Corporate houses do everything possible to garner goodwill during the festive season. These are the times when companies gift their employees and clients. For example, to let their employees enjoy the Navratri festival, they even gift free passes for occasions like ‘Dandia Raas’.

Navratri, the season of nine nights, is celebrated with much glitter and glamour. It entails traditional dance types like garbas, dandia with the devotional songs in respect of Mother Amba and Mother Kaali. The people come together to have the blessings of the eternal mother, celebrate her presence within them and wish each other. Even celebrities join in the celebration of this traditional ritual of dance.

The profile of employees has become younger so it’s not surprising that several firms opt to celebrate such joyous occasions in the campus itself. Many companies join in the celebrations by gifting them traditional Navratri robes and free passes to the nine festive nights.

Many corporate houses sponsor local Navratri groups as part of innovative marketing methods to join the camaraderie during Navratri. Many of them come up with novel ideas like ‘designer dandias’.

True essence of corporate gifting is embedded in the fact that companies want to build a good relationship with their clients/customers. If the act of gifting motivates employees, corporate gifting at another level is part of a larger marketing & branding activity. It helps reconnect and re-establish a relationship with the key clients.

Festivals are a form of gettogether for most people across India. Festivals like Holi, Diwali, Christmas, Ganesh Festival and Navratri are rituals that are celebrated with great fervor, fun and frolic. This is the time of the year when corporate gifting takes place in a broader social context imparting a larger meaning to it. It acquires a whole new connotation during the festive season.

Gifting clients on such occasions is a must to spread brand identity and generate goodwill. Corporate gifting during  festivals is an opportunity to grow a company’s business that must be fully capitalized.

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At giftex, you will come across a wide range of products, which can be well used as a promotional gift for any corporate occasion. An umbrella is one such timely gift. It is one of the most useful articles for any person in the monsoon season. The weather may not be friendly always. And the umbrellas can be of great help in the summer too.

Your company can use this is an ideal promotional item that can serve the twin purpose of a gift and a brand promotion tool. You can gift it to your employees this monsoon. The collection of promotional umbrellas available ranges from the most popular Wentworth Golf Umbrellas to the cute Budget Mini Golf Umbrellas.

There are different types of umbrellas that meet the requirements of people. In fact, they can make a perfect gift for any season. However, they find it to be most useful in the rainy season, for example, a vacation in the monsoons.

The printed umbrellas are available in different sizes. People usually prefer colored umbrellas, as they look more refreshing and add a fashionable touch. Colored umbrellas give added benefits to the companies to choose the appropriate shade that suits their brand identity color. There are a number of standard colors available to choose from. The colors are chosen in such a manner that they will give fabulous display of the brand logo and the promotional message on them.

The double-colored printed umbrellas, for example, navy blue and white or the navy blue and yellow are the excellent color combination to display the brand name in the most contrasting background color. There are single-colored umbrellas available as well in the light shades and darker shades so as to allow the companies to pick them according to their brand identity color. Importantly, you will find them to be the most effective for spreading your corporate message across the customers.

Tags: business gifting, promotional gifts, Business etiquette, corporate gifts companies, Business Gifting
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In our recent blog, we discussed a unique initiative by Hindustan Unilever for all its employees. The company has set certain parameters that are meticulously measured, and a score is given to each employee on a vitality index score card.

The lower is the score, the better is an employee’s vitality;  a score of 0 to 4 puts the employee concerned in the green zone, a score of 5 to 6 slots one in the amber zone and a 7 plus score puts one in the red zone. Each employee is informed about his/her personal vitality score/color zone in a confidential manner.

Such relation building programs are a big boost to the employees’ morale and far more gainful than mere monetary rewards and incentives.  Of course, these measures succeed only if there’s a buy-in at the top! The top management committee ensured this. Another challenge was to create a buzz around the initiative. Mailers and posters like ‘Do you see red every time you see a staircase?’, or ‘Cool as a cucumber about your health? Don’t wait till it becomes red-hot’ were circulated.

