Every office has a cupboard of last year's Diwali gifts. The branded diary nobody wrote in, the dry fruit box that went home to a relative, the mug that became a pen stand. None of it was bad - it just was not useful.
If you are choosing gifts for a team this year, here is what tends to survive past the first week.
1. Something used at the desk, not at home
Your team spends most of its waking hours at a screen. A gift that helps with that day - tired eyes, a stiff neck, an afternoon headache - gets opened at the desk and stays there. Sweets get shared and forgotten by Monday.
2. Personal, not corporate
A gift covered in the company logo reads as merchandise. Put your branding on the card inside instead of the box outside, and it becomes a present rather than an asset.
3. One good thing beats five cheap ones
A hamper stuffed with filler reads as filler. Fewer items that people would have bought themselves is the better trade, and it costs about the same.
4. Think about the person who takes it home
Gifts travel. A box that looks presentable on a kitchen counter, and that a partner or parent can also use, earns goodwill well beyond the employee.
5. Order earlier than feels necessary
Festival weeks are when couriers slow down and stock runs out. Two to three weeks of lead time is the difference between gifts arriving before the holiday and apologising for them after it.
What a good budget looks like
For employees, Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,000 a head is the range where a gift feels considered. For clients, the same range works better than something expensive but generic - what is remembered is the thought, not the price tag.
Our suggestion
The ScreenEase Hamper was built for people who work on screens: a heating and cooling eye patch, a headache and migraine roll-on, an under-eye cream, a screen mist with SPF 30, and 30 cards that prompt a proper break. It arrives gift-ready, so there is nothing to wrap.
For 20 boxes or more we do bulk pricing, your message or logo on a card inside, and delivery to one office or to individual homes. Tell us your numbers and date on the corporate gifting page and we will come back with a quote.