Gifting is considered a love language for a reason: it’s personal. So the best gift for your employees will be the one that proves you understand them. Research shows that nearly all Gen Zs and millennials want to work somewhere that aligns with their values. That makes employee recognition gifts all the more important. And with most employees saying they’re willing to pay more for environmentally sustainable products, it’s safe to say they’ll expect the same from their employers. Ultimately, your employee gifting strategy needs to align with the employees it’s built for.

10 unique employee appreciation gift ideas

Without further ado, here’s a wide array of popular options that help you show genuine gratitude to your company – and the planet. Whether you’re launching new recognition programmes or just want to show a token of appreciation, your hardworking employees deserve gifts that give back. And every single item on Social Supermarket’s platform does just that.

1. Brewgooder beers

They get: top-notch beers. 

They give: clean drinking water. 

Perfect for: the one in the office who never fails to remind the team that it’s 4pm and time for a pint at the pub. 

Brewgooder beers prove corporate gifts can be fun and functional. From their Session IPA to Tropical Pale, Brewgooder has an array of delicious craft beers that are a great way to bring the pub home for remote teams. Brewgooder’s foundation also supports clean water projects in places where safe drinking water isn’t a given. Brewgooder has already impacted 170,000 lives across 15 countries by providing 200m+ litres of water.

2. Sea Change wine

They get: a bottle of divine wine. 

They give: ocean protection.

Perfect for: animal lovers and wine connoisseurs. 

While we mostly think about glass and cork when we think of wine, the industry is unfortunately notorious for its plastic usage too. Sea Change is changing things up for the better. Refusing to use plastic wraps around bottle tops or in labels, they’ve instead opted for a mix of sustainable paper with partial grape waste. The range of award-winning wines makes for high quality gifts that show you really value the entire team.

This family wine business has a mission to give back to conservation charities that protect marine wildlife – often harmed by plastic waste. They’ve already donated over €500,000 to charity to make that mission a reality.

3.  VENT for Change stationery

They get: gorgeous recycled notepads and wonderful writing utensils.

They give: supplies to kids in need across the world.

Perfect for: the ones who keep laptops at desks, bringing pens and paper to meetings instead.

If you think you remember information better when you write by hand, you aren’t alone. Research suggests that your notepad actually helps you make greater connections, remember more information and overall stay more engaged. What better way to help your team perform better than with a gorgeous, ethically minded VENT For Change notebook? You could even add a personal message in each notepad before giving them out as employee gifts. Made in Bristol, these gifts are thoughtful for UK employees and they go well beyond the usual office stationery. With notepads, pens and pencils, VENT has plenty of budget-friendly options for your team. 

VENT’s donates 5% of its proceeds with every purchase made. That money goes towards education projects run by the children’s charity, Plan International UK. Talk about a great desk accessory.

4. Dalit Goods Co. handmade candles

They get: stunning terracotta candles. 

They give: education and jobs for the Dalit people of India.

Perfect for: Team members who appreciate stress relievers and a zen moment.

The founder of Dalit was visiting Mumbai when they noticed clay pots smashed all around. They later learned the pots symbolised oppression of Dalit people. For over 3,000 years, the Dalit have been forced to drink from them before smashing them on the ground – a symbol of their ‘untouchable’-ness. Dalit Goods is aiming to raise awareness of the dire inequalities faced by Dalit people, with a nod to the terracotta’s symbolism which surrounds their candles. They provide employment and fund charities that support Dalit people. 

5. Love Cocoa chocolates

They get: mouth-watering chocolate bars. 

They give: fair wages to cocoa farmers, tree planting and they’re a certified B Corp too.

Perfect for: anyone who relishes in a chocolate moment (so, basically everyone?)

If you think Love Cocoa’s chocolates look good – just wait until you try them. The luxury truffles, bars and biscuits are made with utmost care. They’re palm-oil free, packaged without plastic and they give back to the planet too: donating to the reforestation project, 1% for the Planet. As a B Corp business, Love Cocoa is devoted to making chocolates that are ethical, sustainable and slavery-free.

Love Cocoa was founded by James Cadbury, and yes, he is indeed the great-great-great grandson of the famed Cadburys chocolate founder. But despite being linked, in theory, to the business, James was never involved. His first foray into chocolate was by making his own for friends while working a job in the City. Eventually, he walked away from that career to go into chocolate full-time, by bootstrapping Love Cocoa from the ground up.

6. Holos kombucha

They get: fizzy delight. 

They give: rehabilitation for formerly enslaved people in the UK.

Perfect for: the team members that love to experiment. 

Kombucha is really having its moment in the UK. The British market for the fizzy drink is set to grow by nearly 14% annually for the next five years. Even if your team isn’t yet replete with kombucha fans just yet, this is the type of gift that could definitely get them hooked. HOLOS’s kombucha differs from the other high street competitors because of its low-sugar, fermented tea blend. And every kombucha purchased goes towards the HOLOS Foundation: a charity focused on rehabilitation for slaves and human trafficking survivors in the UK.

7. Nourish snacks

They get: scrumptious snacks. 

