Gifting credit to a company lets you invest in what your employees want most—and saves you time and money in the process. 

In the words of writer Annie Dillard, how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. With the average American spending over 90,000 hours at work in a lifetime, strong professional connections are more than just good business—they are an important part of both intellectual and personal life.

Whether it’s brainstorming ideas for a new program, debriefing a series finale at the coffee maker, or taking the time to support each other through personal difficulty, bonding with coworkers has been shown to increase employee engagement, satisfaction, and productivity.

This is particularly true during hardship—and 2020 has offered no shortage of that. No matter how diligent organizations are about protecting their employees personal time, it’s safe to say that everybody has had to chip in a little extra over the past few months—whether that has meant an extra hour at the desk, time and money spent setting up a home office, or some extra brainpower devoted to solving problems that didn’t exist a year ago 

Now is the time to say thanks. 

Reflect and Reward

Many people are familiar with the SMART goal, but fewer know about the SMARTER goal. 

SMARTER goals add two final steps to the classic formula: Evaluate, and Reflect/Reward. Evaluating progress and rewarding accomplishments increases learning and reduces burnout, particularly after stressful events. 

With pandemic work rhythms slowly approaching a new normal, many companies finally have the chance to relax a bit, breathe, and reflect on the past six months. It’s important to take this opportunity to reward yourself and your employees for their work during this time.  

Opening a company store and supplying each of your employees with a set amount of credits is a great way to show your appreciation. 

The Gift You Give Yourself 

Today’s corporate gifts are stylish, unique, and truly useful—we’re well beyond the realm of stress balls and pens that make a scratchy noise when you use them.  

But no matter how thoughtful you are in your gifting, it’s impossible to know for you to know for certain which of your employees just broke their only set of headphones, who has an undisclosed sweet tooth, and who’s been hankering after a cozy new sweatshirt to wear in their chilly home office. 

With a company store, each employee can choose the gift that makes the most sense for them, eliminating the chance that your investment will result in a duplicate item or end up in the recycling—or worse, in a landfill.

Welcome New Hires

Onboarding a new employee remotely is just one of the new challenges companies face this year. But while video conference technology and HR software programs can gather the necessary details, it’s more difficult to make somebody feel personally welcomed to your team when you can’t tour the office or even shake hands. 

Gifting welcome credit to a company store allows each employee to assemble their own personal welcome package from a selection of curated (and even branded) items. It’s a little personal touch that says welcome to the team—we’re glad to have you, even in an abnormal year.

Saving Time and Money

In addition, letting you gift your employees their heart’s desires, company stores also save on inventory and operational costs for businesses. With drop-shipping options, you don’t have to pay for an item until an employee selects it, which means there is no cost in extra inventory or time and space devoted to sorting items. 

Employees also place their own orders and have items shipped directly to them, which means that once the store is set up, no staff time is required to place orders and monitor delivery. With direct-to-consumer shipping, distribution of items is also quick and seamless, which is particularly important when a large number of your employees may be working from home. 

 Contact us to learn more about how a company store can meet your business needs. We’re here to answer your questions and help you start the process.