National Employee Appreciation Day falls on the first Friday of March, and this year, we'll be celebrating on March 1st. Created in 1995 by Dr. Bob Nelson, this day is all about recognizing the incredible contributions each employee makes to its workplace.
At PlumTree, we believe in appreciating our awesome team every single day, but Employee Appreciation Day gives you a chance to go above and beyond! Studies show that 54% of employees leave their jobs because they don't feel valued. This day is a way of saying, "We see you, we appreciate you, and we're grateful for everything you do."
It's not just about gratitude; it's about fostering connections and building a sense of belonging. Regardless of an employee’s role, this day celebrates your employees and brings everyone together for a shared moment of appreciation.
So, how can you celebrate? Why not start with a kick off the day with a company-wide meeting, sharing a heartfelt thanks and celebrating the wins of the past year. And for that extra personal touch, the leadership team could express its gratitude for the team’s hard work.
Want to go a step further? A thoughtful gift will always be appreciated. We believe in making it personal, so while a nod to your brand can be nice, the focus here is on appreciation.
This Employee Appreciation Day, get ready for a gift box filled with carefully chosen products worth around $60 per person—2–3 high-quality items that reflect the valued individuals your employees are.
A few ideas to celebrate your employees with a gift.
This box features:
This box ($60) features:
This box ($80) features:
Feeling excited? We are too! Let's make this Employee Appreciation Day a day to cherish.
If you need help planning the perfect gift, we've got you covered with customizable gift box options. Reach out to us, and let's make this day extraordinary!
]]>Fostering a positive company culture is no small feat, especially in the face of challenges like the shift to remote and hybrid work setups.
Employee happiness and satisfaction plays a pivotal role in the success of any organization. A genuinely positive company culture not only attracts and retains top talent but also brings out the best performance in people, making the workplace a truly enjoyable environment.
While factors like compensation, benefits, and flexibility impact employee satisfaction, the significance of a thoughtful employee gifting strategy should not be overlooked. According to a 2022 Harris Poll, 71% of Americans feel a stronger connection to their employer or manager when they receive quality, considerate gifts.
However, it's not just about occasional gifts; a comprehensive strategy is key to making a lasting impact. Here are our tips for leveraging employee gifting to enhance engagement and strengthen our unique company culture:
1. Reflect on Your Values: Take a deep dive into our engagement strategy, examining where gifting can complement our efforts. Consider your existing offerings, keeping in mind that while incentives are tied to performance, gifts are expressions of appreciation. Let's align your gifting strategy with your core values, ensuring it reflects your commitment, such as eco-consciousness.
2. Define Gifting Goals and Budget: Identify the milestones and life events—both personal and professional—that you want to celebrate or support. From onboarding to retirement, and everything in between, let's ensure we budget accordingly, maintain gifting parity, and adhere to company and legal guidelines.
3. Thoughtful Gift Selection: Choose gifts with a purpose, showcasing your genuine intent to value your employees. Let's view employee gifting as a part of long-term relationship-building, reaping the psychological benefits of appreciation, care, and connection.
4. Personalization Matters: Avoid excessive branding, making the gesture feel more personal than promotional. Tailor gifts based on what we know about our employees, ensuring high quality and being mindful of dietary restrictions and preferences.
5. Include a Personal Message: A note from a leader in your organization adds a personal touch, showing that we truly know and appreciate each individual.
6. Consider Presentation and Delivery: The way a gift is presented matters. Let's go beyond a standard delivery and opt for customized gift boxes with branded packaging, delivered to homes or office with a note from the company. It's about making the gesture memorable.
At PlumTree, we offer unique gifts to support, celebrate, and engage your team throughout the year. If you're ready to map out a gifting strategy that aligns seamlessly with your employee benefits and engagement initiatives, let us know.
Answer a few questions, and we'll present you with an initial plan tailored to our unique company culture. Let's make every gift count!
]]>Employee recognition is crucial to building an engaged, satisfied team. However, the traditional model of waiting until year five to celebrate employee contributions needs an update.
While the Great Resignation seems to be slowing, employee retention remains more critical now than ever before. According to Forbes Advisor, the average tenure of an employee today is 4.1 years, and nearly 38% of employees quit within the first year of employment.
Statistics like this signal the importance of personal, meaningful recognition right from the start.
Why Building a Work Anniversary Program Matters
Work anniversaries help you recognize individual contributors in ways that improve morale, build connection, and remind employees that you care and want them to succeed.
While there is a cost associated with celebrating employees sooner and more often, it's relatively minor compared to the cost of hiring and training a new employee. While figures vary, SHRM estimates the average cost per hire to be around $4,700!
Tips to Keep in Mind When Celebrating Years of Service
Create a Plan
Leverage your employee database to track who needs to be celebrated and when. Create an annual plan that gives you plenty of notice when employee anniversaries are approaching. If you are using the PlumTree gifting platform, you can easily order and ship gifts using your client portal as needed!
Make anniversary recognition personal.
Make each work anniversary recognition personal. Even if all employees receive the same gift and message from the organization, find additional opportunities for a direct supervisor to recognize the employee’s specific contributions. Don’t be afraid to tell your employees what you value about their personality and skills.
Keep things equitable.
If you celebrate one-year anniversaries, do it for every team member, not just some. Similarly, if you decide a tenth anniversary involves a party, this should be the standard for all ten-year employees. If your team is large, consider hosting one gathering that recognizes everyone who has reached ten years of service that calendar year.
Ideas for Recognizing Employees Throughout Their Tenure
If you’ve traditionally held off until five-year or ten-year celebrations, the thought of adding earlier anniversary gifts can feel overwhelming. Thankfully, small acts of recognition can make a big impact.
Remember that the gesture is more important than the value of the gift. A smaller token to mark year one is completely acceptable. Then, as your employee continues their journey, recognition can become more significant over time. For a fifth anniversary, you could send something like our Sweat and Rest Gift Box featuring workout bands and luxury bath and body items to promote relaxation.
Then, for a milestone like ten or fifteen years, you could send something bigger, like our Chef in Action Gift Box, which includes a high-end knife set, cutting board, apron, and cookbook.
There are so many options, and each company’s circumstances are unique. Here are some general ideas and inspiration to consider when building your work anniversary gifting strategy:
Before Year One
While, technically, they haven't yet reached an "anniversary," it doesn't mean you can't get the good feelings flowing. Consider including an onboarding gift that welcomes them into the fold. Choose a tastefully branded item paired with something that conveys your company's values or core purpose. Another option is celebrating the six-month mark with a note and a small appreciation gift.
Year 1
A gift to celebrate making it through an entire business cycle is a smart move. We love the idea of a thoughtful note or email paired with one of our Mini Kits. Mini Kits are a less expensive gift option (usually around $35), including two carefully selected items and a card.
Our On The Go Mini Kit includes a digital accessory bag and wireless charger that are sure to get plenty of use!
The In-Between Years (2–4, 6–9, 11–14, and all the rest)
Even in years that don't feel like major milestones, recognition matters. Consider these work anniversaries as reminders to keep ahead of appreciation and boost morale. A fun and lighthearted gift at a moderate price point can be a great option. We offer a Game is On Box that fits the bill, featuring a card game, artisan cocktail mixer, and spherical ice tray. An in-between anniversary is also an excellent time for a social media shoutout, a feature in a company-wide email, or a LinkedIn recommendation from upper management.
The Milestone Years (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and beyond)
Years ending in "0" and "5" call for something extra special! Of course, the budget and effort you put into a twenty-fifth anniversary are going to be more than you would for a fifth, but these are some fantastic ways to celebrate throughout the years:
Whatever plan you adopt, remember that the most important goal is to thoughtfully and equitably appreciate your team throughout their time with your company.
Is it time to refresh your work anniversary program?
Tell us your needs, and we can prepare a gifting plan supporting your goals.
]]>While companies used to celebrate the December holiday season with huge in-person gatherings, many organizations are now rethinking how to mark the year-end with their teams. For remote and hybrid teams, in particular, giant parties don’t always feel like the right fit. Thankfully, there are plenty of other ways to celebrate and appreciate your employees!
The best thing about allocating more of your holiday budget to gift-giving than gathering is that carefully selected gifts leave lasting impressions. The best gifts stick around your employees’ homes, offices, reminding them they matter to you.
As employee gifting experts, the PlumTree team spends much of our time researching the best items for different occasions and organizations. It’s not just about choosing a gift; it's about choosing the right gift.
