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

Hampers are usually a shit idea and that F&M one is extra shit sorry. Especially this year when so many people are struggling or worried about their future incomes.

It is, as a PP, said monumentally tone deaf to spunk £200 on a hamper when your staff may be struggling to pay bills and would appreciate a voucher so much more to help them buy things they need (or want).

It is literally like you as a boss saying "they don't have bread? Let them eat Fortnum and Mason fruit cake!"

Voucher voucher voucher.

I have allergies so as soon as someone gets me a hamper type gift about half of it I cant eat. I also cant stand mince pies or xmas pudding. I think you are trying to do a nice thing but you might end up wasting money.
Of the stuff I can eat most if it just isnt to my taste, I still have a hamper from last year in the cupboard with about 80% of contents untouched. I would have been over the moon at a love2shop voucher tho

My husband got a F&M hamper from work a couple of years ago. The wicker basket was the best part of it. There was quite a nice bottle of wine, but the Christmas pud, biscuits, etc, were nothing special. It’s a nice gesture, but it might be seen as a bit wasteful in the current economic climate. That said, he’s been told he’s getting a hamper this year (no idea where from) in lieu of a Christmas party/meal.

Hampers usually have all sorts of food that people don't like or can't eat, so its a waste really.

Can you offer people the choice? That way it won't disappear into people's paycheque so easily - by showing it's equivalent to a hamper full of goodies, you're giving people an idea about the type of spending power that £200 has.

Personally, I'd much prefer cash/voucher - would love to have £200 to spend on myself/the family at xmas!

While I see the appeal of the hamper, a voucher is much better. Sorry.

Was just coming on to say you can't give a voucher as there are tax implications!

I also think it matters how much people are paid - our are not minimum wage and love a hamper.

I would look at Virginia Haywood and Todhunter (and costco!)

www.virginiahayward.com/
www.todhunter.com/
www.costco.co.uk/Jewellery-Apparel-Gifts/Gifts/Hampers-Gift-Baskets/c/cos_6.7.5

Last year, the company i worked for gave a massive M&S food hamper to each department for them to dish out accordingly. I was a contractor employed by a different company, I didn't get anything from my company. Anyway, these hampers must have cost a fortune, and they were well stocked, the amount of people that complained about what they received was shocking! It was the first year that got anything as a new CEO had taken over.
I was disgusted at the ungrateful ness of it all. A lot of the staff passed the stuff in to us (reception staff) I was chuffed with it all, Xmas pies, tins of biscuits all sorts

It's a lovely thing for you to do, however, you won't please everyone with whatever decision, but I do feel a voucher would be better received

I’m in ROI, we have a thing called One4All vouchers that you can spend virtually anywhere. Is there nothing similar in UK?

I used to work at Spar, every year we got a hamper, it's nice to be given something but there was always three bottles of alcohol, absolutely useless for us (DD and me) as we don't drink any alcohol at all. So they either went down the sink at home, or swapped with other staff, for things like soup, jam, biscuits or whatever.

The other items used to be swapped round the staff too.

The last year I worked there we were given a voucher, much better, and we could choose whatever we wanted. It was a Spar Voucher but we could choose our own items instead of being given three useless bottles of alcohol.

Who wants a basket full of stuff you don't need nor like. ..

Voucher for the win for sure.

If rather have a voucher. Can I come and work for you if you spend £200 on your staff?!

Voucher so I can buy what I want. I can buy lovely Christmas food of my choice from Aldi for a fraction of the price of a hamper!

@TheKeatingFive

I’m in ROI, we have a thing called One4All vouchers that you can spend virtually anywhere. Is there nothing similar in UK?

This is a good idea, you can them from the post office in uk

What about a smaller hamper and a voucher? £100 hamper and £100 voucher.

Best voucher in the world that you can spend anywhere is cash.
I've never had a hamper that was full of things I can use/like, always half of it gets re-gifted, I am genuinely baffled at the point of hampers.

Who wants a basket full of overpriced jam? I'd prefer money and buy my own perfectly good but much cheaper jam from the supermarket!

I have always hated hampers.
They always contain horrible nuts, vile fruit cake, dark chocolate ( which I dislike) , chocolate chip cookies.

I think it is super lovely you are going to give the staff a present, but this thread just shows how easy it is for a lot of money and thought to sadly end up missing it's target and being wasted.
Cash is king all the way as it can be literally anything you want it to be. - if my boss gave me a beautiful envelope with £200 in it I'd be thrilled and appreciate the full value of every penny and being permitted to spend it how I want.

Cash definitely the best at this time of year! I loved getting a cash bonus.

Although my current work (public sector) don't give bonuses but we do get an extra day of leave (office shutdown) at Christmas which I really like

Any other time I would vote for the hamper, but as it's 2020/Year of the Virus I think the voucher would be better received this time.

Give them all a day off the day after lockdown is lifted. Call it a christmas shopping day or whatever, but give them a day off instead of a hamper of stuff htey don't want or need and which ties your accountant in knots.

@UniversalAunt

I’d go for a modest hamper, say £25-50, from M&S/Waitrose as a foodie treat, & add in the more substantial sum as a voucher for Amazon/M&S/John Lewis to be spent as preferred.

Yep. Covers both the treat and the practical element. But as a pp said, it's really important that the voucher is for a rock solid business. A voucher is absolutely worthless of a company goes into receivership, and that's happened to some big names.

Please avoid Amazon though. For innumerable reasons.

If I were getting a hamper I'd like a Liberty one. I think it's the first year they've done them

I'd LOVE an F&M hamper. Why not ask them what they prefer?