Let’s talk HR, the department in charge of hiring and retaining talent, training employees, and defining a company’s culture. This department is vital for a company’s success. Studies have shown that the better a company’s culture, the better employees perform.
In fact, a Harvard Business Review article found that why we work, determines how well we work and that ‘why’ is company culture. The more companies are able to create a work environment surrounded around play, purpose, and potential, and less around emotional pressure, economic pressure, and inertia, the better the company culture and the better employees perform. Notably, the article also found a direct correlation between increased customer satisfaction and a strong workplace culture.
This is important! It means the better we can build out our company culture, the better employees will perform, the more they’ll enjoy their work, and the more customers will have a positive experience with the company. Today’s post explores how to do just that. We’re highlighting the best ways to enhance HR and company culture through the use of curated promotional products.
Recognition and Awards
One of the areas promotional products work best for HR is in recognition and awards. A recent PPAI study found that 75% of companies use some sort of reward and recognition program for employees. Specifically, promo products work well to recognize employee service, anniversary recognition, and in motivating specific behaviors. Below are some of our favorite ways to honor and recognize employees.
- Milestones and Company Anniversaries
Celebrate milestones and company anniversaries with your employees! Recognizing hard work, loyalty, and contributions to the company can go a long way in creating a positive company culture and in retaining employees. Companies often celebrate 1 year, 5 year, 10 year and 20 year milestones.Promo gifts and rewards should be appropriate for each milestone. For example, perhaps employees receive a branded sweatshirt, a cool water bottle, or a USB drive for their first year milestone and perhaps they receive a nice plaque or award for their 5 year milestone. At 20 years, maybe they receive something even cooler like a branded company bike or a nice branded leather tote bag.
- Awards throughout the Year
Besides milestones and anniversaries, consider creating smaller branded promotional reward products to be used throughout the year. Awards like Employee of the Month or year-end awards like ‘MVP’ or ‘Top Seller’ awards, can go a long way in creating a culture where employees feel recognized, happy, and motivated to continue producing high-quality work.
- Company Traditions
Use rewards as a way to build company traditions! For example, maybe every Friday you do a team recap and honor the hard work the team accomplished that week. Every recognized person gets entered into a raffle and at the end of each month winners can pick from a selection of branded promotional prizes. Pretty cool, right? Your employees would love something like that! Use promotional products to create your own company traditions and reward incentives.
Company Merch Stores
We’ve worked with several clients who have successfully built company stores and merchandise lines for employees. Not only do these companies provide cool, branded merch for their employees, the merch also serves to create brand loyalty and to build brand awareness.
For example, our client Creative Artists Agency creates badass merchandise lines ever year for their yearly company retreat. Products include branded sports equipment like soccer balls, footballs, and baseballs, branded iPhone and iPad cases, cool embossed notebooks, and more. When you carefully curate products that resonate with employees, they’ll love rocking your company merch. Branded merch lines can also be sold to customers to create additional revenue stream for the business. It’s a win-win!
New Hire Welcome Kits
HR professionals can also use promotional products to create new hire welcome kits to onboard employees. Welcome kits are a great way to induct employees into the company culture. For more information on welcome kits check out this post we recently did on all of the cool new ways to create custom kits.
Need ideas to build out your company culture?
Our team is always ready to help you source, create, and brand the coolest promotional products. If you need help implementing a rewards program for your company, hit us up! Shoot us an email at happy@brandaiding.com or give us a call at 323-800-2241.
Brand+Aid is a promotional marketing agency based in Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California. We turn ideas into tangible, fun experiences through experiential advertising. Have an idea you’d like to make happen? Contact our rescue team for a free consultation today at 323-800-2241 or shoot us an email at happy@brandaiding.com. For more information, check out our website: www.brandaiding.com.
