Welcome Kits That Wow: How to Onboard Employees with Impact

New hires almost always feel a swirl of emotions when they begin their jobs. Since you can bet your new employee will show up feeling equal parts excited and nervous, this is your opportunity to put together a welcome kit that will shape the way they experience your company’s culture from day one.

Think of building employee onboarding kits as a simple and effective way of telling new hires they matter to you and that they’re already a valued team member.

Done well, a new employee welcome kit will boost morale, decrease nerves, and lay the foundation for long-term loyalty and participation.

Why First Impressions Matter in the Onboarding Process

Onboarding is an often-overlooked driver of long-term retention and job satisfaction. The impression your company makes on day one will stick with your new hires for the rest of their tenure.

Personalized gifts are great for leaving a positive lasting impression, because they:

• Make new team members feel valued
• Build emotional connections early
• Reinforce your logo and your company’s values
• Help ease the “first day jitters” that new employees often experience
• Encourage employees to feel like part of the team

In other words, well-planned welcome kits for new hires help team members feel supported and motivated from the moment they walk in the door or log in.

What To Include in a New Employee Welcome Kit

Practical employee onboarding gifts should strike a balance between showcasing company pride, such as including your logo, company colors, and a slogan or mission statement, and offering practicality and enjoyment.

It’s essential to convey that your company is a great place to work, which means focusing on valuing each new hire as an individual. This is not the time for identical gift bags that look the same for everyone.

We recommend picking something from each category below and tailoring each choice to your new hire’s personality.

1. Branded Essentials for Daily Use

These items reinforce your company’s identity and welcome each new member to the team. There’s nothing quite like branded swag to lay the foundation for a cohesive community. Try:

• Branded apparel (think t-shirts, hoodies, or jackets with your logo)
• Company swag like hats, lanyards, or on-the-job accessories
• Coffee mugs, water bottles, pens, and other helpful items everyone can appreciate

These items are great for both in-person and remote workers, since everyone will be equally united under the same company brand.

2. Personalized Corporate Gifts That Show You Care

To escape the cookie-cutter trap, pick at least one helpful or fun item that will appeal to your new hire. These ideas should get you started:

• Engraved pens and personalized notebooks with your employee’s name or initials
• Monogrammed tote bags or laptop sleeves
• Customized gift sets (If your new hire mentioned they love gourmet coffee, they practice yoga, they rescue dogs, or anything else distinctive, now is the time to show them you were listening.)

Every tiny touch of personalization will go a long way toward making new team members feel valued.

3. Helpful Office Productivity Boosters

Make the first week a little smoother by gifting all the office basics your new hires may need. Try to think of things they may have forgotten to bring or haven’t had the time to buy yet:

• Power banks
• Wireless chargers
• Earbuds
• Desk lamps
• Mouse pads
• Calendars
• Sticky notes
• Stress balls
• Healthy snack packs

4. Culture-Building Extras

This is where you can add a touch of personality or company culture to the welcome kit. Help new employees get to know their surroundings by including some or all of the following:

• A welcome letter from leadership
• A guide to your company’s mission
• Stickers, postcards, or fun accessories your existing employees want to contribute
• Invitations to team meetups or virtual chats
• Fun gift cards (think “wine and painting” rather than groceries and gas)

Delivering Employee Onboarding Kits to Remote and Hybrid Teams

Personalized business gifts are just as important for employees who won’t be coming into the office full time. In fact, welcoming remote and hybrid team members with personalized company gifts might be even more important, because it provides a sense of belonging and cohesion that can be tough to build with a distributed team.

Luckily, you don’t have to deal with shipping each kit individually if you don’t want to.

When you place an order with ePromos, please provide the shipping addresses for your welcome kits and your desired delivery schedule. We can help you ensure that each gift arrives on time for your new employees’ first days at work.

How Welcome Kits Strengthen Engagement and Retention

A thoughtful new employee gift is a small investment you can make up front to further your business goals down the line. Since a healthy company culture correlates with high employee productivity and performance, anything you can do to boost your culture will also indirectly help your bottom line.

Onboarding kits are great because they introduce new hires to your office culture right off the bat. Starting on day one, you’re:

• Increasing loyalty
• Reducing turnover
• Boosting team spirit
• Strengthening emotional connections between your employees and your organization
• Reinforcing your brand’s values
• Supporting your employees’ happiness and wellbeing

When new hires feel welcomed and supported, they’ll bring their best work to the table and be a true boon to your business.

More Onboarding Best Practices to Pair with Your Kit

Thoughtful gifts are just one part of the equation. For best results, you’ll want to devise an onboarding plan that helps new hires get acquainted with their role and their coworkers.

The process will vary for different companies, but consider incorporating:

• Introductory virtual meetings
• In-person, remote, or self-paced training
• Regular check-ins and structured feedback
• A go-to manual or reference book employees can refer to when they’re not sure of a policy

Tuck this manual into the welcome kit alongside some notes or cards from other employees, and you’ve got a great head start!

Using Gifts for Employee Recognition

First-day gifts are wonderful, but you can keep the fun going all year round if you find it has a positive effect on your team’s morale. Celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries, major milestones, holidays, promotions, or just random Fridays, whenever the mood strikes!

Shopping for these occasions is easy with ePromos. Engraved gifts, branded clothing items, customized drinkware, and personalized picture frames are great for any occasion, and we have hundreds of other items to choose from as well!

How To Measure the Success of Your Onboarding Efforts

Since much of the benefit of onboarding kits comes down to morale and culture, you might think it’s impossible to track the return on your gift investment. Thankfully, this isn’t the case.

You can hone and perfect your onboarding strategy over time by measuring metrics such as employee engagement, job satisfaction, productive time in the office, retention rates of new hires, and periodic feedback from your team.

Surveys are one way to collect thoughts and feelings, but you can also host meetings or take the whole team out to dinner once per quarter to ask for opinions and suggestions for improvement.

Ready to order? ePromos Will Help You Welcome New Employees with Style.

Don’t worry if you don’t have the perfect onboarding process or gift kit already planned out, ePromos will work with you to get everything just right.

Our ePromos Brand Consultants are experts at helping you identify the perfect items to make an impact. Give us a call at 877-377-6667 or hit our chat button, and we’ll help you shop, design your custom print, place an order that maximizes your savings, and choose the shipping choice best for your situation.

We look forward to working with you!