To think hamper is better gift than voucher for staff

[Christmasmorale]

Ok given everything going on this year I want to boost staff morale with a nice Christmas gift. Our budget isn’t large enough to give a meaningful bonus. We have about £200 spend for each staff member.

I like the idea of an F&M hamper - with staff either choosing the Wine or Christmas food hamper. My business partner thinks it’s a waste of money and that staff would appreciate a £200 department store or Amazon voucher instead to spend as they please.

Personally, I used to get an F&M hamper every Christmas from an old work place and I still have the hamper boxes in use to this day as blanket storage etc. Even though I would also get a £1000 Christmas bonus from that workplace it’s the hamper that I remember fondly and associate positively with the organisation.

So:

YANBU: hampers are a more personal touch
YABU: just give them the money, no one wants F&M fruit cakes

It's difficult - I understand cash is more flexible, but I really liked it when we got a Selfridges voucher from work as I was forced to spend it on a treat rather than just save it or use it for necessities. I would find a F&M hamper less appealing unless it was wine, but not everyone is into wine. But preferring a voucher is only true if you don't have money worries, if you have money worries then money is clearly better - so I guess it depends on how confident you are people at your organisation are well paid enough to be happy to have a voucher rather than a cash bonus.

I love those hampers and have had one before (my brother gave me one because he got 2 one year) and they're lovely but I think I think £200 is a lot of money to a lot of people and if I had the choice of a basket of goodies or being able to treat myself to something I really wanted or was really useful to me I'd go for that every time. Could you ask people? I know my brother used to get a choice between hamper, electrical item (iPad/camera etc) or voucher.

Definitely not vouchers from Waitrose, M&S or JL - all awful. I would prefer a hamper over any of those options, but a voucher that shows some thought for the person would also be appreciated.

I would personally prefer cash on a payslip for Christmas rather than a voucher, only because, sometimes vouchers aren't for stores I shop in.

When we do gift cards for leaving presents where we work it's always an Amazon gift card or John Lewis - we did JL for women on maternity leave this year.

As a side note - years ago I worked for a buying department of a large firm for a year on a contract - one year I came home with loads of whiskey, salmon etc as these were gifts from other companies to our department, my stepdad and fiance at the time were most pleased as they got most of it! They also gave staff hampers too to all staff but was in early 90s where booze was seen as very acceptable as a gift!

Sorry haven't read the full thread but have you looked at tax implications, personally I'd be really fed up if I got a £200 hamper and had to pay £40 tax on it, obviously a higher rate tax payer would pay more.

OP - you could send Christmas cards as well as cash on payslips.

I like hampers, I give hampers to awkward people who have everything (although I select each individual item based on things they actually like rather than get a ready made one) & I've had a few F&M ones including one just the other week.
We kept 4 items we like & the rest went to the food bank.

Unless you specifically want the wicker hamper (& not everyone does) I'd pick the money every time.

There are always a bitterly disappointingly small pile of bits in each one after you've removed the tins of tea leaves that most people don't want & the other things you don't like.

They also do very few alcohol free hampers so anyone who doesn't drink will find even less to like inside it.

Also can I come and work for you?! I've never had a job where we got anything other than a Christmas dinner gifted to us! My husband used to get a £10 Asda voucher but they stopped that years ago (and they're a huge company) so I think it's lovely that's you're putting so much thought into whatever you decide.

Food allergies make hampers suck

Voucher. Fruit cake 'aint gonna taste juicer because it has a fortnum and mason sticker on the front.

Who wants a hamster? Whoops. Misread that.

Our long service awards are paid by voucher and they're not taxable, despite being above £50. But I don't know what the rules actually are.

Maybe give people a choice of vouchers from a small selection of suppliers? Then if anyone wants to buy a hamper, then they're free to do so.

Our long service awards are paid by voucher and they're not taxable, despite being above £50. But I don't know what the rules actually are. I think your employer can pay it for you so you might get a £200 voucher but it has cost them £250 as they paid the £50.

