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14 gift ideas for team building to show your employees you care
Team gifts are a great way of expressing your care and appreciation to your employees. Gifts also have a positive effect on morale, motivation, and overall work satisfaction.
However, finding the right gift to show your appreciation can prove to be quite the task. So to help you out, we’ve put together a list of gift ideas for team building for the food, book, decor, and tech lovers on your team.
If you want to dive deeper into gratitude and appreciation for your team, check out the following articles:
- Our team’s 7 favorite thankful team building activities
- Motivation-boosting affirmation activities
- 5 team building activities to boost morale
Gift ideas for food lovers
1. Snack box
One of the more popular gift ideas for team building is snack boxes, and that’s because you just can’t go wrong with them! All you need to do is put together gift baskets filled with your teammates’ favorite chips, cookies, chocolates, candy, and soda, and you’re sorted.
2. Compostable coffee pods
If you’ve got coffee lovers on your team, you can be sure they’ll love this gift. Not only do compostable coffee pods make delicious coffee, but they are also a great way to reduce waste around the office. These pods completely break down in a few weeks, making them environmentally friendly.
3. Assorted teas
If coffee’s not their thing, you can get your teammates a set of assorted teas instead. You can find sets with multiple tea flavors, so they get to explore new tastes.
4. Sparkling wines
Regardless of whether it’s the holidays or not, sparkling wines make great team gifts because teammates get to take them home to enjoy after a long week of work.
Gifts ideas for book lovers
5. Enlightening books
For the bookworms in your team, insightful and enlightening books are solid team building gift ideas. For example, you can gift books on teamwork, critical thinking, time management, and organization. For additional resources, you can check our blog posts on Leadership, Effective communication, and How to be better at problem solving.
These books will help your employees develop the skills they need to be better team players.
6. Blue light glasses
For those who spend hours on end reading on their phone or computer screens, blue light glasses are a must. Some effects of staring at computer screens all day include eye strain and headaches. With blue light glasses, the harmful blue-violet lights that cause these issues are blocked out, allowing for more comfortable computer use.
7. Planners and notebooks
Planners and notebooks are great gift ideas for team building because they help people stay organized throughout the year. If you want to go the extra mile, you can have them customized with the company logo and each teammate’s name.
Gift ideas for decor lovers
8. Potted plants
Potted plants add a pop of color to the office space, so why not gift them? They are also a great item for teammates to decorate their desks with. Plus, studies show that plants have a way of improving moods and reducing anxiety.
9. Desk organizer
This is a great gift idea because it’ll help everyone keep their desks clean and organized. Desk organizers also come in different styles, colors, and shapes, so you can even pick out ones that suit each of your employees’ personalities.
10. Cute paper clip holders
Instead of regular paper clip holders, you can find cute and funny ones that your employees will love. These days, they come in various designs, and you can find ones in the shapes of:
- Animals
- Cartoon characters
- Cars
- Pots and kettles
11. Stress balls
Sometimes, work can get quite stressful and overwhelming. To help your employees manage their stress levels, you can gift them stress balls. They help reduce stress and anxiety, improve concentration, and strengthen muscles.
Gift ideas for tech lovers
12. Wireless earbuds or headphones
Although this is one of the higher-value team building gift ideas, trust us when we say it’s worth it, especially for remote workers. When attending meetings from home, wireless headphones will help employees block out any external noise and focus on work and meetings. Besides, they can use them outside of the work setting, which is always a plus.
Also see: Virtual team building activities for remote teams.
13. Phone grips
Phone grips are expandable knobs placed at the back of a phone to prevent people from dropping their phones, so you can see why it would make a great gift idea. Not only are they useful, but they’re also pretty inexpensive and can be branded or customized.
14. Gift cards
If you’re not sure what to gift your teammates, gift cards make things super easy for you. Some gift card ideas include:
- E-commerce stores like Amazon
- Restaurants like Starbucks
- Online streaming services like Spotify or Netflix
Other gift ideas
15. Private Health Insurance
Private remote health insurance is an excellent gift for an employee because it offers convenience and accessibility to healthcare services from home. It provides comprehensive coverage for various medical needs, ensuring timely assistance and faster diagnoses. By promoting work-life balance and demonstrating care for employees’ well-being, it contributes to retention and engagement. It also provides peace of mind by offering access to medical professionals whenever needed. Our reccomendation for a remote health insurance is Remote Health by Safetywing
Gift ideas for team building - a way to build team spirit
Gifts are a great way to show teammates that you appreciate their hard work. More than that, they can motivate employees to work better together as a team.
One thing to note is that personalized gifts are always meaningful and personalized to the receiver, so keep this in mind as you choose gifts for your teammates.
If you’re interested in learning more about team building, you can also check out some of our other resources, like team building activities for work, free virtual team building activities, and the best team building apps and software.
Share fun facts and bond with a team quiz
Have your participants choose from a list of questions they’d like their coworkers to answer about them, before watching as they guess the right answer.
01. Yes
share-fun-facts-and-bond-with-a-team-quiz
Run a guided recognition activity
Have your participants choose from a list of questions they’d like their coworkers to answer about them, before watching as they guess the right answer.
