Corporate Gifting

Several years ago, I wrote a blog about my job responsibility of employee recognition. Along with this task, I was also responsible for finding the perfect holiday gift to recognize our customers and thank them for our business partnership.

I really enjoyed this part of my job but was surprised each year by the difficulty of the task. I am a highly skilled shopper with YEARS of training – just ask my husband. So finding something that expressed appreciation AND would be valued by the recipient should have been a piece of cake piece of chocolate.

The difficulty was finding a gift that contained a quality product, looked festive, and could be enjoyed by many staff members, rather than a single business contact.

Van Otis offers several corporate gift options in their gift guide that will relay your company’s sincere appreciation. Each option contains handcrafted confections and/or Van Otis’ cashews and popcorn, wrapped in elegant and festive packaging. You can check out your options at www.vanotis.com or stop by the retail shop in Manchester to place an order.

Sweet Recognition

In one of my former corporate roles, I was responsible for employee recognition programs. This might sound like a very fulfilling job function. Honestly, all it did was add another layer of cynical to my already well-developed attribute of cynicism.

Think about how difficult it is to find the right gift for someone. Then, imagine what it’s like to find a gift for 200 to 2,000 people that not only expresses gratitude, but is additionally motivating.

Watches offend the chronomentrophobics. Turkeys offend the carnophobics. Gift cards offend the decidophobics. After a while, I believed that distributing a check for one million dollars to each employee would result in at least one worker’s comp claim for a paper cut.

Then one day, this cynic gifted with chocolate. Every employee received chocolate with a note of appreciation mailed directly to their home address. I sat by the phone the next day waiting for an employee to call and rant about his Save the Cocoa Bean Campaign.

As expected I did receive phone calls, but surprisingly, they were of gratitude. The chocolate provided immediate gratification. It was shared and appreciated by family members. It was a treat and surprise at the end of a long work day. Chocolate.

I empathize with those of you who are in the thankless position of distributing thank you’s. Call Sara at Van Otis (800) 826-6847; she might even send you a sample. It’s a tough job, but somebody’s got to do it.