They say cash is king, but ask any kid on Christmas morning and they’ll tell you the best gifts are the ones you can play with right out of the box. Plus, you already give your employees, vendors, and business associates enough of the cold hard stuff, so what do you give when you want to make them feel all warm and fuzzy?
That’s where corporate gifting comes in! Whether it’s a holiday, employee milestone, company anniversary, sales incentive, or you just want to show your peeps how much you care – a well thought out gift delivers the message that you value the person and your relationship with them.
A great gift does even more. For example, employees who ride bikes are happier, more productive, take fewer sick days, live longer, and look better – so giving someone a bike not only lets them know that you care about them, it boosts company culture and morale, so everyone feels better about coming into the office.
When you add in the insurance savings of having a healthy workforce, the recruiting benefits of an attractive, energetic workplace, and the attitude benefits of a team excited about the Monday morning commute, you’ve got a two-wheeled recipe for success!
Some companies crush corporate gifting, here are 5 of the very best:
1. Cliff Bar
Cliff bar offers cool commute incentives to keep their employees fit, happy, and out of their cars! Cliff-ians can receive up to $500 for the purchase of a bike and all they have to do is make the commute on two wheels twice a month. Most end up making the ride way more frequently because, let’s face it, fresh air, a cool breeze, and the sun in your face makes car traffic feel more like masochism than a mode of transportation.
2. New Belgium
The only downside to working for a beer company is finding room for all those delicious liquid calories. New Belgium knows what it takes to keep employees happy (and thirsty), bikes! On their one-year anniversary, employees are presented with their very own Fat Tire cruiser bike so they can sip comfortably, without worrying about their waist lines. They also offer a fleet of cruisers that employees are encouraged to borrow for errands, lunch, or just getting around. The only thing you won’t see is one being ridden without a smile.
3. Sweetgreen
Sweetgreen takes anniversary gifts seriously. After their first year at the company, employees receive a pair of green Converse high-tops. At two-years, they earn a t-shirt and a neon green iPod Nano Touch. After three years, they get a custom lime-green Sweetgreen bike of their very own! That kind of tiered gifting is becoming more and more common, and the way Sweetgreen’s gifts can all be used together is what makes elevates them beyond “more corporate swag” and makes them a valued investment in their employees work-life balance.
4. Honest Tea
Honest Tea needs to seriously consider changing their name to Chari-Tea based on the incredible amount of gifting they do to customers and team members. The Maryland-based beverage makers teamed up with Jamis to give away 500 bikes to consumers, as well as provide one for each of their employees! Embracing the health and enjoyment benefits of bikes, they figured if it’s good enough for their employees, it’s good enough for their customers – and 500+ happy pedallers will tell you it was an awesome idea.
5. IKEA
The big blue store with the flat brown boxes wanted to make all 12,400 of their US employees feel loved and have the option to ride to work, even if they didn’t already have wheels of their own, so they gave each and every one of them a brand new bike! The 350 Portland area employees were predictably excited, but IKEA was surprised just how warmly received the bikes were nationwide! It turns out, most people would love to get some exercise and fresh air on their way to work, they just need some place to start.
What will you do?
We’ve just scratched the surface of the giving options available, and there are myriad other ways to use corporate gifts to drive incentive programs, customer engagement, and team-building – the only limit is the creativity of management and their willingness to embrace the happiness of their workforce.
Let us know in the comments how your company celebrates the ones they love – and reach out if you’d like your company to explore bikes as a means of making work, life and, well, everything better!