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

@viques - imagine getting a hamper with a 100g Panettone, whilst your friend at another company goes and spends her entire £200 cash on Panettone!

I do like trying new things, but I go for new things that I see and fancy. Even if there’s something in a hamper that I like, it’s never what I would have chosen myself - either as an old favourite or as something to try. Like the wine in the example above... I don’t drink, but my husband does. He’d say, “free Merlot - OK” but he wouldn’t get a treat feeling, because he’d rather have had Malbec. Said Merlot would languish until the Malbec had run out.

Oh god definitely a voucher. Waitrose/JL is always a winner.

In my team we have teetotallers, a diabetic, gluten free people, nut allergy, and I can't stand chocolate. None of us would want the hamper. We do get one from work every year and always wish we could just have the cash/voucher value.

[quote VinylDetective]@MyGazeboisLeaking - you don’t use the piccalilli????! Send it over here, love. We use industrial quantities of it, no cold meat is complete without it.[/quote]

It's yours!!! We hate the stuff (but love almost every other pickle and chutney!).

Right now £200 will mean a lot more to people than a F&M basket

God I’d love either! Great idea.

I think probably vouchers are the safer way to go. I’d probably get something that can be spent in a range of places - or just money, but I know there’s then tax to pay. People are quite hard up their year and might really need the extra.

Voucher definitely, hampers are nice but not everyone likes what’s in them. 99% of the time we end up giving away whet we get in hampers.

It's yours!!! We hate the stuff (but love almost every other pickle and chutney!)

You’re a star, I’ll send you my address!😉

Nobody want a hamper
Full of odd crap that has been thrown together by a relative who wants their gift to look bigger or bizarre food put in by a company to make it seem exotic

In the past year I have had hampers from fortnums and harrods- both donated to charity

You can't send wine to a Trussell Trust food bank, so they won't accept full hampers, (odd but true)

(Personally I really love hampers but not everyone does!)

I'd far rather have a hamper, but otherwise money, I hate vouchers - really, really hate vouchers.

My work is trying to think about the same problem but with rather smaller budgets! They are leaning towards hampers because cash/vouchers have tax implications (as they need to be declared as income).

I personally hate the idea of a hamper - I don't drink, am allergic to nuts and half the contents of typical hampers seem to contain one or both of them, but I can see why the cash/voucher option is problematic and in our type of work there can be no bonus or dividend.

Last time I got a hamper I ended up regifting pretty much all of it, and to be honest this year it would go to Foodbank.

My suggestion to solve it was to give staff a shortlist of non-cash 'stuff' that they could choose to receive, so they could all get something they could actually use rather than give away, a bit like choosing meal options for the staff Christmas lunches. But I don't think they've gone for that.

I don’t think vouchers over £50 are taxable. Maybe over £100, but we get vouchers up to £100 from work tax free.

Hampers are poor value for money- you can get the stuff for half the price usually (if you actually wanted pickled walnuts -and who does)

So the choice is between food in a hamper (which is generally just biscuits, crackers, chutney) or a voucher your staff can spend on something they actually want? Unless your staff are on amazing salaries, I think everyone would rather an extra £200

@TheDowagerDuchess

I don’t think vouchers over £50 are taxable. Maybe over £100, but we get vouchers up to £100 from work tax free.

Work will pay the tax They can do it directly with HMRC and so it doesn't show on your individual pay slip or tax record.

Vouchers over £50 are taxable.
I spread the gifts for my staff across the year

www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-trivial-benefits

@Enko

Just asked DH and he agrees with me

he said

There is something incredibly good about getting a hamper from your boss. It feels like they have considered you and it is stuff you would never usually get.

Vouchers tend to just be swallowed up in the everyday budget.

I see it the opposite. For me it feels like “how generic can we make a gift to our staff”.

Voucher. I will be alone for Christmas. What do I want posh food for?

Ah - maybe I need to point that out to the person who told me!
thank you!

Cash or voucher.

If possible give them the choice of which voucher too.

Last year I was generously given a John Lewis/Waitrose voucher. As others on here point out, it can be used for food in Waitrose if their family is struggling. The prices are so high in Waitrose though, that for me it didn't seem that efficient. A Tesco voucher would have actually have helped far more food wise. Luckily a family member was making a large John Lewis purchase and was happy to buy the voucher off me, so I could use the cash to get food.

This year with people's budgets being stretched, that £200 gift could end up buying several weeks worth of food if you are willing to give them the choice of where the voucher comes from. Of course, if as you say they don't need food, then they can treat themselves. However, you only know who much they are earning and not if they are having to support family members whose income has dropped.

Would they have to pay tax on a voucher?

Voucher or money. It's more inclusive.

I'm a vegan and I receive a lot of very kind, well meant gifts of food things, when people have forgotten I don't eat them.

Likewise, I work with a lot of people who don't drink, who are often gifted wine etc.

I’d prefer a voucher. Same hampers for everyone isn’t exactly a personal touch.

@HollowTalk

Would they have to pay tax on a voucher?

Tax is due but any decent company pays it for staff, they arrange this directly with HMRC

www.gov.uk/expenses-and-benefits-trivial-benefits

I don't think a hamper is a good idea, just because of the responses here. If 50% of the people receiving them wouldn't use the contents - it's just not a very considerate gift.

I'm very anti-Amazon too, and last time I got a big voucher from there, I bought a steam cleaner and a kettle. Not exactly a Christmas treat!

John Lewis seems like a good idea, they're pretty ethical as far as high street giants go, and have enough of a range that someone can buy a steamer is they want a steamer - or a hamper, or 3 pairs of winter boots that they couldn't have afforded otherwise :)

Drat. The gov.uk weblink says:

"You don’t have to pay tax on a benefit for your employee if all of the following apply:

it cost you £50 or less to provide
it isn’t cash or a cash voucher
it isn’t a reward for their work or performance
it isn’t in the terms of their contract

"

So if it is cash or a voucher, tax is applicable.