Since the switch to remote work began during the COVID-19 era, intelligent business leaders have learned to shift their hiring and onboarding practices to help WFH employees be as successful and engaged as possible.
The fact is, starting a new job with a remote or hybrid team is a different experience than onboard in in the office; meeting coworkers on the first day, learning the correct workflows and more can be overwhelming for new hires when they are separated from their teams. There are many things you can do to help make a new employee feel welcome, no matter where they are located.
One of the most important is getting the same company swag and custom merch to their desks on day one!
Why create a new hire welcome box?
Onboarding can be an invigorating experience for new talent if done right. Creating a new hire welcome kit for new team members will help them feel welcome and get them excited to start in their new role. The most important thing to remember when creating a welcome package for a remote employee is to choose high-quality items that they will want to use. These items can be things that make them more productive and help them get set to work from home, or they can be other gifts that will welcome to the team. See below for more ideas for each of these.
How to build a new hire welcome box and onboarding kit
You’ve already done the hard work to choose and sway great talent to join your company. Now comes the fun part of making them feel welcome with an awesome welcome box that says, “we’re excited you’re here!”
Swag.com makes it easy to build and send onboarding kits that will help underline your company culture and turn new hires into team members in no time at all. Here are some tips for doing just that:
Make an impact on the first day with personal touches
Obviously the logistics of setting up a home office for new hires can be difficult as far as technology is concerned. This part of the process will not be the most fun.
We can’t help you get a computer or monitor to your employees’ desks. But, with our Swag in a box feature and our Swag Distribution Platform, you can rest assured knowing that shopping, storing and shipping custom welcome kits to any address around the world is a piece of cake!
Along with curating thousands of great items that are fully customizable, Swag.com makes it super simple to package them together into boxes that can be shipped around the world to your new employees’ homes. Each box can be fully customized to reflect your branding and company culture. Additionally, our boxes allow for custom welcome letters in each box; a nice touch when looking to inspire a sense of company culture on day one.
Related: Here Are Your Options For Customizing Swag Boxes
Remember that the point of these onboarding welcome kits is to make your new employees excited, welcome and connected with the rest of the team. Keep that in mind when choosing how you want your box to look and writing your welcome letter. Any personal touch you include makes a difference.
Include a mix of products to check all the boxes
You have to accomplish a few different goals when creating a new hire box, and including a mix of swag can help accomplish that.
For one, you should include some items that will help with the onboarding process and ensure that your new employee is ready to start work on the first day. Boring (but necessary) things like the employee handbook, and all the other onboarding kit materials are a start. But we recommend also including more company swag like branded notebooks, mouse pads and other office supplies that make doing the job easier.
You also want to make the onboarding experience fun. A great category for that is custom apparel, like t-shirts and hoodies. This is almost mandatory at this point! If you want to get your employee excited from day one, deck them out in high-quality gear so they feel like any other team member. Hats, hoodies, socks or whatever else you can think of will help make your new employee feel like a part of the team.
Related: Top Apparel Gifts For Working From Home
Finally, send some fun items that new hires will want to keep around the house, like a custom coffee mug or a custom water bottle. It might seem small, but a welcome gift like these instill pride in the company. Stickers re another way to accomplish this, as is a branded succulent (the pot is branded, the succulent is not.)
Pre-order your welcome kits so that new hires don’t wait forever
They’ve taken the job, they start in two weeks, and now… nothing?
Avoid this situation by creating your custom onboarding kits and using the Swag.com Distribution feature to store your boxes at our facilities until the exact moment you’re ready to send them. If you know you have a spree of hires coming up, we can make the process of getting a meaningful connection to your company culture in your new hires’ hands as simple as a click of a button!
Keeping talent excited to start is a delicate process of staying in contact via email, and trying to offer them ways to get to know the company culture better. Having your welcome kit arrive at their doorstep at the drop of a hat says you’re on top of it and can’t wait for them to join you! Whether it’s a single new hire or a whole class of new employees, storing welcome kits with the Swag Inventory and Distribution platform means we can reach any address in the world whenever you need.
The best part? Our Swag Inventory and Distribution platform have no platform or subscription fees. You just pay shipping and handling costs. No need to manage a swag closet, fill-out shipping forms or schedule pick-ups or make unwanted trips to the post office.
Get to know your new employees by letting them choose their own welcome gift
Once someone is hired, companies and people managers need to start the process of trying to get to know them on a personal level. New hires should be given lots of opportunities to provide input and express themselves to co-workers and other team members. One fun way to kick this process off is to use the Swag.com giveaway feature to allow your new employee to choose their own welcome gift!
Let’s say you want to offer up a t-shirt, a water bottle or a coffee mug as part of your onboarding kit. Our giveaway feature makes it easy to create a custom link you can send to your employees that will allow them to choose which item, size and color they want! Since you can also create a fully custom landing page, you can make this process a fun getting-to-know you experience that shows your new employee you are looking forward to understanding them better.
For example, “Are you more of a coffee person? Maybe the coffee mug is for you!” or “Are you more of a workout nut? Go with the water bottle then!”
The trick is to be creative and use the Swag.com tools to make your new employees feel seen, heard and understood from day one.
Our platform will manage your inventory, let you know when stock is low and make re-ordering as easy as a few clicks. Never count and refold employee t-shirts again. We’ve got it covered.
Conclusion: Make your new hire feel excited, prepared and welcome
The point of sending a welcome kit to new hires is to not to make sure they know everything about your company culture, but to make them excited to get to know it. The more personal touches you can include in your onboarding kit, the further along you’ll be in making new employees feel like bonafide team members in no time at all!
Your employee welcome kit should have nice mix of welcome gifts that will help them on the first day of work, feel connected to the company name from day one, and let them know that their co-workers and team members are excited to get to know them. Help them get their workspace decked out goodies and stickers that make the company name stand out. Most importantly, give them personal touches like handwritten letters that turn the employee onboarding kit into a warm first impression.
Use your creativity and make the most of our tools to ensure your employee welcome kit makes an impact that will stay with your talent for as long as they stay with your organization!
If you’re interested in having Swag.com help you create employee onboarding kits, reach out using the form below. One of our experienced team members will be in touch to let you know more about what we can do.
* Updated January 2024.