Here are three things we suggest thinking about when selecting the perfect holiday gift for your employees:
1) Your organizational values
Every company has a unique personality and set of values. Gift-giving is an excellent chance to highlight those values, deepening your employees' connection to them. Whether you are committed to sustainability or all about creativity and innovation, holiday gifts can delight your team while nodding to your core purpose.
2) Your budget
Your budget will significantly impact the type of items you choose for holiday gifting. Once you determine the per-gift budget you can spend, a can help you make the best use of it. We recommend giving the same gift to all your team members or ensuring you spend the same amount across the board so everyone feels equally celebrated.
3) The message
Remember, gift-giving is more than an item to check off the to-do list. It's an opportunity to build stronger relationships with your employees. Choose things that you believe the majority of your team members will actually enjoy and use. And pair your thoughtfully wrapped gifts with a meaningful message of appreciation.
If you want to make things easy as pumpkin pie this holiday season, consider selecting from our collection of curated holiday gift boxes. We’ve created themed gifts designed to fit a range of organizational personalities and values, with options at several price points.
Gifts for Tech Lovers
Many industries attract tech-savvy contributors who embrace innovation. Cool gadgets may be the right holiday gifting move if your company uses a lot of cutting-edge tech. From high-ticket items like noise-canceling headphones to something more modestly priced like a wireless charging mat, tech-savvy employees will surely appreciate some new toys!
This season, we've built tech-focused gift boxes geared toward teams with different hobbies and lifestyles.
This one features a splash-proof travel speaker, cord wrap, and travel tech bag to make life simple for on-the-go employees.
Meanwhile, this box is designed for outdoor adventures, featuring a LED carabiner flashlight with a bottle opener and binoculars. We pair the gadgets with a cozy, stylish beanie bearing your company’s branding to make the perfect box.
These tech tools are helpful while still a bit of the ordinary, so they are sure to surprise and delight.
Gifts to Savor
Gourmet gifts are a popular option, especially during the holidays. From high-end chocolates and olive oils to barware and garnishes for the perfect cocktails, these items can be enjoyed by your employees or used to help them entertain family and friends.
Consider including a lasting gift item along with consumable items so that the sentiment sticks around longer, reminding your team members of your appreciation for months and years to come. For example, this year's PlumTree holiday gift collection pairs artisan balsamic with a dressing mixer and olive oil with an apron.
Wellness Gifts
If you've prioritized employee wellness, you may want a holiday gift that helps your team enjoy a bit of pampering or put some extra style into their active lifestyle.
Candles, eye masks, luxury lotions, and bath salts are always popular and appreciated. But for our holiday collection, we wanted to inspire companies to offer their team members something extra special that would stand out.
Nearly everyone has some tension or aches, and a massage gun plus essential oil is a treat that can help them relax after a long day.
We love that this is a gift with a lot of utility. It's likely to become a significant part of the recipient's wellness routine!
Gifts to Help Your Team Go Green
Sustainability is a core commitment of an increasing number of companies. Your holiday gift is a fantastic chance to put your values into action, empowering your team members to go green with a thoughtful, sustainable gift.
A foldable tote is a stylish way to reduce disposable bag use. And because the tote folds so tiny, it’s easy to take anywhere. In this box, we’ve packaged a Notabag tote with a Stojo collapsible bottle to keep the recipient hydrated while keeping single-use plastic and disposable cups out of trash bins.
Gifts to Celebrate the Season
If you have a company culture that embraces fun, this idea is for you. Consider sending your holiday gifts on the early side, in late November or at the start of December, and including everything your team needs to get into a festive mood. Photo booth props, garlands, seasonal candles, and tableware are all great options.
Far-flung teams can decorate their workspaces and feel a sense of togetherness on video calls all month. Then, they can bring items home to add to their own holiday décor collection. Of course, keep your team in mind and choose decorations and gifts that celebrate all holidays and promote unity!
We hope this post gives you a bit of inspiration as we approach the holiday season. Check out the complete 2023 collection here. If you have an idea not reflected in our collection, we're happy to help you build a custom box around a theme or item that will match your company's values, fit your budget, and delight your team.
Get in touch today.
]]>In the wake of the pandemic, industries of all kinds are experiencing more change than ever. From embracing remote and hybrid work arrangements to implementing new systems and practices, many organizations are rethinking their operations. Beyond that, today’s social climate has prompted companies to reexamine their values and create more inclusive and human-focused environments that support employee well-being.
While change can be refreshing and ultimately beneficial, it can also be challenging. According to McKinsey & Company, a remarkable 70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals. This statistic makes sense when you consider how the human brain is wired to interpret change as a threat, prompting a fight-or-flight response from the amygdala.
But there are things that organizations can do proactively to introduce changes successfully—things like proper preparation, communication, engagement, training, and evaluation.
Thoughtful appreciation is an important element of change management strategy. Research has shown that the human brain releases feel-good hormones when we get (or give!) a gift. This rush of positive feelings serves to reinforce behavior and improve mood.
At PlumTree, we have a variety of employee gifting solutions to help ease organizational changes of all kinds. In this post, we explore how sending a gift to your team members can support:
Gifts to Introduce New Ways of Working
Traditional office arrangements have been turned upside down in the years following the pandemic. Many companies are transforming their spaces to include flexible seating and conference rooms that can be used by hybrid employees when they are onsite.
One of our clients is an excellent example of this type of shift. In a recent location move, the company traded the individual offices they were accustomed to for a more open workspace layout. The leadership team wanted to cushion this change in how their team works with a thoughtful gift.
PlumTree helped them to build a gift box containing several high-end office supplies, including a cup, pen, and notebook—all packaged with a branded tote bag. A note from the new CEO accompanied each gift.
Not only were the gifts appreciated, but they also have had a notable impact on day-to-day work. Employees use the tote bag to transport their office items to the office and back and forth from their lockers. Many even found a use for the box itself—using it as a computer stand!
Gifts to Promote Team Cohesion
If your company is undergoing a merger or acquisition, gifts can be a powerful tool to welcome new members into the fold and encourage a sense of team unity. Team-building gifts can also help people across multiple sites or remote work setups get to know one another better.
There are several items we love regarding team building and connection. Incorporating a game or book everyone can enjoy together or with their direct work group is a smart option. Here are a few items from our collection of curated team-building gifts:
Gifts to Introduce New Branding or Celebrate a Launch
The intensity of opinions about new visual branding —or a product or service launch—can sometimes surprise leadership teams.
When selecting branded gift items, choose your products carefully with your team and brand in mind. Doing so is the best way to ensure your token of appreciation will be used and appreciated! We recommend asking a small subset of your employee base for input. Then consider that feedback, your budget, the product or service you're celebrating (if applicable), and the message you are trying to send.
Remember, this gifting occasion aims to help your employees feel connected to and involved in your rebrand or launch, not necessarily to market your company. Think about a selection of items that will make them proud to be a part of your organization, like the branded beanie in this Onboarding box we created for Take Command Health.
Gifts to Celebrate Leadership Change
There is often anxiety around leadership changes. Employees may wonder what the new leader’s impact will be on their role, the company culture, and the policies they are familiar with.
In addition to plenty of open communication, the right gift can be the perfect way to soften this transition for your employees. You can create a gift box that helps your new CEO introduce themselves, communicate their vision for the organization, and inspire your team to approach this new chapter enthusiastically.
We particularly like working with new leaders to select a book that captures a part of their philosophy or how they hope to lead. The book can communicate the leader's approach while serving as a shared touchpoint for the entire employee base. Here are a few examples of titles you might consider:
Whatever you choose, be sure to pair it with a thoughtful message signed by the new CEO or owner of your company for a personal touch.
Gifts to Support New Systems
New systems require learning, adjusting workflows, and even some fear from employees around increased scrutiny.
Recognizing your team's efforts as they navigate a major adjustment to how they work can help ease the human impact of this type of change. When determining what types of gifts work best for your situation, think about things that will boost morale, celebrate your people, and perhaps even incorporate a bit of humor. For instance, if you have adopted a new digital project management system, consider gift items like useful tech swag with a witty slogan related to the new system. You could also include some gourmet snacks to help them stay motivated and energized during training sessions for the new technology.
Organizational change isn’t always easy, but it can be successful. And thoughtfully selected gifts help your employees feel appreciated and supported through it all! If you need help curating the perfect gift to support your change management strategy, PlumTree can help.