They give: clean water to remote communities. 

Perfect for: teammates with allergies – they deserve tasty treats too!

One way to show employees that you really know them is to enquire about their allergies – and then choose personalised gifts accordingly. Nourish can help make that happen, with its gluten-free, grain-free, dairy-free and refined-sugar-free treats. Rest assured, that doesn’t mean they’re taste-free. These sweet treats just happen to be healthy too. Their bars are some of our most popular items!

Every Nourish package is compostable, and the female-founded business is working towards a food waste-free kitchen. Nourish also donates 10% of its profits to Water for Good, supporting remote communities in the Central African Republic (CAR) with clean water. Nourish gifts are another great way to recognise remote teams, who might not get to benefit from a fully-stocked communal kitchen or in-office lunches.

8. Karakorum pizza scissors

They get: more slices of the pie. 

They give: fair wages, female empowerment and an exploitation-free supply chain.

Perfect for: teammates who love a slice.

These scissors are no joke. Their extra long blades make cutting through any pizza a cinch.

Karakorum’s wide range of gifts are all sustainably curated from artisans at communities across the world. The pizza scissors are no exception. Perhaps about as controversial as pineapple on a pizza, the scissors will surely become a conversation starter for anyone who’s gifted them.  It’s a great idea for virtual teams if you’re hosting a remote pizza party too. Plus, Karakorum’s gifts give back: their handmade, fair trade practices mean everyone involved in production gets a fair wage.

9. UpCircle beauty

They get: radiant skin from repurposed ingredients. 

They give: new life to would-be waste.

Perfect for: coffee and tea fanatics, or skincare aficionados. 

It turns out, coffee grounds and tea can do so much more than just perk you up in the morning. They can also transform your skin. UpCircle Beauty saves these overlooked ingredients from their alternative destiny (a landfill) by upcycling them into skincare. Their fully natural, organic and vegan formulations are excellent gifts for team members looking for a personal touch that aligns with their lifestyle and values.

The UK alone discards 500,000 tonnes of coffee grounds annually – but UpCircle wants to fix that. They collect grounds from over 100 London coffee houses for their products. Their Dragon’s Den appearance had three dragons fighting to invest, confirming what your team will figure out too: doing good for your skin and the planet can happen in tandem. 

10. Ocean Bottle

They get: a beautiful, practical, reusable water bottle. 

They give: ocean plastic removal and income for coastal communities.

Perfect for: the teammates you’ll always find by the water cooler.

Ocean Bottle tackles the plastic crisis with a product that’s as functional as it is impactful.  They prove water bottles can be functional, ethical and premium items too. Each sleek, reusable bottle features hot-cold insulation, an anti-leak lid and a carry loop. You can even transform their bottles into personalised gifts, with engravings to add that extra special touch. 

Beyond Ocean Bottle’s sustainable product, their partnership with Plastic Bank means for every bottle sold, the equivalent of 1,000 plastic bottles are collected from coastal areas most affected by pollution. Ocean Bottle also creates income opportunities for locals in high-pollution areas, who can exchange collected plastic for money or credit toward education, healthcare and other essentials. 

BONUS: Gift Cards

They get: freedom to choose what matters to them. 

They give: support to the social causes they personally connect with.

Perfect for: everyone. 

We may have just saved the best for last. Gift cards deserve a rebrand. While they’ve long been dubbed impersonal, they can absolutely be a perfect gift for just about anyone. They might even be the most thoughtful gift of all. By offering a Social Supermarket gift certificate, you acknowledge that your employees have unique tastes and values – empowering them to select products that resonate with their individual preferences. It’s a truly personalised gift, sent directly to their inbox, providing instant access to over 4,000 sustainable and social impact gifts from brands making positive change.

The beauty of this approach is that you can provide your employees with a meaningful choice. Each employee gets to discover social enterprises whose missions speak to them personally, creating a greater connection to both the gift, its impact and their team.

How to give the best employee appreciation gift this year

Now that you’re armed with gift ideas galore, the question is, how will you actually get them in your employees’ hands? The Social Supermarket Team Gifting Platform is a corporate team gifting solution that simplifies the gift-giving process while maximising your positive social and environmental impact. It allows you to:

1. Curate a collection of gifts within a set budget
2. Let the recipients choose their dream gift, then input their delivery information (eliminating the tedium of manual address collection)
3. Track the real impact of your gift orders through your company’s personalised dashboard

You’ll save time while seamlessly catering to your team’s diverse preferences, including their dietary needs. All the while, you’ll know exactly how much good your gifts are doing. Book a demo with our team to get started today.

Benefits of employee gifting

Employee gifting is how you show your team that they matter. You can convey your gratitude for their hard work with carefully curated gifts. When you pick meaningful gifts that reflect your company values, you put your money where your mouth is – and that shows your employees that they can trust leadership to not just talk the talk but walk the walk. You can also help staff members feel appreciated while supporting ethical causes, giving “two gifts in one” for your team and the community at large. And the positive effects of employee gifting provides a research-backed way to support job satisfaction and overall team spirit.