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Diwali gifts: Cash, vouchers most preferred by employees
While a box of traditional sweets is the least desirable gift for office workers, cash and gift coupons/vouchers, and prepaid cards are the most desired this Diwali festival, industry body Assocham said on Monday.
​Hyderabad: While a box of traditional sweets is the least desirable gift for office workers, cash and gift coupons/vouchers, and prepaid cards are the most desired this Diwali festival, industry body Assocham said on Monday. Also, many employees said their companies adhered to the policy of meritocracy and would reward only the best staff, thereby making it performance-based and not across the board.
This is borne out of an online survey conducted by the Assocham Social Development Foundation to gauge 1,000 full-time office workers’ opinions and about 500 human resource professionals on Diwali festival bonuses given by companies and their desired gifts between October 1 and October 15 in 10 cities – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow and Mumbai .
The survey showed that 45 per cent of office workers wanted cash or gift coupons/vouchers, 35 per cent wanted gadgets/electronic item/home appliances/utensils etc for personal use or for use in their households, 15 per cent gift-boxes of sweets or cookies and the remaining preferred various other things.
However, over half of the HR professionals that Assocham interacted with said that cash rewards have the lowest impact and do little to improve employee satisfaction and performance, many of these opined that non-financial rewards have a greater and longer-lasting effect on the employee.
“Most of the companies in the private sector have gradually moved away from a fixed Diwali bonus and instead provide benefits considering the employees’ individual performance for the past few years. So, hardly any change is expected on this front,” said D S Rawat, Secretary-General of Assocham.
Most of the HR professionals said their companies have identified staff members who have consistently performed better and deserve to be recognised with something ‘tangible.’ Many HR representatives also said that though they have earmarked a certain amount towards corporate gifting, they have not increased their budget compared to last year.
“Though companies are not getting very generous, but considering that Diwali being one of India’s widely celebrated annual festival, corporate gifting has become a tradition to express gratitude, appreciation, develop relationships and generate goodwill amid peers and employees,” Rawat added.