01. Yes
run-a-guided-recognition-activity
Organize a virtual cooking class
Hire a professional chef to help your team cook a delicious lunch or dinner. May be difficult for co-workers with families. To find providers and get tips, read our blog about virtual cooking classes.
02. No
organize-a-virtual-cooking-class
Hire a stand-up comedian
Have your participants choose from a list of questions they’d like their coworkers to answer about them, before watching as they guess the right answer.
02. No
hire-a-stand-up-comedian
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Table of contents
Team gifts are a great way of expressing your care and appreciation to your employees. Gifts also have a positive effect on morale, motivation, and overall work satisfaction.
However, finding the right gift to show your appreciation can prove to be quite the task. So to help you out, we’ve put together a list of gift ideas for team building for the food, book, decor, and tech lovers on your team.
If you want to dive deeper into gratitude and appreciation for your team, check out the following articles:
- Our team’s 7 favorite thankful team building activities
- Motivation-boosting affirmation activities
- 5 team building activities to boost morale
Gift ideas for food lovers
1. Snack box
One of the more popular gift ideas for team building is snack boxes, and that’s because you just can’t go wrong with them! All you need to do is put together gift baskets filled with your teammates’ favorite chips, cookies, chocolates, candy, and soda, and you’re sorted.
2. Compostable coffee pods
If you’ve got coffee lovers on your team, you can be sure they’ll love this gift. Not only do compostable coffee pods make delicious coffee, but they are also a great way to reduce waste around the office. These pods completely break down in a few weeks, making them environmentally friendly.
3. Assorted teas
If coffee’s not their thing, you can get your teammates a set of assorted teas instead. You can find sets with multiple tea flavors, so they get to explore new tastes.
4. Sparkling wines
Regardless of whether it’s the holidays or not, sparkling wines make great team gifts because teammates get to take them home to enjoy after a long week of work.
Gifts ideas for book lovers
5. Enlightening books
For the bookworms in your team, insightful and enlightening books are solid team building gift ideas. For example, you can gift books on teamwork, critical thinking, time management, and organization. For additional resources, you can check our blog posts on Leadership, Effective communication, and How to be better at problem solving.
These books will help your employees develop the skills they need to be better team players.
6. Blue light glasses
For those who spend hours on end reading on their phone or computer screens, blue light glasses are a must. Some effects of staring at computer screens all day include eye strain and headaches. With blue light glasses, the harmful blue-violet lights that cause these issues are blocked out, allowing for more comfortable computer use.
7. Planners and notebooks
Planners and notebooks are great gift ideas for team building because they help people stay organized throughout the year. If you want to go the extra mile, you can have them customized with the company logo and each teammate’s name.
Gift ideas for decor lovers
8. Potted plants
Potted plants add a pop of color to the office space, so why not gift them? They are also a great item for teammates to decorate their desks with. Plus, studies show that plants have a way of improving moods and reducing anxiety.
9. Desk organizer
This is a great gift idea because it’ll help everyone keep their desks clean and organized. Desk organizers also come in different styles, colors, and shapes, so you can even pick out ones that suit each of your employees’ personalities.
10. Cute paper clip holders
Instead of regular paper clip holders, you can find cute and funny ones that your employees will love. These days, they come in various designs, and you can find ones in the shapes of:
- Animals
- Cartoon characters
- Cars
- Pots and kettles
11. Stress balls
Sometimes, work can get quite stressful and overwhelming. To help your employees manage their stress levels, you can gift them stress balls. They help reduce stress and anxiety, improve concentration, and strengthen muscles.
Gift ideas for tech lovers
12. Wireless earbuds or headphones
Although this is one of the higher-value team building gift ideas, trust us when we say it’s worth it, especially for remote workers. When attending meetings from home, wireless headphones will help employees block out any external noise and focus on work and meetings. Besides, they can use them outside of the work setting, which is always a plus.
Also see: Virtual team building activities for remote teams.
13. Phone grips
Phone grips are expandable knobs placed at the back of a phone to prevent people from dropping their phones, so you can see why it would make a great gift idea. Not only are they useful, but they’re also pretty inexpensive and can be branded or customized.
14. Gift cards
If you’re not sure what to gift your teammates, gift cards make things super easy for you. Some gift card ideas include:
- E-commerce stores like Amazon
- Restaurants like Starbucks
- Online streaming services like Spotify or Netflix
Other gift ideas
15. Private Health Insurance
Private remote health insurance is an excellent gift for an employee because it offers convenience and accessibility to healthcare services from home. It provides comprehensive coverage for various medical needs, ensuring timely assistance and faster diagnoses. By promoting work-life balance and demonstrating care for employees’ well-being, it contributes to retention and engagement. It also provides peace of mind by offering access to medical professionals whenever needed. Our reccomendation for a remote health insurance is Remote Health by Safetywing
Gift ideas for team building - a way to build team spirit
Gifts are a great way to show teammates that you appreciate their hard work. More than that, they can motivate employees to work better together as a team.
One thing to note is that personalized gifts are always meaningful and personalized to the receiver, so keep this in mind as you choose gifts for your teammates.
If you’re interested in learning more about team building, you can also check out some of our other resources, like team building activities for work, free virtual team building activities, and the best team building apps and software.
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