Corporate gift ideas your team and clients will actually use

The timing does a lot of the work. Most New Zealand businesses give at the end of the year, when Christmas falls in summer and the office closes over the holidays. A gift sent just before the work do lands well, because people are already in a thankful mood and thinking about time off. For that season, our page on corporate Christmas gifts goes into more detail.

The rest of the year is often more memorable, simply because nobody expects it. A project that went live after months of late finishes. A work anniversary, five or ten years in. Matariki in June or July makes a good mid-winter thank you, halfway between one Christmas and the next. Labour Weekend in October and the end of the financial year in March are natural pauses too.

Some of the best corporate gift ideas have no season at all. The Thank you Choice Gift Card suits any of these moments, because the person receiving it chooses which brand gift cards they want. The message is in the name, and the choice is theirs.

Good employee gift ideas tend to be small and frequent rather than big and rare. Recognising a team after a hard month works better than waiting for one large gesture in December.

Lunch on the company is an easy start. The Restaurants and Dining Gift Card lets someone take a partner or a friend out on a weekend, at a place they actually like rather than the café next to the office. For the colleague who keeps the kettle busy, a T2 Tea gift card covers loose-leaf tea and the odd teapot. It is a modest gift, and it gets used every single morning.

A team gift also solves a problem most offices know well. Colleagues feel they should chip in for each other's birthdays and farewells, the envelope goes round, and the same three people always organise it. When the business takes care of it, everyone is covered and nobody has to collect coins. These staff gift ideas work for a team of five or fifty.

Looking for more staff gift ideas NZ workplaces use, or corporate gift ideas for employees in a particular role? Our guide to the best gift cards for employees goes through them card by card.

A client gift is a thank you, not an advert. A small gift with a short, personal note usually says more than a big one with a sales message attached. It is also worth checking first whether a client has rules about accepting gifts, as some companies and public sector organisations do.

The simplest of the corporate gift ideas for clients is to let them choose. The All-in-1 Choice Gift Card is exchanged for the brand gift cards they prefer, so you do not need to know their taste or their diet. For a key contact you have worked with for years, an experience from a Redballoon gift card feels more personal. It gives them a day out of their own choosing. These corporate gift ideas for customers work in the same way: a choice and a thank you, without the sales talk.

Gift boxes and baskets look great on the day they arrive. The catch is that the person receiving them did not choose what is inside. Corporate gift box ideas and corporate gift basket ideas tend to end with half the contents passed on to someone else, or left in the staff kitchen for anyone to take.

There are alternatives that are just as easy to send to a whole team. An experience is one. Redballoon covers activities and BucketlistGift is another option for days out, so people pick their own outing, whether that is a jet boat ride or a quiet spa afternoon. A night away is another. Hotelgiftcard goes towards a hotel stay, which suits the colleague who has been talking about a weekend in Queenstown for two years. These unique corporate gift ideas tend to be remembered long after a basket has been unpacked.

Small corporate gift ideas can work just as well, as long as they suit the person. A choice card with a modest amount on it lets each person decide, and nothing ends up in the bin.

The trickiest team to buy for is the varied one. Different ages, different interests, one person who loves cooking and another who has not turned the oven on in years. The All-in-1 Choice Gift Card handles that, because each person redeems it on giftcard.co.nz for the brand they want.

Ordering is straightforward. Tell us how many cards you need and the amount on each, and an account manager sends you a quote. Ask them which payment methods apply to your order, including whether paying by invoice is possible. The cards are sent by email within minutes, either to you or straight to each person. For staff or clients overseas, international gift cards give them brands they can use where they live.

Everything else you need is on our page about corporate gifts in New Zealand.