Promotional Products and Employee Relations

As effective as they are for marketing your brand, promotional products can also be used for internal branding. According to the Promotional Products Association International (PPAI), Employee Relations and Events, take up approximately 8.39% of promotional products sales. This general category covers morale and motivation, corporate / employee events, employee orientation, organizational commitment / corporate identity, corporate communications, employee training (other than safety) and employee referral programs. Meanwhile, Internal Promotions – which covers sales incentives, TQM / quality programs, productivity, inventory reduction, error reduction and attendance improvement – take up about 4.31% of sales. Promotional items used for Employee Safety Education / Incentives are about 3.05% of total product sales. Finally, the PPAI survey also indicates that Employee Service Awards (including anniversary recognition, service awards, etc) comprise about 5.45% of sales.

In total, 21.2% of promotional products are geared towards employees. This shows that most employers recognize that motivated employees are an asset to increasing the bottom line. If you haven't taken advantage of promotional products for this purpose yet, now is the right time. Here are some ways for you to use promotional products in the corporate world:

Recruitment and Retention
Use promotional products for recruitment like you would trade show tchotchke. Hand them out to job fair attendees to increase traffic to your booth. You can also set aside special gifts to be given out to qualified applicants to encourage them to pursue their application.

Once you've gathered the best personnel, you would naturally want to keep them within your organization. As such, you can begin by making them feel welcome with simple gifts. When packaging your orientation or welcome kit, you can include the following:

- Branded office supplies like pens, sticky notes and other desktop accessories
- Personal items usable in the office like mugs, food items, etc.

Long-term plans for improving retention could also include structuring a loyalty program. Reward employees who have spent a considerable amount of time with the company with:

- Premium gift items such as watches are perfect for employees who have been with the company for over ten years.
- Smaller and less expensive gift items can also be given to employees on the anniversary of their hire date. Folios, tumblers and lapel pins are good gifts for this purpose.

Motivation and Morale Boosting
Recognizing and rewarding achievements is one way to motivate employees and boost their morale. This, in turn, can greatly increase your company's productivity level. A rewards program is one way to go about this. The first thing you have to do is to set a clear criteria for qualification. Let your employees know that the goals you set for them are practical and achievable. Then, conduct surveys to find out what your employees want as part of the program.

- Plaques and awards are best given out when you're honoring specific achievements. For instance, in sales, you can use an engraved award to recognize the employee who has garnered the highest margin or the top sales volume.
- Premium gift items can be part of your rewards program. Try to keep your selection as diverse as possible. Have some thing for both men and women. Get unisex gifts as well. Especially for rewards that require points in exchange for items, it is recommended that you get a little bit of everything into the mix.

Building Team Spirit and Office Camaraderie
A fun way to use promotional items in the corporate arena is for building team spirit. Sports events and company picnics are a great venue for distribution. Ideal items would include:

- Color-coded caps, shirts or jerseys to separate employees into teams during sport events
- Cheer gear like megaphones and giant foam hands for games
- Golf gear (golf shirts, bags, memorabilia) for office tournaments