When it comes to a personalised onboarding experience, nothing beats a starter pack for new employees.
Welcome kits usually contain items that are functional and tailored to the employee’s interests or demographics.
This article will explore the essential starter pack for new employees and how you can use one for your onboarding success.
Red Tomato’s Unique Approach to Welcome Packs
Here at Red Tomato, we specialise in everything about promotional products.
More than the products we do, we take pride in our holistic approach to creating marketing and promotional items.
Our main focus is three things: creativity, personalisation, and innovation.
Through our client consultation, we try to understand their goals.
This lets us get creative and brainstorm to create personalisable and innovative merchandise ideas.
These ideas then get turned into the unique employee welcome packs that new hires are sure to remember.
10 Must-Haves in Red Tomato’s Starter Pack
Forget the overused mugs or notepads. Here are 10 essentials to include in your curated employee starter pack.
- Welcome Letter — A simple acknowledgment can go a long way, especially on your new employee’s first day. A personalised note from the CEO or manager can express excitement about their onboarding with the company, their expectations, and well wishes on this new chapter.
- Company Branded Swag — Let your new employees wear their pride on their sleeves literally with company-branded swag. T-shirts, caps, hoodies, and lanyards are great choices to personalise with your branding as well as the name of your employee.
- Sports-Related Merchandise — Whether it’s an active sipper bottle they can take with them on a quick jog or a sun visor for their golfing sessions, including merchandise that promotes an active lifestyle is always a plus.
- Customisable Pop Socket — A pop socket is a nifty tech accessory you can place at the back of your phone as a stand and allows for an easier grip. This can be customisable to show off your brand logo and colours.
- Wireless Charging Pad — Introduce a convenient way to charge with a wireless charging pad for their phones and tablets that also displays off your company’s branding.
- Customisable Tote Bag — These tote bags made of natural cotton are a great alternative to single-use bags and can carry many things from quick grocery runs to picnic outings.
- Stress Toy — This practical gift can be great for reminding your employees that it’s okay to take a quick break to de-stress. These stress reliever toys can come in various shapes, colours, and designs.
- Bamboo Calendar — This is another take on a traditional desk calendar that will never go out of date with interchangeable blocks displaying the date and month. The use of bamboo also makes it a sustainable choice in the long run.
- Bamboo Bluetooth Speaker — This environment-friendly, ultra-portable speaker has lights that change the sound of the music and can be recharged from a laptop or power bank.
- Gift Cards — Gift cards are always a safe option to give new employees as a token of appreciation. These can be for restaurants, cafes, or any activities near the office that they can use in their free time.
The Science Behind Our Selection
The items we chose are not just trendy but also have scientific reasons. Employee starter packs are created to make new employees feel valued, informed, and well-integrated into their new company culture from day one.
Starting a new job can be stressful since employees are adjusting to their new environment.
A well-designed welcome pack can help alleviate stress by giving them important information, setting expectations, and making them feel welcome.
Including branded merchandise in a welcome kit helps new employees feel more aligned and connected with the brand’s values and identity.
This creates a sense of belonging, which also helps them integrate better with the company culture.
All in all, it adds to creating a more welcoming onboarding experience.
Studies have shown that a great onboarding experience can affect employee retention and engagement.
This is why welcome packs are crucial in helping new hires navigate their first few days on the job.
The Power of Personalisation in Employee Packs
At Red Tomato, we have been creating custom-branded solutions since 2006.
With just the right tweaks you can create useful products into memorable experiences and emotional connections in the lives of your consumers.
Personalising employee welcome packs is a small gesture that can go a long way. Here are some of the benefits of personalisation:
- Make a good impression — Giving new hires personalised items shows you recognise and care for them. This creates a good first impression for their stay in the company.
- Boost their morale — Give your new employees the confidence to take on their new roles with the company.
- Improve engagement and retention — Employees who feel valued tend to be more engaged with company activities and stay loyal.
- Integrate them with the company culture — Merchandise that reflects your company’s values and mission can help them understand and connect better with the company culture.
Creating Unforgettable Onboarding Moments
Our countless onboarding success stories show our commitment to helping clients realise their goals through well-designed merch.
From employee welcome packs to fun run activations, there are plenty of ways our merch can create memorable moments.
The Fiddler is an Irish Pub that had an event for St. Patrick’s Day.
They wanted their guests to come home with a collectible item and for years, they used a t-shirt to commemorate the occasion.
When they approached Red Tomato, they wanted to try something different. With our help, The Fiddler introduced kid’s t-shirts to the mix.
This changed St. Patrick’s Day into a family-friendly event.
The event turned out to be The Fiddler’s 3rd most successful day in their history.
T-shirts were in hot demand the whole event and became prizes for the games.
“We always use Red Tomato for any promotional needs we may have. We can always guarantee not only quality products but quality information provided by each of their team members”. Hannah Ferris.
Consultative Onboarding Solutions with Red Tomato
Red Tomato’s consultative approach to onboarding means that we nurture relationship-driven and collaborative partnerships with businesses.
This dynamic approach allows us to understand each client’s unique needs and tailor the right products and solutions.
From brainstorming to product distribution, we owe it to our teamwork and creativity that lets us produce exceptional onboarding merchandise.
Innovating with Forward-Thinking Employee Packs
As the landscape for promotional marketing changes, Red Tomato continues to adapt to industry trends to keep delivering fresh and innovative ideas for employee packs.
The rise of AI has changed the industry for good. By leveraging generative AI, we created an AI Merch Generator to speed up the product brainstorming process.
This opens new possibilities for the future of onboarding with more personalised suggestions and unique ideas.
Check out our deep dive into AI merch generation and learn how it creates ripples in the promotional merchandise industry.
Generate the next big idea and try our AI Merch Generator today.
A Welcome to Remember with Red Tomato’s Welcome Packs
Welcome new employees and show appreciation with a memorable onboarding experience.
Red Tomato lets you customise an essential starter pack for new employees for their welcome journey. Elevate your onboarding with us!