]]>I am really proud of the fact that our leadership team is comprised of working mothers. I think that we each approach our work with a level of empathy, resourcefulness and efficiency which trickles across the entire organization. In the last year, we have made formal and informal changes to improve employees’ wellbeing – and specifically, the wellbeing of the parents. We offer flexible working hours and half day Fridays year round. I encourage our teammates to be there for the kindergarten plays and volunteer work, when possible. But more than that, I try and approach every teammate as an individual, not a role.
Yes and whether they are negative or positive changes, it usually comes from the top. If leadership prioritizes culture and well being then those beliefs permeate the company. You can see it from the company policies that are invested into, to how people behave in meetings.
Consumers are increasingly interested in doing business with brands committed to shared social causes. In fact, in a global study, Zeno Group found that individuals are four times more likely to buy from and trust purpose-driven brands.
So it should come as no surprise that employees, too, seek out employers with an authentic commitment to core values and defined causes.
Your company’s core values and the mission-aligned causes it supports are foundational aspects of your workplace culture. Beyond listing values on your website, it is essential to put your values into action in clear, visible, and concrete ways.
Many factors go into selecting the values and causes that your company supports. Often, businesses choose things that relate to their industry or benefit the community within which they operate.
Here are some inspiring examples of brands you likely know and the causes they have prioritized:
Recently, Patagonia's CEO transferred 100% of the company's voting stock to the Patagonia Purpose Trust, effectively making Earth its only shareholder. But even before that, the company’s commitment to sustainability was embedded into the culture in many ways. Patagonia uses earth-friendly materials in its outdoor clothing and gear and donates 1% of sales annually to benefit environmentally-friendly causes.
A core aspect of the company's mission is to create a world where people can belong anywhere, so it makes perfect sense that they launched the #weaccept campaign. As part of this campaign, Airbnb committed to providing short-term housing for 100,000 displaced people and donated $4 million to the International Rescue Committee.
The bakery-café has had a longstanding commitment to hunger relief efforts. They have donated over $100 M worth of retail goods each year to feed people in need through programs like their Day-End Dough-Nation. Though now closed, they operated a Panera Cares line of restaurants using a pay-what-you-can model. Panera also partnered with World Central Kitchen, offering meals, financial support, and kitchen space to combat food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once you are clear about your organization’s causes and values, it is essential to go beyond “talking the talk” and find ways to “walk the walk."
Here are four ways to make an ideal concrete for your team and activate your purpose.
It may seem obvious, but incorporating your values into the way you do business is a critical first step. Reflect on everything from the materials you use, the vendors you involve, and the sales process you follow. There are likely several opportunities to make small but meaningful adjustments based on your values. Once you've made these, highlight them to your team so that they see and understand each choice.
As a company, you can organize an event or participate in a public event, like a fundraising walk. Events are an active and fun way to involve many employees and their families! They also offer an opportunity for some positive press.
A gift is a great way to celebrate a cause-related holiday or to encourage your team’s participation around a particular value. For instance, if you are a company committed to sustainability, you might celebrate with an Earth Day gift that offers employees sustainably made items to "green their routine." If you are a business that has gender equality as a value, you might celebrate by sending a gift box for International Women’s Day. Or if you hold employee wellbeing as a central value, gifts to celebrate employee personal milestones or support stress-relief might be the perfect choice.
Here’s the Earth Day box we recently launched for PlumTree clients to share with their team members:
We also love the item of selecting values-driven items for an onboarding gift box that introduce company values right from the start!
Corporate giving signals to your team that you care about a social cause. Consider which giving model makes the most sense for your organization based on your size, structure, and budget.
You could select a nonprofit that shares your passion for a cause and donate some of your annual profits. Or, you could invite your employees to help determine a charitable organization each quarter to engage them more deeply. Putting your profits behind a cause will inspire employees and consumers alike!
If you need help creating a gift box that demonstrates your cause commitment and empowers your employees to be a part of it, PlumTree can help.
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This month we're kicking off our interview series. At PlumTree, we are all about making people feel seen, heard and recognized. We would like to inspire you with personal experiences of various people in the workforce.
May is Mental Health Awareness month. PlumTree spoke to Dr. Sharma about mental health in the workforce.
Dr. Sonali Sharma, known to her friends and colleagues as Allie, is a Cornell-trained board-certified Adult Psychiatrist, has run a private practice in Manhattan for over ten years, and partners with healthcare startups to build behavioral health programs.
I am a clinical psychiatrist and have worked in many types of settings across cultures and settings including program building in health tech, integrating mental health into primary care, private practice, emergency psychiatry, and have been working on a start-up in the past year of a soon to be revealed modern mental health practice.
The first thing I have noticed is that in certain industries there is more sensitivity about mental health, both in terms of self-advocacy at the level of the employee as well as awareness at the level of management.
The second observation is that a lot of companies are providing their employees with better mental health benefits. Twenty years ago therapy coverage was not a norm. Now there are a lot of B2B companies like Ginger, Lyra, Talkspace that offer free mental health sessions to their employees as a benefit, which is great! There is also a demand at the employee level to talk about mental health and make it a priority.
Another trend I see are the challenges related to working in a hybrid work culture. We shifted to working from home with COVID and now we have shifted to this new interim routine. These adjustments can exert challenges in the workplace related to workplace cohesion, personal fulfillment and our overall wellbeing and should be examined.
I do have the sense that the employee mental health is becoming a higher priority. We know if we invest in people's mental health, we can actually increase productivity and create a happier and more productive workplace. So I think it is a great investment for companies to make and I see this trend happening for sure, which is reassuring, but there is still variability across sectors and organizations.
And also something to note is that the World Health Organization (WHO) now recognizes burn-out as an occupational syndrome. More info on that here. It’s not considered a medical condition, but it’s in the International Classification of Disease (ICD-11).
Everyone has a different comfort level based on their circumstances but I definitely hear of more people discussing their mental health openly with their employer or with an HR representative. The term 'mental health day' is becoming more acceptable especially among younger generations and is less stigmatizing. This is person to person dependent though - it very much depends on how taking time off for mental health or advocating for one's own mental health (which can be a challenge) may impact one's standing in the workplace.
We have screening tools for use in the clinical setting which would require consent. You can definitely do employee surveys. One simple wellness survey that is validated is the WHO 5.
Create a supportive culture and create a culture where mental health is routinely discussed as part of staff onboarding, staff training and staff meetings, in policies and procedures, and especially at the level of leadership. And most importantly, make sure that health and HR benefits reflects that mental health is a priority!
Mental Health is a part of health. No health without mental health!
Invest in mental health! Because if you invest in mental health for your employees, you're investing in your company and your work culture.
About Dr. Sharma
Dr. Sonali Sharma, known to her friends and colleagues as Allie, is a Cornell-trained board-certified Adult Psychiatrist, has run a private practice in Manhattan for over ten years, and partners with healthcare startups to build behavioral health programs.
Dr. Sharma’s approach is broad and open-minded, drawn from her professional experiences working in various settings and across cultures throughout New York City and around the world. Her goal is to ensure that her patients’ experience is valuable, therapeutic, and grounded in best practice standards and clinical excellence.
Dr. Sharma has held various clinical positions, including Emergency Psychiatry at Columbia University, Student Mental Health at Columbia University’s health science campus, and supporting mental health of the homeless population across shelters in New York City.
In addition to providing direct clinical care, Dr. Sharma has had significant experience in Global Mental Health and in leadership positions within Public Psychiatry including at an NGO in Europe advising at the country level for two post-conflict countries on how to integrate mental health into primary care, as a World Health Organization (WHO) consultant on projects in Libya, Ethiopia, for WHO’s mhGAP Intervention Guide version 2.0 and various other WHO projects, in a Bronx primary care system starting a collaborative (integrated care) care program, and more recently as a Director of a Thrive NYC initiative designed to expand the mental health workforce in NYC’s highest need communities.
Most recently, she was an Associate Medical Director at CityBlock, a $10B tech-driven healthcare provider for underserved communities. She is currently a Women’s Health Advisor in Psychiatry for Evernow, a digital menopause care startup, and serves on the advisory board for Kenneth Cole's Mental Health Coaltion.
