Employee Recognition
Recognition that arrives
on the actual date.
Birthdays, work anniversaries, promotions and the quiet good work in between. Every People team intends to mark these, and most programs die the same way — someone has to remember the date, choose something, buy it, pack it and post it, every week, forever.
Send us the dates once. The boxes go out on schedule, to home addresses, without anyone chasing them.
Looking for onboarding?
This page covers people who are already on the team. New hires are a different program with a different trigger — Day One Kits covers the first-day box, and employee welcome kits covers what goes into one. Plenty of companies run both from the same brand brief.
Where it fits
The moments a People team keeps meaning to mark
Work anniversaries
One year, three, five, ten. The dates are already in your HRIS, they never move, and they are the easiest recognition moment to run on a schedule rather than remember by hand.
On milestone gifts beyond the plaque.
Birthdays
A box that arrives at someone's home on their birthday lands differently from a message in a group channel. Send the dates once; the sends follow the calendar.
Promotions and internal moves
A promotion announcement is a moment of maximum goodwill and usually gets a Slack post. A box the same week makes it feel like the company actually noticed.
Remote and distributed appreciation
Distributed teams lose the incidental recognition an office provides. Shipping to individual home addresses is the whole product here, not an add-on.
On what people actually keep versus what gets left behind.
Manager-triggered recognition
Give managers a way to send something real without a purchasing process. They send a name, an address and a line about why; the box goes out from the standing program.
Team and project milestones
A launch, a close, a hard quarter finished. One list, one send, the same box to everyone who was in it.
The date file
Send the dates once.
Stop remembering.
Your HRIS already holds start dates and birthdays. Export the roster, mark who is in and who has opted out, and send it. We hold the calendar and prepare each month ahead of the dates, so a birthday on the third does not depend on someone noticing it on the second.
When your roster changes, send a replacement file. That is the entire maintenance burden.
What the file needs
Name, shipping address, the date, and a tier column if a five-year anniversary gets a different box from a first.
Who is excluded
Anyone you mark as opted out. Recognition someone did not want is worse than none.
What comes back
Tracking as each cycle ships, failed addresses surfaced by name, and a monthly summary with the invoice.
The workflow
You send the list. We handle the rest.
Choose
You do
You tell us the budget per recipient, the occasion, and whether you want branding.
We do
We curate two or three directions that fit — with what is inside each one written out, so you are comparing gifts rather than guessing.
Send the list
You do
You send recipient names, addresses, dates and any notes — a spreadsheet or the body of an email, whichever is less work for you.
We do
We read the list, flag anything missing or ambiguous, and come back with a short list of questions rather than a silent failure later.
Approve
You do
You approve the selection and the send schedule.
We do
We source the items, hand-assemble every box in Costa Mesa, and quality-check each one before it is sealed.
Fulfil
You do
Nothing. This is the step you are outsourcing.
We do
We ship to individual recipient addresses, or coordinate hand-delivery across Southern California when the order qualifies.
Close the loop
You do
You pay the invoice and read the summary.
We do
We send tracking as boxes go out, surface any address that failed, and close with a plain summary of what shipped, where, and when.
The full walkthrough, including what happens in the first 48 hours, is on how it works.
Where to start
Pick a tier or build your own
Most recognition programs run two tiers: an everyday box for birthdays and the first anniversary, and a heavier one for five and ten years.
The Welcome
From $48
Everyday recognition — birthdays, first anniversaries, thank-yous
The Onboarding
From $78
Flagship tier — promotions, project milestones, three-year marks
The Milestone
From $110
Long-service recognition — five and ten years, retirements
Questions
Recognition programs
How is this different from your onboarding kits?
Onboarding is a separate program with a separate trigger: a new hire, a start date, a first impression. That runs through Day One Kits and the employee welcome kits page. This page is about people who are already here — birthdays, work anniversaries, promotions and everyday recognition. Many companies run both, off the same brand brief.
How do you know when someone's date comes up?
You send the dates once, as a spreadsheet: name, shipping address, and the birthday or anniversary date. We hold the calendar and prepare each cycle ahead of the date. Updating it is a replacement file when your roster changes, and there is no HRIS integration to build. If you would rather not hold home addresses at all, an annual program can collect them from recipients through a private gift page instead.
What about people who would rather not be recognised publicly, or at all?
Mark them in the list and they are excluded. We also handle opt-outs on request. Recognition that someone did not want is worse than no recognition, and a private box arriving at home is usually the version people are comfortable with.
Can we ship to home addresses for a distributed team?
Yes, and it is the common case. Individual multi-address fulfilment is standard on every order rather than an upgrade. If you would rather not hold home addresses yourself, we can collect them directly from recipients.
How long does a cycle take to produce?
Standard non-branded orders are prepared in 72 hours. Custom branding adds production time, confirmed in your quote before you approve anything.
How are boxes delivered?
Southern California orders of 50 boxes or more are hand-delivered by our team at no delivery charge, on the day preparation completes. Smaller orders and anything outside LA, Orange County and San Diego ship tracked ground.
Is there a minimum?
No minimum to start. A team of twelve running a birthday program works the same way as a company of six hundred. Custom printed packaging carries its own setup, so branded runs have a qualifying quantity confirmed in the quote.
Should the box be branded with the company logo?
Our recommendation is light co-branding at most — the card, not the object. Recognition that looks like merchandise reads as merchandise. The items people keep are the ones they would have chosen themselves, which is the difference between a recognition gift and a branded giveaway.
Is an employee gift taxable to the recipient?
In the US, gifts to employees are generally treated as compensation unless they qualify as a de minimis fringe benefit, and cash or cash-equivalents such as gift cards are typically taxable regardless of amount. A modest physical gift is often treated differently from a gift card, which is one reason companies choose one over the other. Confirm the treatment for your situation with your accountant or payroll provider.
Can we run this as a standing program?
Managed Monthly is the usual fit — you send that month's recognition list on an agreed date and are billed for what actually shipped. A month with nobody to recognise costs nothing.
This is general information, not tax advice — confirm the treatment of any gifting spend with your accountant.
Related
Read next
Day One Kits
The onboarding line — a different program with a different trigger.
Employee welcome kits
What goes into a new-hire box, item by item.
How it works
The five-step workflow and the first 48 hours.
Recurring programs
Managed Monthly, billing, and the six-stage cycle.
Work anniversary gifts beyond the plaque
What long-service recognition looks like when it is not an engraved award.
Gift box versus company swag
Why branded merchandise underperforms as recognition.
Get started
Request pricing
Request pricing
Tell us your headcount, which moments you want to mark, and whether people are in one office or spread out. We reply within one business day.