Using Company Swag to Enhance Employee Experience

Swag – ‘stuff-we-all-get' – are company-branded items like t-shirts, hats, pens, cups and various merchandise that are usually used for promotional purposes for sales teams.  

One study revealed that 61% of respondents agreed that swag helps build brand awareness and 58% said they loved receiving swag.

However, company swag has been an increasingly popular strategy to not only support sales teams, but to help improve the employee experience.  

Whether swag is used as a welcome gift for new hires, a holiday gift for an entire team, or a congratulations gift for team members who’ve reached a milestone, giving employees swag helps them feel recognized and appreciated.  

Use cases for company swag

Company swag has been part of the employee experience for a long time. While there are many use-cases for swag in the employee experience, here are the most common ones we come across every day:

Onboarding

Sending a new hire a welcome package is a great opportunity to introduce the company, provide additional company info and make the employee feel welcome.  

Milestones and anniversaries

Gifting swag to employees who have celebrated a work anniversary or reached a specific milestone is a way to boost morale and extend your congratulations.

Birthdays

Who doesn’t love something extra special on their birthday? Gifting company swag for employee birthdays is a great way to show additional recognition and add to the celebration.

Selling company swag

Sometimes, employees or customers want to buy your company-branded swag. Many organizations will incorporate company swag into their employee rewards program, allowing employees to redeem their earned rewards points for swag items.

Employee giveaways

Some organizations like to include a swag giveaway when celebrating a big company milestone, to build hype around an annual event, or as a prize for company game or team building activity. A well-executed swag giveaway can be a great way to do something that stands out for your employees.

Company swag employees want

Let’s be honest – there's nothing worse than having to wear an itchy hat, or a cheaply-made hoodie with your company logo slapped on it.  

Nowadays, organizations are including company swag as part of their employee value proposition and investing in more high-quality swag items.  

What is employee value proposition (EVP)?

Your employee value proposition (EVP) is a collection of values, rewards, recognition, support, and company culture that an organization gives employees. The purpose of this is to enable your team to do their best work and achieve their highest potential.  

Company swag is an excellent addition to your EVP, but the type of swag you give to your people matters. Now is not the time to cheap out – consider one high-quality item as opposed to a bunch of low-quality items like pens, mugs and notepads.  

25 unique company swag ideas

1. Backpack or tote bag

2. Yeti tumbler or water bottle

3. Noise cancelling headphones  

4. High-quality jacket or vest

5. Cooler

6. Bento lunch box

7. Apple Airpods

8. Candle

9. Bluetooth speaker

10. Cordless charging station

11. Bamboo lap desk

12. Ring light

13. Travel essentials or travel kit

14. Power bank

15. W&P Hydropod

16. Daylight desk lamp or sun lamp

17. Tabletop fire pit

18. Massage gun

19. Desk white board

20. Amazon Kindle

21. Polaroid camera

22. Apple Airtag

23. Tile Mate

24. BROOC self-cleaning water bottle

25. Desk vacuum

Challenges of company swag

As managing and delivering an impactful employee experience has become more challenging in recent years, people and culture leaders have realized the traditional ways of managing swag is too complicated:

• Time-consuming: sourcing individual types of swag takes a lot of time and requires multiple different vendor relationships.

• Requires storage: storing swag requires sufficient storage space and often results in different parts of swag inventory being held in different locations.

• Managing shipping: delivering swag to team members, especially for team members located in other countries, can be difficult or result in items being delayed or lost.

• Administrative burden: managing company swag often falls on administrators when their valuable time could be spent elsewhere.  

It’s time for these outdated swag management practices to retire. Today, organizations are seeking ways to automate this process – taking the heavy lifting away from their people teams and administrators.  

How to manage company swag

Organizations are no longer sourcing their own individual swag items, storing them in the office or in their basements, and managing the headache of setting up swag deliveries. Instead, they are leveraging managed swag services to remove the burden of swag management.

How does this work?

Using a swag platform is the modern solution to managing your company swag. Utilizing these technologies takes away the burdens of having to physically manage your company swag.  

To take it one step further, look for a recognition rewards provider (like Kudos) that integrates swag services. Kudos clients can now make swag management an easy part of their employee experience – connect with us to learn more about how Kudos Rewards can support and manage your swag.  

Company swag, when done thoughtfully, can be an excellent addition to your employee experience to boost engagement, morale and employer brand. Especially in today’s working world where hybrid and remote work has become the norm, swag management tools will become a necessity.  

By choosing the right solution for your organization, you can create a swag program that not only promotes your brand but elevates your employee recognition initiatives and supports a thriving employee experience.