Dr. Sharma completed her Psychiatry Residency at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center at Payne Whitney Clinic and her Internship in Psychiatry at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She holds a Medical Degree from Weill Medical College of Cornell University and a Master’s Degree in Social Policy and Planning from the London School of Economics. She is a member of professional organizations and societies including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association and has received honors including the Faculty Council Resident Teaching Award during her residency in Psychiatry at Cornell and Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society in college. She has been an APA Fellow of the World Psychiatric Association’s Young Psychiatrist Council, a Bristol-Myers Squibb Public Psychiatry Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and a Rosenbluth International Fellow at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
Dr. Sharma is a mother of two children and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Fostering familiarity, empathy, and shared purpose among team members has proven benefits for both employees and the organization. In a randomized clinical trial of medical residents and nurses in an inpatient medical service, it was found that the more familiar the team was with one another, the better they performed on complex tasks in medical simulations.
Organizations are aware of the need to build cohesive teams. Gartner research found that 71% of human resources leaders are more worried about employee collaboration today than before the pandemic.
Here are some of the strategies that we have seen companies adopting to create high-performing human teams in this new work landscape.
Clear communication is foundational for a well-functioning team, no matter where your employees are.
Ensure that there are plenty of opportunities for people to connect with their supervisors, colleagues, and reports. Come to a shared consensus about things like
Consider using tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams, especially if your team is remote or hybrid. These tools allow you to set up topic-specific channels for professional and personal conversations. The work-focused channels you establish can be valuable for project management, while personal message sharing can foster relationships and replicate the breakroom chat that some employees might be missing.
Establishing communication norms that support remote employees' well-being is also beneficial. Putting on a "Do Not Disturb" notification in chat can replace closing an office door. Meanwhile, raising points or celebrating in a virtual meeting might be accomplished with specific options within your video conferencing software.
Employees with friends at work tend to be more loyal and engaged. Their feelings toward their workplace are more likely to be positive and social support can help reduce stress and promote psychological safety. Consider hosting in-person or virtual opportunities for teams to connect outside work responsibilities.
Fortune 500 Companies like Google, Dell, and Coca-Cola as well as smaller organizations across the United States have found game play to be a fun and effective way to connect. Meanwhile, Microsoft held a Build-A-Bike charity team building workshop as part of a corporate conference to give employees a chance to connect and do some good.
Big events like this are great, but remember, team socialization doesn’t have to a huge production. Begin by asking your employees for feedback about the types of activities they would enjoy most. Some popular options include:
One silver lining of the pandemic is that there are now more resources for making many of these options—like trivia or cooking classes—work for virtually!
Many assessments are designed to help people increase self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and team effectiveness. Some popular options include DiSC ®, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ®, Enneagram, and CliftonStrengths. There are practical benefits to understanding how to best collaborate with colleagues. But beyond that, these tools can also be fun ways for each person to get to know themselves and one another better.
Establishing a mentorship program is another way to build connections that lead to a cohesive team. With clear goals, guidelines, and structure, mentorship programs can promote a learning culture, build lasting employee relationships, and increase job satisfaction. According to Women Ahead, 82% of those surveyed found mentoring helpful in fostering meaningful connections across the organization. And Harvard Business Review notes that mentored employees had less anxiety and saw their job as more meaningful than those who did not have a mentor. Join successful companies like Mastercard and Novartis who are prioritizing mentorship to break down silos and bolster efforts to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
Give a Gift Your Team Can Use Together
Consider mixing appreciation with team building by giving your employees a gift they can enjoy together. Great examples include things like:
These gifts can work well for both onsite and remote employees. To encourage participation and respect your employees' time, schedule any book club discussions, virtual happy hours, or gameplay during work hours, perhaps as part of a standing meeting. At PlumTree, we offer several curated team-building gift boxes and create custom boxes to meet specific client needs. Here's a look for a bit of inspiration:
Want to kick off some team connectedness with one of these boxes?
Get in touch today.
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Mental Health Awareness Month, which focuses on awareness-building and advocacy, takes place each May in the United States. It is an ideal time to think about employee mental health, which the World Health Organization defines as “the psychological, social, and emotional well-being of individuals in the workplace.”
It is incredible that more workplaces are focusing on employee engagement and creating positive work cultures. Yet, the unfortunate fact remains that 83% of employees in the United States experience work-related stress, according to The American Institute of Stress. The major causes of this stress include things like workload, interpersonal issues at work, and the challenge of balancing work and personal life demands.
When left unaddressed, stress can lead to burnout and its characteristic exhaustion, demotivation, negativity, and diminished effectiveness. Beyond stress, many employees live with mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.
While mental health can sometimes feel like a sensitive subject to address at work, it matters, and there are things you can do to support employees in feeling and performing their best. In fact, in a survey conducted jointly by FlexJobs and Mental Health America, respondents even noted some specific things like increased flexibility and access to PTO and mental health days, as well as workplace wellness programming that would go a long way in this area.
In this post, we explore a few ways workplaces are opening the door to conversations about mental health and ensuring employees are supported.
Create safe spaces to speak up about mental health struggles.
To build a culture where employees feel safe talking about mental health, start by ensuring everyone feels seen, heard, and valued. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives lay the groundwork for employees to feel safe telling their supervisors they are struggling.
Consider offering your people managers additional training so they feel comfortable checking in with their reports about how they feel at work and in general. With many industries experiencing layoffs, employees may hesitate to admit they are having a tough time. But talking about the struggle and making changes to accommodate your employees' needs can help them stay motivated, engaged, and out of crisis.
Remember that remote work makes it trickier to spot when something is wrong. It's much easier to put on a happy face for an hour on Zoom than to keep that same smile on throughout an entire workday at the office. Yet, addressing stress early is crucial before things escalate to true burnout. And if an employee is living with a mental health condition such as anxiety, depression, or OCD, the sooner they seek help, the better.
Make mental health resources and support easy to access.
Assess current practices and remove barriers to getting help to address stress or a mental health condition. Some things you might do include:
Intentionally promote well-being through your policies and practices.
Encourage your team to set healthy boundaries that allow them to separate from their work throughout the day and after hours. For instance, something as simple as making it an acceptable norm to take a proper lunch break or not answer emails in the evenings or on weekends can make a big difference. It helps, especially when managers and executives model this behavior.
Flexibility can also make a big difference. The American Psychological Association reported that 34% of employees say flexible hours would help their mental health. And according to Flex Jobs and Mental Health America, 56% of workers surveyed listed increased flexibility throughout the workday as the most significant way their employer could better support them. It builds considerable goodwill and reduces stress when you trust your employee to get their work done and still pop out early to attend their child's school event or pick up a relative from the airport.
Find fun ways throughout the year to show your employees you care.
Some companies also implement half-day Fridays or summer Fridays to offer employees bonus time to spend with their family or on personal pursuits. At PlumTree, we have created a special Summer Fridays Mini kit packed with items supporting employee rest and relaxation.
If your employees are onsite, you might consider hosting monthly or quarterly wellness-focused events such as yoga classes, chair massages, or educational speakers on topics like sleep and stress management.
We hope that these thoughts have inspired you to consider how your organization promotes employee mental health. Connect with PlumTree on LinkedIn and share what your company does to make employees feel safe and supported.
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Employees who feel fulfilled by recognition are four times as likely to be engaged at work, according to a study by WorkHuman and Gallup. That means that, as an organization, you have a massive opportunity to impact engagement with a thoughtful, comprehensive gifting strategy.
While there are obvious times to recognize your team members, there is also something special about an unexpected gift.
This post offers some ideas to help you get creative about your gifting strategy and take advantage of new opportunities to show your employees they matter.
Celebrate holidays that align with corporate values.
Now more than ever, organizations recognize the importance of articulating their core values and putting them into action. Yet even though most companies have established core values, many employees don’t feel those values as they participate in their daily work.
According to Gallup, only four in ten employees strongly agree with the statement, "The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important."
Consider your company's values and brainstorm possibilities to highlight them with a gift. For example, if sustainability is a core value, you might create a gift box of green items like a reusable straw, sustainably made tote bag, and seed packets to help them start a window box garden. Or, if you host a company-wide volunteer day, you might begin or end the day with a gift celebrating your team's commitment to service.
When employees see their employers authentically commit to their values, it can motivate performance, improve company culture, and lower absenteeism. A positive, values-driven workplace culture is also essential to recruitment and retention.
Mark surprising calendar holidays.
While many employers send employee gifts during the December holidays, you can surprise and delight your employees at other times throughout the year.
Depending on your business focus and brand personality, you might consider sending employees an appreciation gift on Valentine’s Day.
Perhaps your company is firmly committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and wants to celebrate Black History Month by sending gift boxes packed with items from BIPOC businesses.