In the next stage, employees were prompted to improve their vitality scores by conducting workshops  across the company’s different locations, through events such as Family Day, Walkathons, Vitality Exhibitions, nutritional menu counseling etc. Interactive sessions were held to teach the employees about the concept of BMI, ways of improving lifestyle, healthy diet to avoid/reduce weight gain as well as proper exercises for weight management.

The focus has been on scientific exercise methods, correct practical nutritional advice, and stress management techniques. The aim is to create health awareness so as to attain better fitness levels and enhanced lifestyle patterns. Workshops are conducted on post-retirement health planning for managers. At a basic level, the vitality index project reflects common sense: The healthier your employees, the more likely they’re to be (efficient) at work.

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Employers looking to incentivize their employees need not only consider gifts and monetary rewards. There are so many other steps and ideas that they can initiate to strike a rapport with their workforce. 

A case in point is Hindustan Unilever’s recent health initiative for its 15,000 strong team. The program is reaping great rewards. Shyamal Majumdar in an interesting article entitled ‘What’s your vitality index?’ that appeared in The Business Standard gave an insight into the initiative.

Based on an interview with T Rajgopal, HUL vice-president (Medical and Occupational Health), the writer threw light on the employee-driven incentive program at arguably India’s largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company.

Rajgopal and his team have indeed been able to implement a ‘personal vitality’ initiative in a phased manner for the employees of HUL in India. The health plan is ahead of the curve and hence is getting a favorable response from the company employees.

Underlining the importance of the move, the article pointed out: “What employees are doing at lunch and also after work can greatly affect their employer. HUL can consider the rewards-ratio of many other global firms that have implemented well-thought-out health plans for their employees. The ratio for Johnson & Johnson is 3.8:1. The same for Pepsico, Motorola and Dupont is equally healthy.

“We are providing employees the encouragement and the necessary tools to change unhealthy lifestyles before these transform into chronic diseases. We do it in a fun way that also allows them to choose the path, which fits them best,” stated Rajgopal.

At the heart of the new HUL initiative is a vitality index - the measurement of the personal vitality of every individual employee. It is based on four parameters - blood pressure, blood cholesterol, the Body Mass Index (BMI), and blood sugar.

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As we checked in the previous blog post, gold ETFs are very much similar to a diversified mutual fund plan. Instead of investing the corpus in equity, the money is invested in gold. We learnt about gold ETF schemes on offer from UTI, Quantum, SBI mutual fund, Kotak and Reliance.

Just to elaborate and simplify the concept further, ETFs are essentially mutual funds that are listed on the stock exchange. Here, the underlying core asset is standard gold bullion. You can use this instrument to buy gold bullion on someone else’s behalf, and present a meaningful gift. Corporates can consider gifting them to their employees as well.

Let us check the various features of gold ETFs and how they are managed:
• As for denomination, one can buy even one gram at a time. With Quantum, you can purchase half-a-gram at one time.

• When one wants to sell back the gold in physical form, the making charges of jewelry are wasted as they cannot be recovered. In fact, the gold in physical form is mostly sold at a discount to its original price owing to depreciation. Coins and bars suffer from similar issues. On the other hand, units of gold ETFs can be sold by either with a few clicks in case you have an online trading account or by a call to your broker.

• Tax benefits is one major advantage of gifting gold in the electronic form. It’s free of wealth tax. It attracts just 10% long-term capital gains tax as against 20% in case of physical gold.

• Again, there is absolutely no doubt on the count of purity because impurity risk is non-existent with gold ETF. This can be an issue with the gold in physical form

• Security is of course taken care of by the fund, unlike in the case of jewelry or other forms of physical gold where the threat of theft always looms.

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Pink Day, or June 23, has a serious history behind it. An American company marked the day pink on its calendar when it found that more than half its women employees had been diagnosed with breast cancer. But the colour is traditionally far from serious. It is associated with girls and cuteness and all things nice. But at the turn of the century pink also crossed over to the boardroom and not just because women were storming the male bastion of work in a big way. It became the it colour of the metrosexual man. For a long time women, too, had steered clear of pink in the workplace for fear of appearing inefficient, but today with a new found confidence, pink has taken on different connotations. Here’s a quick guide on how to wear pink in the office –

• Pink doesn’t mean bubblegum pink. Men should opt for deep shades of salmon and rose pink that complement the Indian skin tone perfectly, and remember that plum, crimson and magenta are also shades of pink. Steer clear of hot pink.
• Hot pink is a woman’s colour all the way. It’s bold, fierce and extremely feminine. It’s sexy without even remotely being trashy and no one can miss you when you’re wearing it.

