The official 2024 work anniversary gift giving guide
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by Rick Joi Rick Joi is the founder of The Workiversary Group and author of the award‑winning book, Inspiring Work Anniversaries. |
Looking for ideas on what to give as work anniversary gifts?
There are many categories of work anniversary gifts, and within each category many different options. For each category and option, we share our thoughts on whether and/or when it makes sense. Every organization’s interests and limitations are different, but these are the three characteristics we’re considering when thinking about how good a particular work anniversary gift is:
✔️ Low cost
✔️ Low effort
✔️ Meaningful
You can read more on why these three things are important in our blog post, Thoughts on why work anniversaries usually aren’t great.
Company-themed gifts
Work anniversaries celebrate the day the employee and the organization joined together to work towards the common purpose of the organization. While no one explicitly thinks about this, the gifts in this list just feel right, because they honor the connection between the employee and the organization.
New equipment — This is the best work anniversary gift of them all. Ask employees what would help them be more productive, and then get them that. New monitor? New computer? New drill? New toolbox organizer? Under-desk exercise bike? Standing desk? Hand warmers? (Check out our full blog about this)
Company-branded clothing — For the many employees who don’t wear a uniform, company-branded clothing is a great way to boost a sense of belonging to the organization. To do this well, you’ll want to give higher quality clothing, though, so it feels special and will actually be worn.
Whatever your company sells — If your company sells a consumer product at a price point that you can give it away on one or more work anniversaries, then that makes an amazing gift. As a side benefit, it assures your employees are experiencing what your customers are experiencing, which should increase empathy and ideas.
Stock or stock options — If stock or options are part of your company’s compensation plan, consider timing your grants with work anniversaries and playing up the connection with the work anniversary for maximum ritual effect.
Numbered gifts
The power of numbered gifts is that they communicate how much experience each employee has. They informally signal who has been around for a very long time, which can be helpful to long-tenured employees.
To maximize the professionalism of these gifts, enlist your design team to have fun with customizing these to your brand and culture.
Paper certificates — If you don’t have a work anniversary budget, but you do have access to a printer, then paper certificates are an enormous step up from no gift at all. If your company has graphic designers (full-time or freelance), then having them design them is best, but if not, you can check out our free work anniversary certificate templates.
Framed paper certificates — A paper certificate in a cheap frame is a much, much better gift than a paper certificate. Or, better yet, go with a really nice frame, potentially customized to your organization, and make a little ceremony of replacing the certificate in the frame each year.
Plaques — While plaques sound nicer than framed certificates, it turns out their monochromatic-ness and the cost-driven pressure to reduce customization makes them less special. Save plaques for your office “wall of fame” of special achievements like patents and corporate softball tournament wins.
Pins — Pins that clearly communicate the number of years of service are great for customer-facing or patient-facing employees. The pin will convey their credibility in a helpful way. Note that pins are not great for office workers.
Customized name tags or ID badges — Special name tags or ID badges that include the number of years of service are great for the same reason that pins are great, but they’re slightly better because they remove the need for employees to remember to wear them.
Stickers — Stickers that clearly communicate the number of years of service are great for employees who carry equipment around (like laptops or toolboxes).
Blocks — Numbered blocks, where an employee gets a new numbered block with each year of service, are great gifts for employees who work together in-person and have desks.
Small personalized gifts
These are generally best from the manager, ideally delivered one-on-one at the beginning of the day on the exact work anniversary date (or the closest day before if it falls on a non-work day).
Candy bars or other snacks — The key with this one is to know their favorite. The best thing is if HR asked them during onboarding, but if they didn’t, then you can ask during a one-on-one earlier in the year.
Coffee gift card — Candy or snacks is simpler because it’s more of a gift than a gift card, and everyone likes some snack, while some people just don’t drink coffee.
Balloons — Helium balloons in their favorite color on their desk when they get in in the morning are always fun. They’ll signal to others that it’s the day to congratulate them, making it more social. Make it clear that the balloons need to be taken hope at the end of the day so that it triggers conversations with their loved ones. If their work anniversary is on a weekend, do it on the Friday before.
Flowers — While flowers are relatively common work anniversary gifts, we would suggest they’re best reserved for get-well situations. This avoids both the gender complications and also the odd symbolism that the flowers eventually die and are a mess.