Or you might send a gift on International Women’s Day recognizing the value of gender diversity in the workplace.
Here are some other unexpected holidays to consider:
You could also celebrate many industry-specific days, like International Nurses Day, Global Day of the Engineer, or National Small Business Week.
Give kudos for company rites of passage.
Work anniversaries and promotions are important professional milestones that are well worth celebrating. Most employees expect that there will be some recognition at these times. But imagine the impact it would make to celebrate the "micro-milestones" unique to your industry or company.
Think of how a new real estate agent feels after their first home sale or how a young attorney feels after winning their first case. These exciting moments are ones that they will surely be celebrating with friends and family. A gift from you as the employer to celebrate these personal achievements can mean so much and go a long way to building connection.
What are the standout moments at your organization? It may help to pose this question directly to your team to see what moments stood out for them during their time with your company. Once you have a clear sense of what matters, you can create a gift demonstrating your understanding of those events' significance.
Show appreciation during times of extra employee effort.
Whether you are working toward a big deadline, tackling a major project, or just in your annual busy season, there are times when your employees are asked to work a little harder than usual. Times like tax season for an accounting firm or the push to launch a new app in a software development startup.
That extra effort can make people feel stressed, depleted, and less enthusiastic about work.
One way to boost morale is to send a little pick-me-up gift to demonstrate your appreciation for the extra hours and work. The fact that it is unexpected makes this such an impactful moment to deepen the employer-employee relationship and show that you see the effort and the people behind it!
Recognize life outside the office.
At PlumTree, we consider both professional and personal employee milestones when developing corporate gifting strategies.
There are plenty of moments within the lives of your team members worth recognizing. When you take the time to do so, you demonstrate that you see your employees as complete people, not just cogs in the machine. Weddings and new babies are perfect moments to send a gift. Beyond that, there are plenty of other moments you can show your employees you care, including:
Graduation
Attending a part-time educational program while working requires commitment and hard work. It is the perfect opportunity to congratulate your employee for their tenacity and celebrate their success.
Caregiving or Recovery From an Illness
Many employers are making it a practice to send a get-well gift when an employee is recovering from illness or a gift to support their employee who is caring for a sick loved one.
Seasonal Shifts
The transition from summer to autumn often feels like a new beginning. Consider celebrating the start of fall with a gift that will help people ease into this busy time of year. Or celebrate the start of Summer Fridays with your people.
Are these ideas inspiring you to take your employee recognition program to the next level? We’re here to help and already have plenty of ideas you can explore on our website.
Link to: https://weareplumtree.com/collections/special-occasion-international-womens-day-box
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]]>Put yourself in the client seat and learn how Flow Traders revamped their employee gifting strategy to be even more personal and tailored to their company’s values and personality.
Flow Traders is a leading global technology-enabled liquidity provider in financial products. With offices worldwide, their creative, passionate team collaborates to support investors with their proprietary technology platform.
Flow Traders had traditionally recognized work anniversaries by inviting employees to choose a branded item from their store, but they wanted to evolve the way they approached gifting. They hoped to make their employee gifts more personal and less about the company.
"As a company grows, it's important to build strong programs that can develop alongside the company needs," explains Jillian Grossberg, HR Generalist at Flow Traders. "We wanted to ensure that we had a gifting strategy built by Flow Traders, for Flow Traders."
Mapping out an employee gifting strategy unique to Flow Traders
“One of our number one priorities has always been employee experience and creating a good culture. Part of that is making sure that there are always ways for people to spend time with one another, exciting new things to do and experience, and remembering not only the big things in life but also the little,” shares Grossberg. “A work anniversary, a birthday, getting married, having a baby—all are reasons to celebrate and it’s always nice to receive a gift acknowledging those milestones and feeling appreciated.”
After identifying the personal and professional milestones and calendar events Flow Traders wanted to celebrate, we established an annual gifting plan. By basing all plans on annual estimates, we can order items and pack boxes in advance to avoid delays or supply chain issues.
For professional milestones, Flow Traders chose to recognize work anniversaries and promotions. On the personal end of the spectrum, we created gifts for graduations, weddings and engagements, and new parenthood. We also made a general-purpose box for Flow Traders to use for various occasions, including special thank you or illness recovery.
Curating personal employee-centric gift boxes
Once Flow Traders selected the occasions and price points, it was time to start building boxes.
“One of the biggest reasons we wanted to partner with PlumTree is that they worked with us to build something really special and personal. We didn’t want gift boxes that were standard and on every store shelf. We wanted to create boxes that fit our company style, what we know our employees like, and make sure they fit the occasions perfectly,” shares Grossberg. “When we had ideas but weren’t quite sure where to start, PlumTree was able to offer suggestions and was excited to help us make our vision a reality. Working together was seamless and we created a program that will allow us to updated gifts, add new products, and continue to be creative in how we work together.”
Through a collaborative process, we curated items for each gift box specific to the designated milestones. We carefully chose products to celebrate the recipient while conveying Flow Traders' values and culture.
Anniversary Boxes
Work anniversaries are perfect opportunities to show employees that their contributions are valued. We worked with FlowTraders to create four anniversary gift boxes.
Coffee Thrill features a cold brew coffee maker and two sophisticated coffee glasses.
Half Full contains a cocktail infusion jar, shaker and strainer lid, and a pair of versatile cocktail glasses.
Cheese it! is packed with a beautifully crafted fair trade cheese board and knife set.
Pampering is filled with plant-based soaps, lotion, and a hand-poured candle from Apotheke.
Promotion Box
A new role is always a cause for celebration, and what better way than with a celebratory toast?
Graduation Box
Celebrating the graduation of newly recruited soon-to-be-employees is a great way to build a positive relationship with new hires even before their first day on the job. We created a unique gift box for Flow Traders to mark that special occasion.
Wedding or Engagement Box
Engagements or weddings are very personal milestones rarely celebrated at a corporate level. This gift box shows how much Flow Traders values and honors these special moments in their employees' lives.
Welcome Baby Box
Becoming a parent is a life-changing event that impacts an employee's work-life balance. Whenever they gift this Welcome Baby Box, Flow Traders demonstrates that they support their employee's new role as a working parent.
Finalizing the branding and logistics
It's not only what's inside the box that matters—presentation is crucial.
Branding and personalizing the gift box are essential to communicating the company's values and culture. Depending on budgets and qualities, PlumTree clients have multiple options for their packaging.
Flow Traders opted for a magnetic black box with branded sticker, black gift wrap, and a branded card with a different thoughtful message and signer for each gift box.
Finally, to facilitate the shipping of the boxes, we created a dedicated portal on the PlumTree website for Flow Traders’ Human Resources team to easily choose which box to send to which employee at any time throughout the year.
Flow Traders really understood the value of establishing a comprehensive annual strategy. It is a pleasure to help them create and share such thoughtful and personal gifts with their employees. If your company needs a partner to create an employee gifting strategy that supports your overall engagement efforts, we can help.
]]>National Employee Appreciation Day is an annual holiday celebrated on the first Friday of March. It’s a day all about showing gratitude for your employees. In 2023, the holiday will be celebrated on March 3.
The holiday was created in 1995 by Dr. Bob Nelson and his publishing company Workman Publishing. Nelson was a founding Recognition Professional International board member and author of the book 1001 Ways to Reward Employees. Though Employee Appreciation Day is not quite as old as Administrative Professionals Day or Bosses Day, it’s becoming observed by more companies as research continues to show the many benefits of recognition in the workplace.
At PlumTree, we believe in appreciating your employees every day, so of course, we love the idea of doing something extra special on Employee Appreciation Day!
The main reason to mark this holiday is to demonstrate that you value each of your employees and their unique contributions. According to a report by McKinsey, 54% of employees leave their jobs because they do not feel valued by their company. Celebrating Employee Appreciation Day as part of your overall employee engagement strategy is an important way to demonstrate your care and commitment to the people behind your organization.
Beyond showing how thankful you are for your team members, Employee Appreciation Day is also a chance to foster connection and a sense of belonging. Since the day celebrates everyone who works at your company, regardless of their role, it naturally brings people together around a shared moment.
You might begin Employee Appreciation Day with a brief company-wide meeting to share a message of thanks for everyone’s hard work and celebrate accomplishments made in the past year.
We also suggest an email communication to every employee from the company leadership thanking them for their work.