Cash on the payslip would be my first choice
Second choice a voucher for amazon
I would have no use for a drinks hamper as I don’t drink and I would probably only pick a few bits out of a food hamper and the rest would end up in the food bank collection basket in Tesco.

But then I have never worked anywhere that gives a Christmas bonus but my son gets a cash bonus of around £1000 which he will add to his house deposit savings.

I have Coeliac Disease and I also don’t drink Alcohol nor do my immediate family (Muslim).

£200 is a shocking amount of money on food. Most people, myself included, could really do with the money. Perhaps a gift voucher for a “safe” store.

@Lily193

Definitely not vouchers from Waitrose, M&S or JL - all awful. I would prefer a hamper over any of those options, but a voucher that shows some thought for the person would also be appreciated.

See, I completely disagree. I’d be grateful for any of those.

OP it’s been a long time since I’ve done this so please do check it out, but I believe you can spend up to £150 per employee for staff events tax free.

What about putting on a Xmas party via zoom? You could then perhaps issue each staff a £150 voucher for the purposes of buying their own meals/alcohol for the event. If it exceeds even a penny though it would be fully taxable. Also need to consider any other events in the tax year if there have been any which would be deduced from the budget. I would look into if this is permitted though (can vouchers be issued for the purposes of an event), if it’s not you could send out a few bottles of champagne/beers/spirits to make up the budget for the online party.

You thereafter have £50pp trivial benefit tax free. You could issue cheaper hampers for this aspect.

We quite often get hampers (companies wanting to curry favour with the company that DH works for), they get instantly booted out the door to whatever charity Christmas thing is going on, usually as a raffle prize. A couple of times they haven't even made it into the house, I've had the courier put it straight into the boot of my car. Similar would happen with a spa day gift, although nobody has ever misjudged me or DH enough to give one of those. You like that stuff and that's fine, but plenty of people just don't and you might as well just save your money as give your staff something that they won't use.

If you want to give something physical then maybe a bottle of mid-range champagne for Christmas day and the rest in vouchers. The non-champagne drinkers can give it as a gift to someone else (or donate it to a charity raffle).

I do like the idea of a hamper as well- it shows that time was taken and an effort too.

I don't know about vouchers, for me you may as well just do a cash or a bank transfer. Both seem so impersonal and you are correct I think I would remember the hamper more than the cash , which would be spent and disappeared from my mind within a month

Hampers aren't 'thoughtful' unless they're tailored for dietary requirements and people are offered a choice of a cash or cash like alternative.

Because most people who are struggling to make ends meet would much rather have £200 of useful money than a small selection of luxury food from the most expensive shop in the country.

I think dietary restrictions are a good point. One of the places I worked often gave out small gifts as staff appreciation throughout the year - chocolates, mince pies etc. Not once did they give something that I could eat as a coeliac. Mildly annoying when it's small value items on multiple occasions, expect it would be much worse if it was a £200 hamper.

Otherwise, if you can be granted a slightly higher budget a Christmas cash bonus of £150 clear to the employee (with employer making up the tax and NI and pension difference) would really go down well I think over hampers etc. As PP have said there may be money problems for their family if not them and 150 would make a real difference at cmas.

DH employs about 50 people and we were having exactly this conversation earlier this week. You can’t possibly know the likes, dislikes,intolerances, drinking preferences (alcoholic or not) etc of everyone. He did a quick straw poll of a few employees, and they’ve all agreed on Amazon vouchers. This does rather raise some questions about lining Jeff Bezos’ pockets even further, but a a veggie who doesn’t like dried fruit and doesn’t drink much booze, a hamper wouldn’t really float my boat at all!

Voucher

DM is a recovering alcoholic (has been for 40 years). Every year for 20 years her boss gave her a case of wine. Every year for 20 years she took it back to M&Sand swapped it for a nice jumper.