Key Tips for Successfully Navigating Diwali Gifting
- Kartikay Kashyap
- September 8, 2023
Making the process digital can become a game-changer
We are just a little more than two months away from Diwali. Is it too early to talk about Diwali Gifting for your employees? With busy schedules packed with meetings and various tasks, time will fly by quickly. To make the Diwali Gifting strategy hassle-free, plan for it now and stay ahead of time for a better impact. Traditionally, the festival brings about a big celebration not just in Indian families but also in the corporate world. It is a perfect occasion to celebrate happiness, pay back a form of gratitude to employees for their hard work, and build cohesiveness among teams and colleagues.
How to get your Diwali Gifting right
You will get loads of information on the ‘best ideas on what to gift your employees this Diwali,’ but don’t you think there should be a strategy? You cannot gift your employees mindlessly, can you?
Recommended Read: The Best Low-Cost Rewards To Motivate Your Employees
Allocate appropriate budget
To make Diwali Gifting more impactful and tactical, HRs need to ascertain how much money or budget one can allocate for gifting employees the coming Diwali. The budget should be a reflection of your financial capacity. Otherwise, it could also reflect your intentions. Some employers would desire to gift this Diwali generously since the company has performed well. It is essential to pin down a total budget, which depends on the number of employees, and allocate a budget per employee. For instance, if the total budget is Rs 100,000 and you have 100 employees, then the employee budget comes to Rs 1000 per employee. Budgeting allows the company to maintain financial stability and avoid overdoing things.
Make it digital
Since the whole nation is moving towards digitization, why not corporate gifting? Companies have traditionally used offline methods of selecting, curating, and delivering Diwali Gifts. But it is time to move digital for a hassle-free experience. For instance, companies can use a digital R&R (Rewards and recognition) platform like Advantage Club to send E-gift cards to employees across various brands in categories such as travel, shopping, food, wellbeing, education, or entertainment. Moreover, companies can allocate digital points to their employees and create a curated or customized choice of brands and products. Employees can redeem their points on the products while availing a freedom of choice.
Keep it hassle-free
Choosing a digital R&R platform takes away your worries about handling the end-to-end process of gifting your employees. All one needs to do is allocate an appropriate budget and curate a customized list of gifting items. The end-to-end logistics are taken care of by the platform. Some platforms do not even charge for delivery! Instead, HR professionals can use their time to ideate creative ideas for a better employee experience this Diwali.
Meaningful gifting
When gifting for Diwali, ensuring that giving a meaningful gift to employees is essential. While companies are curating gifts for Diwali, there are certain things that one can keep in mind. First, it should be related to the festival of Diwali. Traditionally, companies give gifts like Diyas and candles, decorative artifacts, and sweets as part of Diwali Gifting. Another is one must maintain the quality of the gifts. After all, when employers do anything for their employees, their values and reputation are attached to it.Â
Lastly, make Diwali Gifting more personalized. If the company sends out E-cards or physical cards, communication should be as personalized as possible rather than keeping a standard language. Companies using digital R&R platforms can also make Diwali Gifting more personalized. Such platforms provide a wide range of brands and products to choose from. It gives a freedom of choice. Moreover, HRs can also curate the products per their workforce’s needs.
Maintain parity
Sometimes, companies tend to go overboard to reward certain employees during Diwali. For instance, a Chennai-based IT firm gifted 100 Maruti Suzuki cars to 100 employees based on tenure. The company had 500 employees in total. Another tech company in Chennai gifted BMW cars to its senior executives worth more than Rs 1 Crore. Employers should understand that Diwali is not the time to reward a selected number of people based on performance or reward. We have different occasions for that. Instead, gifting should communicate cohesiveness, togetherness, and inclusivity. Organizations need to maintain parity while gifting their people at Diwali.
Best gifting ideas for Diwali 2023
As per some leading corporate gifting trends, employers can choose various ways to make this Diwali more grand for their employees.
Send E-Gift Cards
Companies are moving towards digitizing their employee gifting program. It saves time and effort for the HR. Using an R&R digital platform like Advantage Club, companies can send personalized E-cards and vouchers to their employees. Employees can use these vouchers to buy products from a huge category of brands in travel, shopping, food, wellbeing, education, entertainment, and many more.Â
Also Read: Gift Cards –Â The Fantastic Employee Reward To Bring Smiles And Make Memories
Freedom to choose
Traditionally, companies make a standard gifting strategy during Diwali. This way, employees end up with no option at large. But now companies can give more options to their people. Employers can now send digital points to their employees and redeem them through Advantage Club. Your employees get to take their pick from this treasure trove of brands, making Advantage Club’s offering the absolute must-have for elevating your gifting game.
Don't forget physical gifting
Personalization is vital for giving a better employee experience. With Advantage Club, HRs can select and curate gifts for their employees from the vast categories of products from consumables, electronics, dinner & cookware stationary, and experiences such as skydiving, bungee jumping, scuba diving, etc. Companies can pick and choose and personalize the employee gifting experience to their employee’s requirements. Organizations don’t even have to worry about the end-to-end logistics for giving a better gifting experience.
Suggested Read: Emerging Ways To Enhance Employee Engagement In 2023
After the pandemic, corporate gifting has seen an uptick. As per an industry report, the ticket size of corporate gifting has increased by 70-80%. Before 2022, the average budget for gifting was Rs 3000 per employee per annum; it has now expanded to Rs 5000. This year might also be an excellent time to be generous since employees have seen job cuts throughout the last one and a half years. Moreover, companies are also moving towards eco-friendly ways of gifting employees, and going digital is one of the steps. Furthermore, companies are now also focusing on sustainable gifting, such as environment-friendly ways of packaging, avoiding plastic and replacing it with bamboo, hand-made paper, sustainable paper grass stuffing, glass containers, etc. Employers should make full use of this Diwali to further align their people to the larger mission and values of the company.