If you can engage team leaders throughout the organization, they can add an even more personal touch to the day by writing emails or handwritten notes to direct reports. Or, they could surprise their direct reports with LinkedIn recommendations highlighting their contributions.
In addition to email, Employee Appreciation Day is the perfect opportunity for a thoughtful gift.
Since the gift should be the same for everyone, choose a reasonable but generous price point. We usually suggest around $60 per person for this occasion, allowing you to create a gift box containing 2–3 high-quality items. However, smaller organizations may be able to spend more.
Next is the fun part—selecting gifts that will make your employees feel seen and valued. This occasion is less about your brand and more about the humans that power it, so while a nod to your logo is acceptable, it's best to choose items with your recipients in mind.
Here are a few of our favorite Employee Appreciation Day gift box options.
This box features:
This box ($60) features:
This box ($80) features:
We can always help you customize your gift boxes to reflect your company’s needs!
If you really want to make it a memorable day, consider adding food, fun, or flexibility to the mix!
Onsite teams can enjoy a special breakfast, lunch, or coffee cart service, while you could consider using a delivery service for remote employees. If most of your team is onsite, you might consider offering a wellness experience like chair massages or a yoga class.
And, of course, one of the things employees love most is flexibility. Could you offer a few hours of personal time or even end Employee Appreciation Day a little early? It does take place on a Friday, after all! There is something lovely about starting the weekend early and feeling ahead of the game.
Need help planning your Employee Appreciation Day gifting? We offer several gift box options that can be customized to meet your needs and match your branding. Contact us today!
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Building a positive company culture takes concerted effort, even under typical circumstances. The pandemic and the shift to more remote and hybrid work arrangements have made these efforts even more challenging.
Successful organizations understand that their employees' happiness matters. When your company culture is genuinely positive, you can attract, retain, and get the best performance from people. Plus, it makes work a more enjoyable place to be.
Compensation, benefits, and flexibility are some areas that impact employee satisfaction. A thoughtful employee gifting strategy is another. According to a 2022 Harris Poll, 71% of Americans surveyed shared that they feel more connected to their employer or manager after receiving quality, thoughtful gifts.
But one-off gifts aren’t going to move the needle. You need a comprehensive strategy to make an impact. Here are our top tips for using employee gifting to drive engagement and strengthen company culture.
Our first piece of advice is to examine your overall engagement strategy and determine where gifting might enhance your efforts.
Review the things you are already offering your employees, including benefits, perks, and incentives. Remember that incentives tied to performance are a type of reward. On the other hand, gifts should be given with the express purpose of appreciation. More on this later in this post.
Think about your company's core values. Are there concrete ways that you can reflect these values in your employee gifting strategy? For instance, if one of your values has to do with eco-consciousness, you would want to consider gift items made responsibly and with little environmental impact.
Next, think about the significant milestones and life events, both personal and professional, that you want to celebrate or show support for. You might consider things like:
Make sure you budget accordingly, ensure gifting parity, and stick within the company and legal gifting guidelines.
Avoid cash gifts or gift cards since those are always taxable income and are also an impersonal option. Instead, choose items below the taxable threshold, consulting your tax expert for details.
To really contribute to your overall engagement efforts, choose gifts thoughtfully with the goal of showing your employees that they are valued.
A successful gift starts with pure intent. Think of employee gifting as part of long-term relationship-building. Gift-gifting has natural psychological benefits, including demonstrating appreciation, care, and a desire to connect.
Here are a few things to think about when selecting the specific gifts to share with your employees:
It's the quickest way to turn goodwill into marketing. We love helping clients find subtle ways to nod to their brand without pasting their logo all over everything.
Instead of having people choose their own gift or gift card like they are redeeming credit card points, take the time to make gifts meaningful. The more you know your employees, the more personal you can get. No matter what, choose high-quality items and exercise caution when including food (because of dietary restrictions and allergies) or alcohol-related items (since not everyone partakes).
A note from a leader in your organization that shows you know who the recipient is can go a long way!
The items you select matter, but ultimately it’s about the gesture, so think about how the gift will be received.
We've all had the experience of an unwrapped gift in a brown Amazon box showing up on our doorstep. It feels different from receiving a beautifully wrapped present accompanied by a thoughtful card.
At PlumTree, we customize your gift box with branded packaging and send your gifts with preferred shipping to your employees' homes or your office for you to deliver. Every gift also comes with a personalized note with your preferred message.
Beyond the gift itself, we encourage our clients to make sure of our email and e-survey tools to further support, celebrate, and engage their team members throughout the year. These communications can bolster your gifting efforts and gather essential information that helps you adjust your strategy for the best outcomes.
Do you need help mapping a gifting strategy that aligns with your other employee benefits and engagement efforts?
We can help.
Answer a few questions, and we'll reach out with an initial plan for you to review.
]]>Work has changed in ways we never could have imagined over the past few years.
As the Great Resignation continues and headlines about “quiet quitting" flood our newsfeeds, building a workplace culture of appreciation is more important than ever.
According to Quantum Workplace, employees who believe their efforts will be recognized are 2.7 times as likely to be highly engaged at work.
The research makes sense. At work or in our home life, we all tend to show up better when we feel like those around us see and appreciate our efforts. In organizations, meaningful appreciation has benefits like improving motivation and productivity, reducing attrition, and generally making work a more enjoyable place to be.
But empty gestures can sometimes miss the mark and have the opposite effect. Appreciation perceived as inauthentic or impersonal can make your employees feel alienated or frustrated.
In this post, we're sharing five ways to demonstrate genuine gratitude for your team members.
As a corporate gifting company, this is a strategy we are passionate about!
Yes, one-off gift cards or presents are nice, but a more holistic strategy can be a core component when building a culture of appreciation throughout a company. Most modern, mission-driven organizations intend to build positive company cultures and show their employees that they care. But sometimes, they struggle with how to make it happen.
By establishing a plan that accounts for both the professional and personal milestones in your employees' lives, you can show that you see your team members as complete people. Consider all of the moments you'd like to recognize, including:
Once you have your list, you can select gifts tailored to your brand and your people and include personal, thoughtful messages showing the recipients they are valued.
Positive words can go a long way.
In addition to more significant forms of recognition like "Employee of the Month" awards, it helps to find ways to celebrate contributions from every person in the organization. Notice the behind-the-scenes efforts that employees with less visible roles are making. Make it a habit to work shout-outs into your regular team meetings. Encourage team members to notice one another’s efforts.
Above all, make sure that your praise is meaningful. Here are four things that employee appreciation expert Christopher Littlefield suggests thinking about when you offer a compliment:
Explain how your team member’s work positively impacted you or others in the organization.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are essential aspects of a healthy corporate culture.
Recognizing holidays and cultural celebrations in a respectful, curious, and genuine way matters. You can begin by asking your employees what cultural celebrations and holidays they would like to see recognized in the workplace and how they would like to celebrate.
With that knowledge in mind, you might
Remember, religion and culture are often big parts of employees’ lives. By acknowledging this, you can help them feel more comfortable bringing their whole selves to work.
And while we are on the subject of recognizing your team members are full human beings outside of the office, find ways to offer flexibility and valuable benefits.
Some people appreciate the option to work remotely some or all of the time. Others just want reasonable schedule flexibility so they can attend their kids' school events now and again without having to dip into PTO to make it happen. If you can, find ways to offer that latitude so they can attend to their life. You'll be shocked at how, nine times out of ten, the work gets done just the same, all while you foster invaluable goodwill with your team.
Generous paid time off, paid family leave, education reimbursement, and professional development opportunities promote workplace satisfaction and retention. Of those surveyed in WorkHuman’s Human Workplace Index, 63% said they would leave their company if offered a job with better benefits but less or equal pay.
The bottom line? Supporting your employees’ outside-of-work realities will make them happier and more productive at work.
It can go a long way when your organization's leaders know your name and take the time to recognize your personal and professional milestones.
Encourage upper leadership to authentically connect with employees at all levels—whether in the cafeteria, on a volunteer committee, or by rotating through department meetings.
Here are some other ways to get the C-Suite involved in authentic employee appreciation:
There are so many benefits to showing your employees they are valued. If you need support building a corporate gifting strategy to support your efforts, we can help.
Get started with a custom proposal.
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The FACC (French American Chamber of Commerce) recently interviewed our Co Founder Charlotte Torris. Read her interview about her background and starting PlumTree below.
"We are pleased to welcome Charlotte to the FACC network.