Baked goods — Baked goods can be really special, but doing it well takes some work. Check out our work anniversary baked goods blog post for more details.
Big personalized gifts
Big personalized gifts are expensive and require a lot of effort to pull off well. They are generally only for the richest of organizations who are willing to put a lot of energy into doing something that really stands out.
But, there are a lot of downsides to big personalized gifts. Done poorly with forgotten or late gifts, or the appearance of favoritism, the program can be a net-negative with employees being more upset than grateful on average. Also, in many cases, these gifts will trigger tax laws requiring the organization to pay taxes on the gifts.
Someone who knows them picks a gift — Having someone who knows the employee pick a gift within a specified budget can feel the most meaningful and the most “family-like”. However, it requires a lot of work and a budget big enough that the gift is special. In many cases it will devolve into the employee getting directly asked what they want.
Someone who knows them picks a Cameo shoutout — Of all the gifts on the big personalized gifts list, this is the best one because you can get the celebrity to say your organization’s purpose or slogans or core values, which is a fun way to boost your culture. The downside is that you need to put the work into choosing an appropriate celebrity, and it’s not inexpensive. You generally will only want to do this at organizations where everyone is relatively well-paid.
Charitable donations — First, if you do charitable donations, then you need to let the employee choose the charity. Employees will resent money that they could have had being given to a charity they don’t care about. Second, if you allow employees to choose the charity, then you need to be okay with all of the awkward, controversial choices that they might make. And, because of the awkwardness, there isn’t much PR value in this, and many employees don’t value charitable contributions, and in general, this probably isn’t worth it.
Trips — If you want to win the most-amazing, most-talked-about work anniversary gift award, then this is a great option. If you want to do something cost-effective and meaningfully related to your organization, then this is a poor choice.
Generic gifts
Generic gifts aren’t great either. They’re generally for organizations who found that work anniversaries were too much effort and decided standardization would be a way to reduce effort. However, standardization has the side-effect of eliminating the specialness of the gift. Instead of feeling cared about, the employee will feel like they’re a box to be checked off.
Clocks or watches — Work anniversaries should be celebrations of the employee being part of something bigger than themselves working towards a common purpose, not about time passing. We have an entire blog post about this. (And if you read the end carefully, you might end up deciding to give clocks or watches, but for a completely different reason. 😉)
Some other identical gifts for everyone based on year — This is also a bad idea because it generally lacks meaning, most people won’t want the gift, and it gives of a really strong check-the-box, we-don’t-actually-care kind of vibe.
Pick-their-own gift from a catalog — This option is the answer to the problem of employees getting something they don’t want and actually choosing something for them being too much effort. Being low effort and not a complete waste of money are advantages, but it lacks meaning or connection. The mark-up from the vendor, and the vendor incentive to make choosing so hard that many employees don’t choose anything, make it expensive for what you get.
Bonuses — Generic gifts are hard to get right, and so you might give up and just give money. That’s actually not a bad idea, especially for lower income employees. It becomes a bit of a forced savings plan, and there will be less of a tax impact, because you will need to pay taxes. (Though, for many of the other options you have to pay taxes, too. Check out our work anniversary tax guide for more details on taxes and work anniversary gifts.)
Gift cards — Like in giving gifts to the relatives you don’t know how to buy for, gift cards are a little less overtly a transfer of money than bonuses. They also have the advantage of being a tangible object to give (if your employees aren’t remote). But, the tax law in the United States and elsewhere treats them like cash, so you will need to declare them and pay payroll taxes on them, which can be more complicated then a straight-up bonus.
Lottery tickets — Lottery tickets are the universal symbol of employees hating their job and are desperate enough to fruitlessly gamble for a tiny, tiny chance of being able to quit. Most employees will lose, which is disappointing. If one of your employees wins and quits their job, that will actually make a kind of lousy, culturally corrosive story.
Closing thoughts
Picking the right work anniversary gifts for your organization can be challenging.
If the above hints were enough and you know what you want to do, check out our vendor guide for recommendations on great vendors in each category. (The recommendations are unbiased…we don’t make any money from any of the vendors.)
If you’re still trying to figure out what to do, you can also talk to one of our experts, where again, you’ll get unbiased advice because we' don’t make money from recommending any one option over another.