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

You don’t necessarily have to just add the £200 to December payroll and have it lost in amongst monthly salaries. You could ask your payroll provider to run a one-off payroll for you in early December, so that it’s a nice surprise for your employees - and comes at a time when they can actually spend it on Christmas.

You could also set the net amount, so everyone receives the same amount into their bank account, if a round sum feels more appropriate for a gift. £100-£120 might be about right, depending on the marginal rate of tax of your employees.

Bear in mind if you give your staff a hamper they will need to declare it on their P11D and will be taxed

I don't think I would use everything in a hamper. I would much rather receive a voucher because, as someone already said, you don't know if the family circumstances have changed with covid and every penny counts. Rather than receive a voucher for a specific shop, I would prefer one you can use anywhere such as the one below.
www.theirperfectgift.co.uk

In two minds.

Vouchers are annoying as I lose them or forget to spend them all before the expire.

But hampers, probably 90% of the stuff I wouldn’t particularly enjoy, even if I love the look of them and the excitement of opening. I guess if it’s very fancy stuff they could re-gift stuff individually which would save them buying the equivalent in gifts.

I do remember a Christmas hamper we were all given at work 15 years ago. It was very exciting! Hence the two minds.

@MyAnacondaMight

You don’t necessarily have to just add the £200 to December payroll and have it lost in amongst monthly salaries. You could ask your payroll provider to run a one-off payroll for you in early December, so that it’s a nice surprise for your employees - and comes at a time when they can actually spend it on Christmas.

You could also set the net amount, so everyone receives the same amount into their bank account, if a round sum feels more appropriate for a gift. £100-£120 might be about right, depending on the marginal rate of tax of your employees.

Oh that’s a good idea - I don’t want a cash gift to get consumed in the payroll as that wouldn’t feel special at all.

I think a hamper is lovely gift.

I can't help but think that anyone gifted something so generous as a £200 hamper who turns their nose up and says "just give me the cash" is a bit grabby, and missing the point of gift giving. Not everything is about money.

Vouchers always. Hampers always have things in you don't like & aren't great value for money IMO. Everyone loves a money gift.

I was going to get my Mum an F&M hamper for her birthday, but going through whats in each one, they is way too many things she won't touch.
So I got a basket and will fill it myself with luxury items I know she'll eat along with a small birthday cake.
Give them the money in a voucher for Amazon, it'll all get used and no waste.

Bloody hell - I've just looked at the hampers! Is the £200 marleybone one? 15 items? When I think of how many nice things I could get in a different shop like a local farm shop for that money!!

As lovely as a hamper is - not all of it will be to each person's taste.

I like the idea of a special one off extra payment, more than a voucher.

However something is tickling the back of my brain, about there being a maximum employers can spend on employees for Christmas before it has to be declared for tax and / or benefits. Used to be £75 but I'm out of date.

If you're planning this for my workplace, please don't buy me a hamper. Most of my colleagues would also prefer a voucher.
Expensive hampers have so little in them for the money, and for those who don't drink or have dietary needs, they're just a disappointment.

I still have stuff in the cupboard from a f and m hamper I got given three Christmas ago. Most of the rest got given away.

A voucher is far more useful to 90% of people. I even remember thinking what a waste of money it was when I got it (and thinking about it, can’t even remember where it came from)

I'm going to say vouchers. Preferably for one of the supermarkets, or you could get one of the "universal" vouchers. (But check which one, some end up being a pain to redeem). Even though you might have to drop the value a bit because you need to pay NI contributions based on them.

Not a cash bonus, because anyone on Universal Credit will just get dinged for it. And hampers are frankly kind of crappy.

@mrsm43s

I think a hamper is lovely gift.

I can't help but think that anyone gifted something so generous as a £200 hamper who turns their nose up and says "just give me the cash" is a bit grabby, and missing the point of gift giving. Not everything is about money.

But you’re not giving money - nobody expects the recipient to keep the money as a bundle of cash to look at m - something is done with it. Probably something lovely - a meal out, a new book, an attraction ticket... Even if they don’t spend it on a ‘treat’ they’re converting it into something they want: a bill paid off, the piece of mind of savings.

What do you actually think is the point if gift giving @mrsm43s ? You say people miss the point, but don’t say what that point is.

In my opinion, the point of gift giving is: to make the recipient happy, and show that making them happy is something that you wanted to do - that they are important to you.

You could say that cash doesn’t take much thought... but it easily takes as much thought as a go-to choice of a Xmas hamper that has just been marketed to you as a gift. You might say cash isn’t personal - but it’s more personal than a teetotaller like me getting a hamper with wine, or just simply food I don’t like.

Cash to me, says - I care about you enough to want you to have something that you’d really like.