After 15 years in the corporate world as a CPG Brand Strategy and Product Development expert, Charlotte decided to jump into the world of entrepreneurship. She co-founded Noobie Box in 2016, a parent-to-be essential box; shipped 200K gift boxes across the US and built a community of 450K new parents. In 2021, Charlotte sold Noobie Box (today Hey Milestone) and focused her energy into building a new business: PlumTree.
PlumTree is a corporate gifting program designed to help companies engage with their employees and promote connectedness. Each gift box of the program is curated to communicate with employees, embrace their whole-selves and celebrate milestones in their personal and professional lives."
Hi Charlotte! Where are you from? How long have you been in the US?
Hi,
I grew up near Lille in France and after graduating from Audencia (Nantes), I worked in Paris for 8 years before moving to NYC for Arc International, the company I was working for at the time. I had planned to stay in the US for 2 to 5 years but it has now been 17 years and I still like it very much!
You are the co-founder of PlumTree, could you tell us more about your activity? When have you founded PlumTree? What led you to launch PlumTree?
With our previous company, Noobie Box, we had started to develop gift boxes for companies wanting to show their support to their employees having babies. Becoming a parent is only one of multiple personal events that has a direct impact on people's professional life.
When we sold Noobie Box (now Hey Milestone) last Summer, we decided to develop a corporate gifting program that would help companies promote a tight-knit work environment acknowledging their employees’ professional and personal realities. We launched PlumTree in June of this year.
In your opinion, what has changed the relationship between employers and employees in recent years? How have these relationships changed?
Many companies understood a few years ago already that happy employees were more loyal and productive employees; some companies had started working on programs to ease their employees’ everyday life. In 2020, the Covid pandemic forced a remote/hybrid work model on both employers and employees, completely shaking up the traditional vision of work organization.
Employees are questioning their work life balance and revisiting their life priorities.
Companies are challenged to stay connected to their workforce, face an increasing number of resignations and struggle to retain their talents.
What are Employees new expectations in the workplace? How can employers adapt to these new expectations?
Today, employees are not exclusively expecting an attractive compensation package anymore. They are looking for companies promoting values they personally believe in; seeking for more flexibility in their work organization and being able to better manage their personal life along with their professional life.
In this new environment, employers need to find ways to communicate to their employees that they understand their new expectations and not only accept them but welcome them.
How do you help them with PlumTree?
With PlumTree, we offer companies a corporate gifting program to engage with their employees; communicate with them, nurture them, celebrate with them, inspire them.
Looking at companies values and their business priorities, we build with them an annual gifting program combining professional milestones (new hire, work anniversary), calendar events (corporate events, end of the year celebration) with more personal milestones (wedding, pregnancy).
Each gift box is curated and customized to convey the company’s brand identity, its core values and celebrate a specific milestone. More than just products, PlumTree gift boxes are the physical expression of the companies’ connection to their employees.
What are the main challenges you face with PlumTree? What are the next steps for PlumTree?
Corporate gifting can be very promotional and meaningless. Some companies choose to send gift-cards to make it easier.
With PlumTree we want to make corporate gifting thoughtful and impactful again. A carefully chosen gift, delivered at the right time and the right way is a physical evidence of care from the giver.
PlumTree can make a difference in companies’ employees engagement strategy: our challenge and goal for the next few months will be to show how different we are from all the corporate gifting companies that are out there.
PlumTree is the second company you launched, after Noobie Box. What do you like the most about the entrepreneurial journey?
Entrepreneurship is my way of taking a matter that is really important to me and deciding that I can make a difference. Both companies are obviously very related to my personal life. Having a first kid made me aware of how unprepared I was and how little support (personal and/or professional) some new parents were getting. Noobie Box was my way of building a community of individuals to support them and show them they were not alone.
PlumTree has the same purpose in the corporate world: promoting a tight-knit work environment so each employee can bring his/her whole self to work and give the best of his/her ability.
What are the key elements for success in entrepreneurship according to you?
A vision and true drive to make a difference. The ability to listen (to advice & feedback) and ask for help (network). Probably lots of courage and perseverance and…. a little bit of luck as well to meet the right people at the right time :-)
What led you to join the FACC-NY community?
I went to the FACC event called The New World of Work organized by the Human Resources and Women in Business committees back in June and was really impressed by the panel of speakers and the dynamism and open mindedness of the community. I decided to join right after :-)
Do you have anything else to share?
I am really looking forward to meeting and exchanging with all FACC members. The world of work is definitely changing, opening brand new opportunities in work organizations.
Thank you, Charlotte!
Website: https://weareplumtree.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/weareplumtree
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weareplumtree
More than in previous generations, today’s employees want to feel engaged and appreciated at work. They hope to be able to show up as their whole selves and contribute in meaningful ways. And they want their employer to recognize that they have a life outside of work that matters too.
The pandemic has also impacted what people expect from their employers. Many are rethinking everything from where they work to where they live. Flexible workplace policies and shared values have become just as important as salary. And the gap between professional and personal has closed after seeing into each other’s homes during Zoom meetings and learning to balance work and life in this strange new world.
The shift toward more human-centered workplaces has prompted organizations to prioritize employee engagement. One key element of many engagement strategies is corporate gifting. But beyond professional milestones like onboarding, promotions, or work anniversaries, celebrating personal life events can help employees feel more genuinely valued.
We can all think of a time when someone unexpectedly showed up for us—whether it was a friend who came to our family member's funeral or a colleague who surprised us with a gift for our newborn. Those gestures meant something.
We founded PlumTree to give companies the tools to proactively recognize their employees’ major milestones—both professional and personal. It’s wonderful when individual managers or coworkers celebrate with their teams, but it can be hard to make these celebrations consistent across the organization. When the gesture comes from the company, it is a powerful tool for creating positive workplace culture.
The Gartner 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey found that 23% more employees report improved mental health, and 17% report better physical health when they feel their employer has developed deeper relationships with them.
A gift is a tangible signal of appreciation that makes a team member feel seen, appreciated, and supported. Instead of worrying about hiding what's happening in their personal life, that employee can focus that energy on showing up as their best self at work and home.
Gifts can help to strengthen the relationship between the organization and the employee, building loyalty and goodwill. Unlike a cash award or gift card, a specifically selected gift is more meaningful and not subject to tax.
The same Gartner 2020 survey referenced above showed a 21% increase in high performers in companies that holistically supported their employees. Beyond that, a recent survey by Globoforce found that employers are nearly twice as likely to say their company is a good place to work when they are satisfied with how life events are recognized.
Becoming a parent is a life-changing moment. It's one of the times in life when you are suddenly open to making significant life changes to align with your shifting priorities.
By taking the first step to support and celebrate this significant moment in an employee's life, you can reassure them that you're prepared to help them find the right balance to succeed at work and in this new life role. A gift that includes something for the parent and something for their new addition can be just the thing!
Coping with an illness's emotional, financial, and logistical challenges is hard enough without worrying about its impact on work. Similarly, grieving the death of a loved one can make it hard to get through the day.
In addition to helping your employee access their benefits and make a plan to cover their responsibilities in their absence, show them that you care about what they are going through with a thoughtful gift and message.
Everyone has one, and they happen every year, so does a formal program celebrating employee birthdays matter? We think so.
A consistent program for recognizing each team member's birthday can be a nice addition to your employee engagement program. Since there can be privacy concerns around birth dates and some people don't like making a big deal about their birthday, we suggest keeping birthday recognition simple.
Many motivated employees return to school part-time to earn a certificate or graduate degree. The additional skills and knowledge gained can improve work performance while offering a sense of personal accomplishment. Your organization may even reimburse some of the tuition or continuing education expenses.
When an employee completes their program of study, it is an opportunity to recognize their efforts and celebrate.
Are you looking for a way to build stronger relationships with your employees, enhance workplace satisfaction, and create a genuinely supportive workplace?
Let us help you build a customized corporate gifting program that shows your employees that you care about them as people.
Get your custom proposal here.
]]>Parental leave plays a tremendous role in how new parents are able to handle the first months with their newborns and how smooth or challenging going back to work and giving the best of themselves in their work will be.
The federal law only requires 12 weeks of unpaid leave, resulting in the fact that only 25% of women takes nine weeks or longer of maternity leave, paid or unpaid. It is mainly up to each company to decide how to support their employees becoming new parents. Helping them be physically, mentaly and logistically ready to come back to work might not only prevent dreadful consequences such as resignation, accident, or depression but also promote employees’ engagement and loyalty toward the company.
