It’s that time of year when you may spend an inordinate amount of time trying to discern a “good “ gift for all of your employees. Trying to choose something is not an easy feat when you consider trying to meet all 3 of the following criteria:
- financially doable
- more meaningful than a Visa gift card or fruit basket
- something everyone will enjoy regardless of age, gender, introvert/extrovert, family/single etc.
So let me save you some time.
THE GIFT: A determined amount of money (the same amount for every individual as this is a gift and not a bonus) to be used in the next 365 days towards learning something new. Doesn’t matter if it’s cooking classes, kayaking, or Japanese lessons. The employee chooses.
Logistics:
- Have employees fill out a simple form that defines what they’re going to learn.
- AND when and how they will share what they’ve learned with their colleagues – examples: by posting a short blog on the intranet, through a lunch and learn, or simply sharing the experience at the next department/company meeting.
- Upon completion of sharing what they’ve learned, employees turn in the receipt and are reimbursed for the stated amount.
This is the perfect gift for your company because while gifts are meant to be altruistic…
- Just by the nature of learning something new your employees’ creativity, innovation and problem solving skills will improve.
- Team building naturally occurs through sharing experiences of learning.
- This gift supports efforts to create a culture of learning.
*Photo of The Beatles giving guitar lessons to Ed Sullivan courtesy of Pinterest
