Useful employee gifts: kettles, bottles or bags, and what they cost

A useful employee gift has a job in someone's day, and that job sits in one of three places: the kitchen, the commute or the desk. Pick the place first, then the product. Confirm your order and artwork at least 5 weeks before the gifts must arrive, or 6 weeks if those weeks include 24 December to 3 January.

All nine items here are from our catalogue of useful gifts. For the current price, open the product page or ask us for the catalogue. We usually work with 40 units per design. If you need fewer, tell us and we'll work something out.

What useful employee gifts cost for a big team

Useful gifts for a team of 100 to 300 come to about ₹2 lakh or more, depending on the item. The table shows what each of the nine does, and the worked orders after it show the sums.

Here is how the headcount works out on four of them:

• About 300 units of the 1.8-litre kettle at around ₹700 a head comes to about ₹2 lakh.
• About 150 Chef Delite choppers at around ₹1,500 a head comes to about ₹2.25 lakh.
• About 250 Fur Jaden backpacks at around ₹950 a head comes to about ₹2.4 lakh.
• About 100 Okami GoPack backpacks at around ₹2,500 a head comes to about ₹2.5 lakh.

These sums leave out GST, branding, packaging and shipping. A team of 200 can run one design or two, so you aren't forced to pick one gift for everybody.

Kitchen, commute or desk: where the gift gets used

Pick the route by where your staff spend their day, then pick the item. If the gift has no place to live, it won't get used, however good the item is.

The kitchen

A kitchen gift goes home and gets used by the whole household, not just the person on your list. That's the case for it. The catch is that many homes already own a kettle, so ask a few people before you commit.

• The 1.8-litre kettle. Stainless steel with a cordless 360-degree base, 1500W and auto shut-off, as its listing says.
• The 1-litre double wall kettle. Its outside stays cool to the touch, and the listing says it suits individual use or small kitchens.
• The drip coffee maker. It makes 6 cups and has a permanent filter, so nobody has to buy paper ones.
• The Chef Delite chopper. It chops and whisks, with two speeds and a 500 ml bowl that has its own lid.

The commute

A commute gift goes out of the door every day, so people get real use from it, and your logo gets seen. Bottles are the simplest pick, and backpacks are the bigger spend.

• The bottles. The Pexpo Bravo has triple-wall vacuum insulation, and the Borosil Hydra Trek has double-wall vacuum insulation. Both hold 700 ml.
• The Fur Jaden. It has a USB charging port, a number lock and a laptop compartment.
• The Okami GoPack. It fits laptops up to 15.6 inches and has a built-in tech organiser.

For a mixed team, I'd lean towards a bottle, because it works for people at a desk, on the road or at home. In a white mailer box, the Borosil comes to around ₹1,100 a head, so about 200 units come to about ₹2.2 lakh.

The desk

The desk route is the smallest here, because a desk gift only helps people with a desk of their own. The My Buddy K9 Pro raises a laptop screen to a comfortable height. Our guide to desk gifts staff keep covers the rest of this route.

How long an order takes

The clock starts when you confirm the order, not when you first ask for a quote. Confirmation means you've confirmed the order and approved the artwork.

Orders ship within 12 to 14 working days of order confirmation. After dispatch, allow up to 3 working days in Delhi NCR and up to 6 working days elsewhere in India.

Our team takes a year-end break, and nothing ships in that window. For the North East, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and the islands, ask us for a date first. Planning a year of gifts instead of one? See our guide to company gifts through the year.

What moves the cost

Four things move the total past the item itself: size and weight, branding, addresses and packaging. All four are worth settling before you ask for a quote.

Size and weight

A kettle or a backpack takes more room in a parcel than a bottle. That matters most if each gift goes to a home address, so factor it in when you compare routes.

Branding

We add your logo, names or a monogram. Ask for its cost with your quote, and ask what each item can take.

One office or each home address

We ship anywhere in India, to one address or to each recipient. One office is simpler, and 200 home addresses mean 200 parcels. Our guide to sending gifts to home addresses covers how to collect them.

Packaging

The White Mailer Box with Custom Sticker suits bottles and small items. The appliances come in their makers' boxes, so ask us what fits before you budget packaging for the kitchen route.

Three things to sort out first

Sort these three out before you confirm, because each one is harder to fix once the gifts are on their way.

• The address list. For home delivery, collect each person's name, full address with pincode and phone number before you confirm.
• Damage in transit. If we get it wrong, such as a defect, a misprint, transit damage or a short shipment, we fix, replace, credit or refund it.
• The GST invoice. Every order comes with a GST invoice. Our guide to how gifts to employees are taxed covers the rest.

Still weighing a voucher against a physical gift? Here's how gift cards and gifts compare.

Pick a route, then choose from the catalogue and send us your headcount.