? Share in the comments!

IMAGE: Courtesy of Flickr by Keith Survell.