Recession's Impact on Corporate Gifting: Will Employees Miss Out This Festive Season?

With the recession forcing most corporates to dip into their reserves for operating costs, what will this mean for employees who are accustomed to being pampered with expensive corporate gifts during the festive season?

Hi Sambhavan,

This is a dilemma we are facing in our organization too. We are a 100+ company with more than 50 customers across the country and half the number of vendors. We do not give any gifts during the festive season round the year; instead, we focus on giving an expensive gift every Dec/Jan. Usually, we combine this corporate gifting event with giving away awards for the best-performing employees, vendors, and top customers.

However, the recent downward economic trend has affected all of us, and our employees have already flooded us with questions regarding their annual gift! I am also looking forward to hearing some good ideas here that can be implemented in our organization as well!

With the recession forcing most corporates to dip into their reserves for operating costs, what will this mean for employees who are used to being pampered with expensive corporate gifts during the festive season?

The global recession and the consequent slowdown of the economy in the country promise a lackluster Diwali for the real estate industry this year. To counter the downturn, builders are now in the process of offering discounts to lure prospective buyers.

Orbit Corporation Limited has announced a discount of 15 percent at a residential project in Lower Parel, and others are expected to follow suit. There still remain builders who are holding on to their prices in the hope that Diwali, considered an auspicious time by buyers to purchase flats, will revive the sagging market.

"We just hope that Diwali brings us some relief as we have suffered enough in the last four months," said Anand Gupta, secretary, Builders Association of India. "If things do not improve, we will be seeing a lot of distress sales and massive price cuts.

Well, coming to the point of employees who are used to being pampered with expensive corporate gifts during the festive season, they will still receive a corporate gift but not an expensive one. The company would have planned the gifting program keeping a tight budget in mind.

Diwali is an important season for players in consumer durables and automobiles because this is when sales graphs swing upwards. This is also when these companies come up with a slew of discount offers and promotional schemes.

However, the economic slowdown and current instability in the market have caused a dip in consumer sentiment. Will the consumers' mood affect the business for consumer durables this festive season? afaqs! spoke to a few brand owners on how they are dealing with the situation. Most brand owners claim that the slowdown has not affected them. However, there have been changes in their communication and promotional plans.

But this can be controlled and managed by gifting only the important and higher-level people, and for the rest, they can cut down their budget and gift them something unique in a lower budget so that everything can be managed.

It depends on these times. If you are accustomed to taking employees on extravagant off-sites and giving expensive gifts twice a year, striking a balance would be key. A one-time gift that truly gratifies employees could eliminate the need for gifts throughout the year.

Thank you.

Hi, recession is already here, and the gift bags this Xmas and New Year are going to be a lot slimmer. The fact is that as a company struggles to maintain its current workforce, employees should realize that they may have to 'do their bit' to help the company along. This will mean a reduced pay package, cheap gifts, or none at all, and a loss of certain perks/benefits. Bottom line, just be glad that you still have a job to go to.

Yes, gifting a music gadget like the iPod will definitely invite a lot of appreciation as it is a quality product and is extremely easy to use. The navigation wheel, which is a pretty groundbreaking idea by the way, has really made a mark in everybody's mind.

Hi there, I do agree that everyone needs motivation if they are to do better. That's why some companies have decided to trim pays and instead of making it a flat sum, some corporations have opted for 'performance-based' pay. What this means for the company is that they do not shell out for any gifts. Instead, by making the pay performance-based, each and every employee would have the necessary motivation to do better. As for its effectiveness, well, we will have to wait for the results to come in, as it was recently initiated.

A performance-based pay would not be very apt during these times as the true levels of performance are masked through pressures faced.