If you think your employees are underperforming and need a motivational boost to lift their spirits, there’s nothing better than acknowledging their efforts through branded merchandise.

With employee engagement becoming the latest buzzword in the business world, you must go beyond the jargon and understand the underlying benefits.

The math here is quite simple:

Engagement + Employees = Productivity

Productivity + Effective Marketing = Profit

Hence, with a dedicated employee engagement plan, you can directly influence the turnover rate of your workforce and boost productivity.

Drive Employee Engagement with Branded Merchandise

With branded merchandise, you can connect with your employees and improve their morale.

You can start by packing a branded box full of items showing what appreciation means to your company.

Branded items reflect the quality of appreciation, promoting team spirit, and reinforcing unity in your workforce. Connect that with your brand’s story, and you can strengthen a sense of community within your organization.

By choosing meaningful items that align with your brand ethos, your employees will feel appreciated and proud to be a part of your team – forming an emotional connection with your firm.

If you notice your workforce is dipping in performance, consider leveraging their morale by showing you appreciate their work.

And maybe it’s time to dust-off an employee engagement program.

Here are the five best ways to use Branded Merchandise to reward your employee contributions:

Branded water bottles
Staying hydrated is necessary for your employees, especially during hectic work routines. Gifting a branded water bottle can be a great way of showing you care for the health of your workforce.

Since water bottles come in various sizes, colors, and materials – try making them super customizable to match your brand.

Branded tumblers
Coffee is a must-have beverage for every office. Send your employees branded stainless steel tumblers with your company’s logo or branding on the sides.

A good quality tumbler will keep their coffee warm even during long conference calls or meetings. You can add an extra touch by providing some free coffee sachets as well.

Branded stationery
Office stationery includes pens, notebooks, writing pads, and more. You can give branded pens and notebooks to your employees so that they remain productive and organized.

To add a touch of customization, you can use branded fore edging, embossing, and your company watermark on the pages.

Bluetooth Headphones or Speakers
If you think your employees need to improve focus during their busy workday schedule, rewarding them with a pair of branded Bluetooth headphones or speakers can be a great option.

Also, good quality Bluetooth headphones are lightweight, portable, and some of them even have an active-noise canceling function that can help your employees increase their productivity at work.

Power Banks
Power banks are one of those products that we need but hardly get around to buying. It’s for this reason they are a big hit.

Gifting a branded power bank for employee contribution can help your workforce stay online even if they’re working from remote locations – presently during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s also a gesture that you care for their needs in these testing times.

Dos and don’ts

As per a study by Bersin & Associates, companies that provide sufficient employee recognition have 31% lower employee turnover rates than companies that don’t.

Even if recognition is the first step in building successful organizations – you have to make sure that you shouldn’t dole out appreciations to just everyone.

Primarily, you should only reward the employees that deserve recognition; ubiquitous participation rewards can be ineffective, while well-deserved rewards can make your employees feel accomplished and push them to achieve more.

Here are some critical dos and don’ts to create a successful employee appreciation strategy through branded merchandise:

Dos

Make recognition achievable
It will help if you create recognition criteria based on your company’s structure so that everyone in your firm can receive recognition.

Make sure you don’t exclude any employee or group of employees from your appreciation program.

Set clear criteria
Inform all your employees how they can achieve recognition. Before launching an appreciation program, figure out the behaviors or actions you want to reward.

By clearly defining how actions will be recognized and what rewards will be given gets you on the same page with your workforce.

Give timely recognition
Ensure you reward an employee as soon as they achieve the eligibility criteria to reinforce the behaviors you want them to demonstrate.

Don’ts

Avoid favoritism
Anyone who meets the criteria for recognition must receive a reward.

Just by recognizing only a small group of employees will send a message that you’re not concerned with what others contribute to your organization.

Don’t criticize under-performing employees
While praise and recognition must be made in public, criticism should always be private.

If you share criticism with employees only during one-on-one meetings, it will help you resolve where a particular employee struggles.

Takeaway

Employees respond to appreciation because it confirms that their work provides value to others. When they feel valued, their satisfaction and productivity will rise.

With branded merchandise, you can show that your company regards the diligence of its workforce.

It’s a great way to build a strong connection with your employees and make them more responsive towards any impending challenges.