Many companies realized that employees’ expectations have changed significantly over the past few years. An attractive salary and a good amount of vacation days are not the only elements employees are looking for anymore. Work flexibility, inspiring corporate values, generous parental benefits are all elements becoming more and more important to recruit and retain talents.
Parental benefits may take very different forms, and it is up to each company to define its policy:
The 2019 COVID pandemic killed millions worldwide, disrupted global exchanges, prevented free travels, confined people to their homes and forced them to reimagine their interactions with others. With most employees having to stay home for more or less extensive periods of time, the work organization was shattered and companies had to come up with new work models to keep their business running. Today, employees’ expectations have changed and companies have to decide what their new normal will be.
Forced to work from home, employees have had to rethink their personal and professional organization. For many, once the struggles of the lack of space and technology issues resolved, came the realization that they could work differently. When asked about the most important factors when picturing the ideal company, employees ranked work-life balance, work culture and workplace flexibility as their top three priorities.
After the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic, workers value time with family and friends, traveling, and “disconnecting” from work more than ever. They are also looking for companies promoting a healthy work culture, meaning companies supporting teams to be better equipped and prepared to handle challenges, manage change and build strong professional relationships. Last but not least, with less distractions and reduced commute, workers feel more in control of their work and schedule - being able to work remotely few days a week is becoming more and more important to them.
What started as a challenge, became for many employers a real opportunity to rethink and improve their work organization. Multiple surveys and reports [4],[5], show how remote and hybrid work had a positive impact on companies’ performances and their employees well-being. Just to list a few, here are four benefits of a hybrid work model.
Hybrid work models give employees more freedom and flexibility, therefore increasing their level of work-life satisfaction. Being empowered, employees tend to be more engaged and perform better. In April 2022, a Stanford study [6] within a large multinational randomized 3-2 hybrid Work From Home vs 5 days per week in the office for 1600 professional graduate employees - they noticed a 35% reduction in quit rates and 12% reduction in sick leave for the same level of performance. The results were so positive that the firm immediately rolled-out the hybrid WFH model to all divisions of the company.
Quality vs quantity. While coming less often to the office, employees tend to be more motivated and engaged when on-site. Dedicating these days to specific big team meetings, relationship building, or company-wide events; employees will be more inclined to contribute to the company’s mission and culture.
A hybrid work model means fewer people on-site on any given day. A 2020 Microsoft study [7] shows that 56% of workplace leaders anticipate saving on costs due to reducing their physical workplace footprint. Companies also start rethinking the office space, creating more purposeful areas with comfortable couches for casual coffee chats, phone booths for 1-1 meetings, or quiet spaces.
Remote and hybrid work models also make it easier for companies to attract more skilled and diverse employees across multiple geographies than those without one. This is particularly the case with employees who have skills that are in high demand, such as tech workers, as their jobs can typically be performed remotely with ease. [8]
There are multiple ways to offer a hybrid work schedule - fix or flexible days to go to the office? How often? Once, twice, three days a week? These are important decisions to make and explain to all employees. The clearer the policy, the easier it will be to implement it.
Regardless of what hybrid model you choose, your workforce should be able to seamlessly work between the home and the office. Ensure you’ve provided high-quality video and audio equipment, as well as communication tools like Zoom or Slack so your employees can stay connected and collaborate with each other no matter where they’re located.
Hybrid working will bring new demands on your workforce, bringing unique challenges that they have likely not faced before. One area to pay particular attention to is developing skills to ensure that effective communication, performance management, and team building are in place.
Giving your employees the opportunity to engage, speak up and provide feedback will help you evaluate their level of satisfaction and their needs.
With crisis come new opportunities - We are today at the dawn of a new work environment era with employees’ well-being at its center.
[1] https://www.brookings.edu/research/sometimes-the-world-needs-a-crisis-turning-challenges-into-opportunities
[2] https://www.oysterhr.com/library/key-takeaways-from-our-2022-employee-expectations-report
[3] https://www.ey.com/en_gl/workforce/work-reimagined-survey
[4] https://envoy.com/blog/pros-and-cons-of-hybrid-work
[5] https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/the-path-to-remote-working-maturity
[6] https://nbloom.people.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj4746/f/berkeleyv5_0.pdf
[7] https://d1c25a6gwz7q5e.cloudfront.net/reports/2020-11-09-workplace-whitepaper-FINAL.pdf
[8] https://www.parallels.com/blogs/ras/hybrid-working-model
Today, it’s imperative to create a culture of genuine care, connection and communication with employees in order to prevent turnover and unhappiness within the workforce. Company culture includes many elements such as morals, ethics, personality, diversity management and communication styles. Hybrid and remote working presents new opportunities and new constraints for companies, challenging them in how they convey their corporate culture when a disconnect between the employees and the company becomes more apparent each day. But even so, when hybrid or fully remote employee experiences and company culture are of the utmost importance, engagement exceeds company expectations.
So how do companies retain employees when culture is difficult to achieve in this digital era of employment? With the employee experience!
From onboarding to development and retention, benefits and culture and even exit interviews, a successful employee experience is when employees feel connected to the organization and that the business is investing in their well-being and their future, financially and professionally. When companies take the employee experience seriously, they’ll likely see a return on investment due to higher employee productivity, engagement, and overall satisfaction within the company. It could also reduce employee turnover significantly, which adds unnecessary costs and time to recruiting and training new workers.[3]
To improve the employee experience, an organization can go down many routes, from providing comprehensive wellness benefits, training and continuing education opportunities to flexible working hours. But to retain employees in today’s environment, a personal approach is needed.
PlumTree provides companies with a unique corporate gifting program that acknowledges employees’ personal and professional realities and promotes connectedness. Their custom gift boxes are carefully curated for special milestones like onboarding and promotions to engagements and becoming parents.
Created as a new channel of communication with the employees, PlumTree's gift boxes are curated to fulfill three objectives - embrace, communicate and nurture. Doing so, companies promote a tight-knit environment which invites their employees to ‘bring their whole selves’ to work.
Embracing employees’ reality is more than welcoming them into the team during onboarding — it’s embracing them as a person during each phase of life. By acknowledging and valuing their employees' identity, companies solidify the relationship, show empathy and develop a safe work environment where their employees can thrive. PlumTree gift boxes embrace employees and support their situation with products curated just for them. For example, an onboarding gift box may include a coffee mug and snacks, while a new baby gift box may include some new parent or baby essentials
Honest communication, transparency, and clarity are key elements for any successful business. When companies facilitate this type of communication, employees are more likely to engage, speak up and provide feedback. This becomes more difficult when dealing with remote or hybrid positions where the personal touch gets lost, and the connection slowly decreases.
Sending physical gifts is a nice and thoughtful way of communicating but PlumTree encourages companies to go a step further adding in each gift box corporate material conveying messages and providing information about them. A company directory, a booklet with all the benefits the company provides, a list of resources to reach out to when coping with a difficult situation. With gifting, organizations can quickly communicate what they’re all about — values, culture, etc. — in a tangible way.
Communicating also means building a culture of open communication and respect and even as simple as using a user-friendly platform to communicate. Email is a simple yet impactful tool to connect with employees — not just for everyday work-related communications. In addition to the gift boxes, PlumTree offers email templates to reinforce the personalization of the physical gifts but also to acknowledge other milestones like birthdays, holidays, and work anniversaries, as a quick hello and reminder that they are not forgotten. This communication channel is especially important for remote jobs where a birthday or work anniversary can pass without any acknowledgment.
Nurturing employees means giving them ample space to learn and grow within the company. It also means providing tangible tools or products to make them feel more comfortable within their position, inspired to work towards the organization’s goals and feel like they’re cared for.
PlumTree also offers surveys to help companies optimize their engagement strategy. With every survey, employees can provide feedback, allowing employers to analyze and implement to better support and nurture them. In addition, surveys are a way employers can connect with employees on a deeper level with engagement and team building.
Every interaction an employee has with a company should be a positive experience which is why it’s important to build a corporate engagement strategy for the entire duration of an employee’s journey. The three elements discussed in this blog post help organizations showcase their culture and make employees feel seen, heard and recognized.
In fact, “63% of people who are “always” or “usually” recognized at work consider themselves “very unlikely” to seek a new job in the next 3-6 months.” And like Rome, an outstanding employee experience isn’t built in a day.
[2] Closing the Employee Expectation Gap
[3] The Attitudes of Europe’s Employees are Changing Fast
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