With the holidays right around the corner, it’s time to start thinking about awesome and cost-efficient corporate gift ideas for your professional peers.
There are only a few more weeks before the holidays come around and, while you shop for family and friends, you should also be considering corporate gift ideas for the people you work with. But that can be easier said than done. Gifts for colleagues, customers, and clients need to strike the perfect balance of work-appropriate, creative and fun, and cost-efficient.
So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of having to pick the perfect gift for every person in your professional life, don’t worry. We’ve compiled 13 business gift ideas so that you can get a head start on your holiday shopping.
Food, Snacks, and Festive Beverages – The holidays are synonymous with fun and indulgences. By that logic, you can’t go too wrong with food, snacks, and beverages as business gifts. This can include:
- Compostable Coffee Pods – Every office has its coffee lovers, and many organizations provide their staff with single-serve coffee makers in their breakrooms. You can help your own company or a customer’s business to reduce waste with compostable coffee pods like Woken Coffee. These sustainable, high-quality espresso pods are 100% compostable and break down completely in a matter of weeks.
- Sparkling Wines – The holidays call for celebrations and time with family and friends. If you’re looking for corporate gift ideas that will help enliven the party for your colleagues or customers, sparkling wine is an excellent choice. We recommend Mionetto’s Prestige Rosé Extra Dry or, for something a little fancier, a bottle of their Luxury Cartizze DOCG.
- Boozy Ice Cream – Want to help your customers and colleagues add a fun twist to their holiday desserts? Then you’ll love this: boozy ice cream from Tipsy Scoop to help put them in the holiday spirit. With their Eat & Be Merry Pack, you’ll get six boozy flavors, including Candy Cane Vodka Martini, Drunken Gingerbread Man, Holiday Spiced Eggnog, and more. We recommend picking up a pack as a gift for yourself while you’re at it.
Books and Tools – For your peers that you’d like to keep it more professional with, useful books, tools, and resources can be gifts that keep you top of mind throughout the holidays and beyond. For example:
- Planners and Notebooks – As the new year rolls in, you can give gifts that help people stay organized. But rather than regular planners and notebooks, you might want to check out some that have focused purposes. For instance, the Hatch Ideas Notebook is broken out into three sections – Conceive, Incubate, and Hatch – to help people formulate their next big idea. You might also want to look into The Growth Planner from Life & Apples which combines goal setting, gratitude, daily scheduling and to-do lists, journaling, and habit, meal, and goal trackers to help drive and increase productivity and success.
- Insightful and Enlightening Books – Give the gift of knowledge and insight with one – or a few – of these awesome books.
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – For anybody who wants to be successful, this book is a solid read – and would make for a great gift. In this book, author Stephen R. Covey takes readers through the keys to success, from self-mastery and moving from dependence to independence, to enhancing teamwork, collaboration, and communication skills, and moving from independence to interdependence.
- The Six Attributes of a Leadership Mindset – If you have business leaders in your network, they’ll love this book. Penned by Outback’s own Joe Britto, it dives into the key factors that define every great leader: flexibility of mind, resilience, genuine curiosity, mindfulness, enterprise thinking, and creating leaders.
- Mastering the Rockefeller Habits – At Outback Team Building and Training, we are huge fans of this book. In fact, each of our employees has read it. For leaders, it is packed with insights about practical things you can implement to make a noticeable difference in the performance of your company, all based on three pillars: priorities, data, and rhythm. If you’re looking for an awesome and insightful business-focused book for people of every professional level, this is a good bet.
- The Happiness Equation – Around this time of year, many people start thinking about New Year’s resolutions. In The Happiness Equation, Neil Parischa offers readers a healthy dose of feel-good perspective and insights. It would make for an awesome and inspiring corporate gift idea.
- The Power of Habits: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business – This New York Times best seller from Charles Duhigg dives deep into the scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With examples ranging from the boardrooms of Procter & Gamble to the sidelines of the NFL and beyond, this book explains how and why the key to being successful in any endeavor is to understand how habits work.
Paw-fect Presents for the Pet-Loving Professional – We all know that one person in our network who absolutely adores their fur babies. And if you’re looking to put yourself in their good books, you should go with a holiday gift that benefits their pets. Here are a few ideas we love:
- BarkBox – Giving the gift of dog treats and toys will help bring joy to your colleague or customer’s pup, but it’ll also save them the hassle and expense of picking them up at the pet store. With a service like BarkBox, you can gift a holiday-themed box filled with awesome pup stuff.
- Basepaws – For pet owners, the more they know about their animals the better. Basepaws is the first DNA test for cats, and it can provide tons of information about their health, breed, traits, and habits. This makes for a fun and informative corporate gift idea.
Office Décor, Accessories, and Tech – When it comes to corporate gift ideas for the holiday season, you can’t go wrong with things that people can keep in their office or use at work. For instance:
- Terrariums and Plants – There are big benefits to adding a touch of green to an office space – especially in the wintertime. That’s why things like terrariums and desk plants are a fun, visually appealing, and cost-efficient corporate gift idea. If your recipient is a bit of a green thumb, they might like the Plant Theatre Bonsai Trio Kit that gives them everything they need to grow their own miniature Bonsai tree.
- Phone Grips – Have you ever seen those expandable knobs that people put on the back of their phones? They’re a huge craze, and for good reason. They make it even easier to grip your phone and avoid dropping it. They’re really useful, and also pretty inexpensive, making them an awesome business gift idea for the holidays. And, best of all, if you’re giving them to customers and clients, you can brand them with your company logo to keep you top of mind all year round. Check out Popsockets for a huge variety of styles.
- Wireless Chargers and Charging Station Racks – For the tech-fanatic who has every device – and every cord that comes with it – you might want to consider giving a charging station rack to hold all of their smartphones and tablets. You also can’t go wrong with a wireless charging station that can conveniently charge everything from their phones to their smartwatches, all in one convenient and wire-free place.
- Reusable Water Bottles and Coffee Mugs – For a handy and environmentally-conscious corporate gift idea, you might want to look into reusable water bottles and coffee cups. For instance, S’well bottles are a high-quality option, and they’re available in a variety of styles. Or for something a little more unique, you might like the Nomader Collapsible Water Bottle. You can also consider giving reusable coffee containers to help your colleagues or customers stay warm through the winter. We love the ZOJI Zojirushi mug which can keep drinks hot – or cold – for up to six hours.
Gifts That Keep on Giving – For the person who has it all, or if you’re looking to give a gift to an entire organization, there are a ton of awesome corporate gift ideas that keep on giving. This can include:
- Charitable Donations – The holidays are the perfect occasion to do some good in the world. So, when you’re looking for business gifts, you might want to think about donating to a great cause on behalf of a colleague or customer (for more insight and examples, read our blog post: 5 Inspiring CSR Success Story Examples). Organizations like Kiva allow you to make loans to entrepreneurs and small businesses from across the world. And the best part is that, with a 96.8% repayment rate, the person or company that you donate on behalf of can take those funds and reinvest them over and over again.
- Team Building Activities – If you’re looking for a holiday gift for your staff, team building activities are a great option. They’re a fun way to wrap up a year of hard work by celebrating together and having some fun – all while increasing collaboration, communication, and teamwork.
The holidays present a great opportunity to show your colleagues and clients you’re thinking of them and in turn build even stronger relationships. What gifts are you getting for your peers this holiday season? Let us know in the comments section.
Learn More About Team Building Activities for the Holiday Season
For more information about team building activities for your work group this holiday season , just reach out to our Employee Engagement Consultants.
