Holiday Gifts EVERY Employee Secretly Wants

Trinkets, schminkets. Nobody really wants those company gifts that say "We were thinking about you...and we wanted to do give you something as a recognition of your hard work...but couldn't come up with anything better."

The holidays are a time for giving to the people we care about. So naturally many companies think of things they can give their employees.

That’s great – but why do we only think of giving during the holidays?

And more importantly, why do we focus on giving our employees items that are nice to have when we can give them the things they need the most, every day of the year?

The gifts that truly matter are gifts you can give your employees not just during the holidays, but every day. This holiday season – and for the rest of their careers – give your employees the gifts of:

Dignity.

Not every employee is outstanding. Some are less capable. Some don’t work as hard. Some occasionally make mistakes. Some even deserve to eventually be let go.

Even so, every employee, regardless of his or her level of performance, deserves to be treated with respect. Disdain, cynicism, eye rolling, or dismissive comments – no matter how justified those actions may seem to be – shift the focus away from performance and onto the person... and in the process slowly destroys that person’s level of confidence.

Think about it this way: Speak to me privately about a mistake I made, tell me how I can learn from that mistake, tell me specifically what I can do to improve… and I’ll quickly forget any initial embarrassment and defensiveness I may feel for having made that mistake. But make me feel stupid, especially in front of other people, and I will never forget how you made me feel… and I won’t learn from my mistake because all I will remember is how poorly you treated me.

Self-respect is a lot like trust – once lost, self-respect is almost impossible to regain. No matter what our employees say or do, we should always treat them with dignity and respect.

Inclusion.

Make it difficult for employees to make suggestions and reflexively disregard their input without consideration and employees feel excluded from what matters most: Making a difference.

We can never make it too easy for employees to offer suggestions. Ask leading questions, even if you think you already know the answer (often, you don't). Admit you’re not sure. (When you listen to the right person – and every employee can be the right person – you almost always find out you aren’t as sure as you thought.)

Then, if an idea or suggestion isn't feasible, always take time to explain why. You shouldn’t act on every suggestion – but you should follow up and explain the reasoning behind every decision.

Connection.

We all want to feel valued. We all want to feel admired. We all want to work with people who we respect and admire – and who respect and admire us.

All it takes is a brief yet sincere discussion about their their life. Their hopes. Their ambitions. Or a simple yet heartfelt compliment. Or an informal conversation about how he is doing. Or a quick check-in to see if there are ways you can make her job easier.

For employees to feel connected to a company they first must feel connected to people. Connections are personal.

Magic happens when we see and appreciate the person, not just the employee.

Recognition.

It’s easy to recognize outstanding performers – they’re frequently doing outstanding things.

It’s much harder to recognize relatively poor performers; all we tend to see are their shortcomings and missteps.

Still: No employee is a total disaster. (If one truly is, why is he still working for you?) No matter how small or seemingly insignificant, every employee has something they do well. You might have to work pretty hard to find reasons to praise an employee who performs at an average level, much less an employee who is struggling… but that’s okay. (That’s one of the tasks you signed up for when you became a leader.) Look closely, find something even the poorest performer does well, and express a few words of praise and recognition.

You may find that few simple words of praise may be just the confidence boost a struggling employee needs to turn their performance around.

Thoughtfulness.

I know you’re incredibly busy. I’m incredibly busy, too. But we all have a few extra moments in our workday. Instead of doing something for ourselves, do something for an employee. Instead of turning free time into me time, do something not because you’re expected to, or because you feel you’re supposed to, but simply because you can.

The key is to be thoughtful in a specific, not a general way. Of course that means we need to know our employees in more than just a “work” way: We need to know what is important to them outside of work, too.

Give an employee the book you just read because you think she’ll like it. Send an employee information he might not have seen about a triathlon he’s training for. Ask an employee how her community fundraiser is going, and if there are any ways you can help.

Thoughtfulness requires more than going through the motions. Thoughtfulness requires, first and foremost, caring – and knowing what to care about.

Hope.

I’ve never met an employee who didn’t dream of better things: A raise, a promotion, an opportunity, a chance to grow and learn, a chance to excel, a chance to be a part of something bigger and more meaningful…

In short, every employee has dreams. Every employee has hope.

Our job is to nurture and support those hopes: To develop employees for higher positions; to provide opportunities to polish their leadership abilities; to create situations where they can stretch and grow and prove their skills; to create a culture where all employees feel they make a real impact on the lives of our customers, our employees, and our communities.

The gift of hope – and the possibility of fulfilling those hopes – is the best and greatest gift we can give.

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Dharmesh Shah is founder/CTO at HubSpot and blogs at OnStartups.com. You can also follow him on twitter -- @dharmesh.

Robert Duffield

Proven Business Development, Sales & Marketing Professional

10y

Wow. Just wow. Thank you for thinking this through, and for sharing it with us.

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It is very true and it is good to read such a motivating article. It refreshes our own thoughts about how to care for our employees. Great!

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Manjit Singh

President, Agilious | Certified Scrum Trainer (CST)

10y

Dharmesh, you hit this on the mark! This is common sense but alas, not at all common. I hope more employers with heed this advise and truly appreciate their employers.

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In a climate of cost control, these are gifts that will be much well received and result in tremendous returns for organizations.

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