This post is dedicated to bosses and supervisors looking for employee gift ideas in 2021.
If you really want to hit it out of the park with your holiday offering, look no further. Seriously. These are (quite possibly) the best employee gift ideas ever! Epic doesn’t even cut it.
Given my past experiences as a corporate employee, I thought it best to introduce these employee gift ideas in the form of a letter.
I hope it brings you and your employees as much as joy as I took in writing it.
Without further ado, let’s dive in.
Dear Boss,
It’s me, Employee.
(No, not the one who is constantly sucking up to you.)
I’m going to be your gift genie because you opened your Google search bar and typed “employee gift ideas”. Because I’m your employee, I consider myself uniquely placed to give you the best suggestions.
Because I’m not the office suck-up, I’m going to be honest with you. Don’t cringe – I’m here to help, not be brutal.
Firstly, let’s get the elephant (or polar bear) in the room out of the way.
Unless you give me something personalised that you know that I would like (because you actually know me and we have a good relationship) or money, I will probably donate/throw away any cheap mass-produced gift item you purchase.
I will also feel bad about doing it because of climate change, the devastating environmental effect of humanity and the probable poor working conditions of the person who slaved to make said item of which I am now disposing.
Moreover, if you aren’t really interested in discovering what I really want, a compostable Christmas card will do.
FYI, there are some great compostable Christmas cards listed nicely for you here.
Secondly, the best gifts that you can give (other than money, paid holidays and more money) won’t cost you a cent. Okay, it may cost you some money in therapist fees; but don’t you worry: Janey in HR told me that your insurance plan will cover that.
It would really mean something to me if you tried to do this one thing this year.
Boss, I just want you to try to be a better boss.
I’m even going to suggest to you how you can do it.
Yes, feel free to thank me later. As my therapist says (the one that I needed to cope with your less-than-desirable habits), I accept debit cards, credit cards and bank drafts.
Despite my slight snarkiness (an after-effect of office politics), I’m not coming from a pedestal of self-righteousness. With my utmost respect, I’m not asking you to do something that I am not willing to do.
For example, I try to be a better employee by reading posts like this one and this one which I can implement at work. You also never fail to point out how I could do things better (and I do listen).
Plus, if you become a great boss, I’ll probably become a better employee as this study shows.
Lastly, I want you to know that these tips are not being spouted off the top of my head. Nope, not at all.
What kind of sloppy work would that be? The kind of sloppy work I know you despise.
So, I did some research. Yes, I can do things without being told (see? I’m not that bad).
The Process
Basically, I considered our most memorable interactions: you know, the ones that make me never want to work for you again. Thereafter, I analyzed studies on the traits of great bosses here, here, here, here, here, here and here in order to arrive at a consensus for the most desirable traits in a manager.
If you decide to be thorough and click the links, you will notice that some of the studies focus on choosing a good manager from a human resources perspective. As a result, you might think that you’ve already met these benchmarks.
I’m sorry (not sorry) to burst your bubble but, the thing is, most human resources departments aren’t actually implementing these best practices.
Respectfully, you were probably promoted to your current post based on technical competence and/or seniority. It’s not like the organizational structure has other ways to promote and/or reward highly skilled technical workers like yourself.
Moreover, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think that what HR did in the past really matters.
What matters now is that you are my boss and that you are searching for employee gift ideas. This is where I come in.
As a self-proclaimed office Santa, I hereby designate these boss traits as employee gift ideas that keep on giving.
Employee Gift Idea #1: Trust
Every good experience that I have had with a boss during my corporate career has been based on mutual trust.
That trust was built up over time by knowing that my boss had my back. My boss cared about my career. My boss cared about my well-being.
They didn’t just say it. They showed it. Walking the talk earned them my trust and my loyalty.
This could be you too, boss.
Do you want my trust? Or my loyalty? Do you actually care about me and my coworkers?
If the answer to these questions is yes, I can help you. If the answer is no, just get me the compostable Christmas card please.
According to Paul J. Zak, there are 8 management behaviours that you can implement to foster trust. From my perspective, I think that implementing these behaviours would make some great employee gift ideas.
- Recognize excellence in us (your employees)
- Challenge us with a difficult but achievable task (and assume that we can do it)
- Give us discretion with how we do our work
- Allow us to choose which projects we work on.
- Share information about the company’s vision and goals with everyone (don’t leave us in the dark)
- Intentionally build relationships with us (get to know us but strike a balance – no oversharing please)
- Facilitate our whole-person growth (personally and professionally)
- Be vulnerable (ask for help)
Trust takes time. However, you can’t finish if you don’t start.
If you want to become a better boss, building trust is a great place to start.
Employee Gift Idea #2: Good Communication
Even though we speak the same language, we often don’t understand each other.
These misunderstandings often to lead to confusion and even resentment. Might I also point out that you can’t build trust if we can’t communicate well?
My suggestions to you for some employee gift ideas this year are –
- Implement active listening. Repeat what you understand me to be saying to make sure you actually understand. I’ll correct you if you didn’t.
- Ask open questions. Allow me the freedom to express myself in my own words rather than replying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to closed questions.
- Pay attention to my body language. Am I unable to look you in the eye? Are my arms folded? Stuff like that says a lot about what I’m not saying, especially when we are still learning to trust each other.
Learning to communicate effectively is not glamorous by any means. However, if you want to be a great boss, you will need to continue learning how to do it. As my mother says, “there is always room for improvement.”
FYI, read more on effective communication here and here.
Employee Gift Idea #3: Being Decisive yet Open, Fair, Honest and Flexible
Your boss is paying you to make decisions. If you don’t have a boss, you either have shareholders or clients. Guess what? They are also paying you to make decisions.
So, make them.
Don’t mistake decisiveness for dictatorship.
In reality, your decision-making will probably improve if you are open to other ideas, honest about your own views and flexible especially when in relation to problem-solving. I also want you to be fair and make decisions based on the data, not on politics or nepotism.
For instance, I don’t want to be a less equal pig sacrificed as collateral damage in whatever corporate web you weave.
The less complicated you make the process of making a decision, the more time I can spend doing my job to process the data to help you make said decision.
Still on the fence? That, boss, is precisely the problem.
Make a decision please boss. Then, stick with it and take responsibility for it.
Employee Gift Idea #4: My Own Coach and Community-Maker
The icing on the cake is bringing these tips together to empower me and my coworkers. In so doing, you will actually create a community, boss.
This is what we want. To belong to a group of people led by someone we trust who has our best interests at heart.
It is that simple.
Motivate us as a servant leader. Lead by example. Create an atmosphere of accountability.
As my mother would say, “Now that is a boss!”.
Boss, whether or not you agree with me, if you’ve made it this far in the letter, I want to thank you for at least hearing me out. That is more than you have done at certain times in the past. I guess you must really want those employee gift ideas.
On the other hand, if you have decided that this is a load of rubbish and you don’t need any improvement anyway, at least check out these earth-friendly gifts here and here that I don’t want but can dispose of without eco-guilt. Or donate to a charity in my name. You can find some great charities here and here.
As usual, I can’t quite say that it has been a pleasure.
Yours sincerely,
Employee
All jokes aside friends, send this to your boss at your own risk.
If you are the boss, I hope that you will be open enough to hear some constructive criticism of your managerial prowess. You have the capacity to use your organizational power to create a team of reasonably trust-worthy, happy and high-achieving employees.
Please use it.
Do you agree that these are great employee gift ideas for 2021? What do you think are the traits of great bosses?
Let me know in the comments below!
Until next week friends, go forth and be awesome. And please, follow the health protocols in your area.