• When buying a pink piece of clothing like a shirt or a jacket for the office, go for ‘serious’ prints like checks and stripes.
• Team your pink with business-like colours. A pink shirt with a navy blue or black jacket is a striking combination; pink and white lends itself to an easy feel, perfect for Friday dressing.
• Wary of pink? Use it as an accessory – a pink belt, pink shoes, a pink kerchief in your jacket pocket, or a pink tie. Note to self: keep the pink tie matte. Avoid shine, unless you want to attract attention to a block of shiny pink down your centre.
However, if you are completely an anti-pink person or your mood is just not ‘pinky’ on June 23, then you don’t have to wear it, just put it up in the office! A pink wall hanging, when used correctly, can bring vitality into an office space.

So go pink with a vengeance and, spare a thought for the breast cancer victims in the world.

Tags: Gifting occasions, business gifting, Popular corporate gifts, business gift baskets, low cost gifts, gifting india, promotional products, Gifting events, corporate gifts companies, Worst gifts

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Poor office design is often responsible for loss of productivity apart from hurting employee morale. According to a survey, nearly thirty per cent people opt to leave their current jobs owing to the poor office environment and almost an equal number of prospective employees turn down a job offer largely because of a firm’s poor work environment.

The most common complaints from people working in badly designed offices are:

Noise – It affects their work efficiency.
Temperature - The offices is either too warm or too cold for comfort.
Insufficient space - The people commonly find their workspace cramped and constrained.
Uncomfortable furniture – Employees often are dissatisfied with the outdated office furniture.

Other common areas of complaint and irritation are poor ventilation and poor illumination. The ventilation system should provide quality indoor air. It should also provide the right levels of humidity and temperature. Importantly, it should be well maintained. A badly lit office may cause accidents resulting from shadows, glare, eyestrain and fatigue.

The idea of building a pleasant office environment is to create productive and conducive conditions for optimum output. A well-designed office layout improves staff morale and profitability whereas badly designed offices constrain employees. Getting rid of clutter and reorganizing the workspace will lead to a positive working environment.

Take steps to revamp office space. It will be a perfect May Day or International Workers’ Day gesture!

Tags: Popular corporate gifts, corporate gifts companies, Gifting occasions, business gift baskets, Best business gifts, gifting etiquette, corporate gifting for employees, Gifting events, Worst gifts, promotional gifts

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In this article, ill explain the demarcation that could be used while gifting to Board of directors, employees, bosses, speakers.

Board of Directors /Speaker Gifts /Visiting Dignitaries –

While gifting to the above, it is essential to maintain a level of formality, that is, one should use the traditional and conservative approach. Anything that is an executive gift will usually fit the bill. Leather Pad Holders, Desk Clocks, and Fine Writing Instruments are places to start for traditional type gifts.

Gift For the Boss –

The most important principle to follow while gifting to your boss is “do not do it alone!” which means, It is advisable to buy the gift for your boss with your co-workers. A gift from a sole employee might be interpreted as a bribe to your boss or make you stick out from the other employees in a negative way to both your boss and co-workers. You might have good intentions, but really assess your relationship with your boss before you give a gift without your co-workers.

Gift for Employee-

There is a wide selection when purchasing for your employees. Gifts can range from desk clocks, mouse mats, coffee mugs to adventurous gifts like trekking etc. Personalization can also be used quite liberally if you are aware of the likes /dislikes of the employee. For e.g. If you know the employee is a Bollywood buff, a free pass to a cine awards would be ideal. 

If you have any idea about the interests/hobbies of the gift recipient, there is no hard and fast rule that you have to adhere to the above suggestions.You can gift based on the personal likes/dislikes of the recipient.

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