How to Build the Perfect Employee Welcome Package

Exercise equipment flat lay: reusable zero waste bottle, sneakers, head phones and smart watch toned blue

Hiring and onboarding new employees can be an exciting but stressful task—will the new employees like the coffee machine? Will they enjoy the company culture? How many onboarding meetings is too many meetings?

Employee welcome packages can reduce some of this stress and help successfully onboard new employees. The packages typically include necessities to help them succeed in their first weeks, as well as other fun items to help them feel more connected to the organization. Aside from the usual items, such as an employee handbook and branded stationery, fun items to consider adding include snacks, apparel, and even tech items!

Not only do they offer utilitarian benefits, employee welcome packages can hugely affect the new hires’ perception of the company. Which items are chosen and how they are presented can speak volumes about what the corporate culture is like and how employees are valued.

Here are some stats that’ll make you rethink the onboarding process:

A strong onboarding process can improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by 70%
A negative onboarding experience leads to employees being 2x as likely to look for other career opportunities
Up to 20% of employee turnover happens in the first 45 days
Manager satisfaction increases by 20% when their employees have formal onboarding training

Regardless of your company brand and corporate culture, we’ve got ideas and products that will excite, inspire, and help retain new employees!

But First—a Company Analysis

Welcome packages should reflect aspects of the company, such as:

mission
values
industry
corporate culture

If you had to distill these elements into products, what would that look like?

How do you want your employees to feel when they interact with the package?

For example, advertising giant Ogilvy & Mather is known for their iconic marketing campaigns rooted in creating engaging experiences. Their “Induction Box” is thoughtfully designed, embracing David Ogilvy’s concept of “8 Habits of Highly Creative Communities” to engage a different audience—employees.

The employee welcome kit is a visual representation of the 8 creative habits in action. The habits are: courage, idealism, curiosity, playfulness, candour, intuition, free-spiritedness, and persistence. Equipped with a copy of Ogilvy’s book, “The Eternal Pursuit of Unhappiness”, the box also comes with a branded notebook, metal slinky, pencil, USB, and other guides that encourages new employees to foster these 8 habits.

(Source: Dieline)

If you’re interested in learning more on how to build a brand experience, read our blog post outlining the 3 keys to creating an impactful brand experience!

The New Employee Onboarding Checklist

Regardless of your company or industry, most onboarding processes/welcome kits have the same core administrative items:

Employee handbook
HR forms (e.g. financial/tax information, benefits forms, policies, confidentiality agreements)
Guides (e.g. organizational chart, office map, parking map, health and safety)
Employee related logins/passes (e.g. wifi passwords, parking card, keys/locks)
Personalized note

Products for the Ultimate New Employee Welcome Package

The perfect employee welcome box should be a blend of practical and “fun” products. Practical items will likely be used frequently and maybe even out-of-office, so choose high quality branded items that can sustain the wear and tear! Fun items add a more “human” touch to the stressful onboarding process, and can bring small moments of joy to employees.

Practical Items

Office supplies (notebook, pens, highlighters, post it notes, folders, etc.)
Water bottle or mug
PPE (for new hires during COVID)
Apparel (e.g. employee uniforms, lanyards)

Fun Items

Desk plants
Apparel (e.g. t-shirts, hats, sweaters)
Tech (earbuds, power banks, bluetooth speakers)
Wellness items (e.g. workout equipment, cooking lessons, gym memberships, stress balls, etc.)
Food (e.g. snacks, candy, chocolate, reusable lunch boxes, coffee, tea)
Other accessories such as books, stickers, enamel pins, tote bags, etc.

Sample Employee Onboarding Kits

Not sure which items to choose for your kit? Here are some sets to choose from. The hardest part will be choosing which one to add your company logo to!