What could be more in the true spirit of gift giving than that?!

@mrsm43s

I think a hamper is lovely gift.

I can't help but think that anyone gifted something so generous as a £200 hamper who turns their nose up and says "just give me the cash" is a bit grabby, and missing the point of gift giving. Not everything is about money.

I don’t think that’s what people are saying at all.

When people are struggling to pay bills, feed themselves and buy gifts for the children etc, a £200 hamper of non essential food items is enough to make someone struggling weep. It’s not grabby. It’s really tone deaf this year to be dolling out £200 fortnum and mason hampers to people that’s partners or dependents etc may have lost their jobs,
been made redundant etc. It’s not grabby to suggest a voucher or bonus on the payslip might be more sensible, useful and appreciated this year.

I’m another one who would get little use out of a hamper due to not drinking alcohol, having diabetics and those with multiple food allergies in the house. Every hamper I’ve ever received has had to go to the food bank (whilst I’ve went to great effort to buy a special personalised gift for the other person). I’m not grabby, I’d NEVER complain but I do often think giving a hamper is more about the giver trying to appear generous whilst giving next to no thought to the recipient’s needs or taste.

If you are wealthy it takes next to no effort to splash a load of cash on 10 or 20 generic hampers of wine, cheese and crackers, to give around to everyone you know. No wrapping. No carrying around etc. No
thought of what the other family might actually need or like. I couldn’t describe it as a lovely gift and it’s certainly not one id ever feel comfortable giving unless I knew the recipient had a real thing for them.

@mrsm43s

I think a hamper is lovely gift.

I can't help but think that anyone gifted something so generous as a £200 hamper who turns their nose up and says "just give me the cash" is a bit grabby, and missing the point of gift giving. Not everything is about money.

Well aren't you fortunate that you have sufficient spare cash that you are able to say that.

Meanwhile, people who are struggling to pay the gas bill will have better use for £200 than using it to buy £60 at best worth of luxury food.

My employer has given us a choice of hampers this year. There is a Christmas one, vegan one, gluten free one, wine one or a well being (toiletries) one.

I’ve gone for the well-being one, as the Christmas one contained things I would t want (freshly ground coffee, Christmas blend tea, piccalilli, jar of pate to name but a new), I don’t drink wine (rest assured that I drink pretty much everything else), and I didnt fancy the gluten free or vegan options.

I’d have (in all honesty) preferred an equivalent value voucher, but I think they did this to get around the taxable benefit rule. I will certainly enjoy the hamper though.

I mean if someone gave me one of those F&M hampers, sure I'd probably eat the food and drink the wine. There's a decent chance it's redundant because I did my Christmas shopping before it arrived, and quite probably some of the stuff would be stuck at the back of the cupboard for months.

But then I'd be at learning how much it cost and consider the giver to have frankly been ripped off!

I don't think anyone would turn their nose up and be rude about being given a hamper and I don't think it's grabby to prefer cash or a voucher, I think for many people, once you've unpacked the hamper and looked at what's in it and what you would actually enjoy eating, the thought would be in the back of your mind that the £200 would have been much better spent on x,y or z, especially at the moment when money is so tight for many people. to
A £200 voucher for Waitrose or m+s would give most families a veritable feast of a Christmas lunch, rather than a few jars of weirdly flavoured mayo, jam and tea leaves.

M&S/Sainsbury’s voucher - (gives options - clothes/gifts/food)
Money in the bank (gives lots of options).
Hamper - looks great but can’t get excited over the contents.

It’s a good point about cash affecting universal credit for those who may be on it.

My mum and stepdad used to work for a massive conglomerate. As HR Manager, it was one of his jobs to select the goodies for a very generous hamper for all employees and retirees. This was 1980’s and 90’s and I’m sure the value was around £100 per hamper even then, so decent wine, cakes, biscuits, chocolates.
Yet every single year, at least a dozen people would complain about the selection choices.
You just can’t please everyone with that kind of gift, generous though it is.

@ChessieFL

It’s a good point about cash affecting universal credit for those who may be on it.

That's a good point. A voucher would be better then, wouldn't it.

Oh yes. If Dh got £200 extra pay, we’d lose that in UC, so it wouldn’t mean anything.

Dh does get a bonus in vouchers but it’s always John Lewis. Luckily SIL buys them off us. While nice, a JL voucher is crap to us, we’d rather the money so the children can have presents (£200 stretches A LOT further on eBay than JL).

I meant I’d prefer cash, as in a wad in an envelope as my mum got every Christmas.

Maybe give them the choice and ask them each to choose whether they would like the hamper or vouchers. Personally I would be delighted with either, and think it’s a very generous gift on your part. We were given John Lewis vouchers one year which I found very helpful as they can also be used in Waitrose.