You rely on your staff for a lot of things, but what do you do to say thank you? Gone are the days when a pat on the back and an Argos voucher at Christmas is enough. To keep staff seriously motivated and working at their best requires relationship building and a good employee recognition programme. A recent study has shown that businesses which scored in the top 20% for staff recognition programmes has 31% lower staff turnover rates, which shows it pays to reward! *Forbes.com.

Many businesses use rewards and recognition schemes, which have worked well to increase the happiness of employees and making them feel appreciated for their extra work. Traditional rewards schemes can take over a month to deliver a product after the recognition. As we are now living in a fast paced Facebook age, we think it is important to move with the times and introduce instant gifting to businesses, rewarding staff with quality gifts instantly for good work.

Micro gifting has been around since 2007, and it is a great way to reward staff more regularly without blowing your entire budget. Micro gifts are of a financial value lower than a gift you would give for a special occasion, typically ana verage of £5. They are generally quirky and interesting and captivate the imagination. They are quality gifts which are delivered almost immediately after the occasion, or in the case of e-gift cards, straight away. They can arrive nicely wrapped with a personalised gift message, so appear like a lot of thought has gone into the gift. With reward programmes, a benefit of micro gifts is that the price is low so the budget can be given to employees to delegate without a typical authorisation procedure which slows the process down. The employees can reward colleagues, suppliers and business partners instantly. With many businesses unable to afford large bonuses and pay rises in this economic climate, micro gifting is a great way to boost morale and keep staff engaged.

Gifted2you recently started working with a pub chain that was looking for something unique, engaging and exciting and micro gifting seemed a great way forward. We spoke to them to find out exactly what type of branding they wanted and walked things through with them every step of the way to make sure they had a programme they were really happy with.

Mother Theresa famously said that “it’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.” Micro gifting is very much like this philosophy and we think that a consistently presented gift that has been personalised and sent in an instant will be much better received than an anonymous larger gift that lacks personality.  Micro gifting is a great addition to a business. Be ahead of the game with this great modern idea which is predicted to become popular over the coming years.