This month’s Compt product updates focus on tightening the everyday experience: making recognition more human, reducing friction in payroll workflows, and grounding benefits decisions in real benchmarking data.

Here’s what’s new across the Compt platform.

Recognition just got more expressive.

When we first launched Team Recognition in Compt, one of the earliest questions we heard was simple and telling:

Can we add a GIF?

Recognition is more meaningful when it feels personal. Now, employees using a Team Recognition program in Compt can search for and add a GIF (or upload their own GIF or image) to include visuals with every e-thanks or monetary recognition shoutout.

If your team uses the Compt Slack integration, those GIFs appear directly in your recognition channel, keeping appreciation visible without introducing another tool or workflow.

These moments might feel small, but they tie directly to a broader shift we’re seeing in benefits design: employees engage more when programs feel natural and lightweight. Consolidation works well here, too: You don’t need a separate recognition solution if it’s already embedded in your Compt lifestyle benefits.

If you’re interested in launching Team Recognition, request a demo of Compt.

The redesigned payroll experience launches for all customers on February 24.

Payroll is one of the most sensitive workflows HR and Finance teams manage. Accuracy, clarity, and tax compliance are nonnegotiable, and unnecessary friction increases risk.

Over the past year, we’ve refreshed several areas of the Compt platform. The latest update focuses on payroll, delivering:

• A cleaner, more modern interface
• Clearer navigation across payroll reports
• A more intuitive experience for reviewing and finalizing reimbursements

This update is intentionally evolutionary. Existing payroll reports, configurations, and compliance logic remain unchanged. The goal is simply to make a high-stakes workflow easier to get right.

All existing customers will be migrated starting February 24, 2026. New customers who launch after that date will receive the new experience automatically. 

If you have questions about how the new payroll experience will work with your current benefits setup, a Compt team member would be happy to help. 

The 2026 Annual Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report is live.

Our 2026 Annual Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report is now available, marking the sixth year we’ve published this research as part of our ongoing Compt product updates.

Each year, we analyze how stipends and LSAs are actually designed and used across the Compt platform, then translate that behavior into benchmarks HR and Finance teams can plan around. This information can also help you stand out from a talent acquisition perspective in terms of ensuring your lifestyle benefits are competitive in the marketplace. 

The report answers questions we hear on many customer calls:

• Which stipend and LSA categories companies are offering
• What employee participation and utilization rates look like in practice
• How much employers typically fund, sliced by company size, region (including international) and industry
• Median, minimum, and maximum funding ranges (not just averages)

This year’s data also reflects a broader shift toward consolidation, simpler administration, and benefits designed around everyday employee needs (while still leaving space for moments of celebration and joy).

Explore the 2026 Annual Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report.

Compt is committed to designing lifestyle benefits that are easy to run (and easy to use).

These Compt product updates reflect what we’re seeing across the market. HR and Finance teams want benefits programs that are easier to operate day to day, not just appealing on paper.

They also reinforce how Compt approaches lifestyle benefits: with an emphasis on durability, clarity, and ease of administration as programs evolve. The platform is designed to support teams as their needs change, without requiring constant reconfiguration or additional tools.

If you’re evaluating changes to your benefits stack this year, request a demo to see how Compt fits into your approach.

FAQs: Lifestyle benefits platforms

This section reflects the questions we hear most often from HR and Finance teams evaluating, expanding, or consolidating lifestyle benefits programs in 2026, including questions that come up when reviewing recent Compt product updates.

The post What’s New in Compt: Product Updates, February 2026 appeared first on COMPT.

According to PwC’s 2025 Global AI Jobs Barometer report, workers whose roles are “AI-exposed” saw a 300% productivity increase, as well as a 56% wage premium. On a macro level, industries most exposed to AI had ~3x higher revenue per employee growth.

But while practically all companies are thinking about and investing in AI, McKinsey finds that only 1% believe they’ve reached maturity in AI adoption. Roughly half of those companies’ leaders pinpoint “skills gaps” as the number-one barrier.

Traditional roles are quickly becoming AI-augmented versions of themselves. And because the tech is evolving faster than the talent base, the gap between what people know and what modern roles require is only going to widen.

Addressing it requires a professional development program that focuses specifically on AI tools and training. The easiest-to-implement and lowest-cost place to start is with an AI stipend.

What are AI stipends and how do they work?

AI stipends are fixed, employer-funded budgets that let employees explore AI tools, courses, and workflows within clear financial and compliance guidelines.

They work much like any other stipend:

1. The company sets the allowance.
2. Then defines what qualifies (e.g., subscriptions, training, certifications).
3. Employees submit permitted expenses through a structured process.

But there’s a growing demand for AI, specifically. Our 2025 Midyear Lifestyle Benefits Benchmarking Report found that “AI and emerging tech” was the #2 professional development spend category within our user base. That’s why this is so important.

Ready to kick things off? Check out our guide to getting started with AI stipends.

What an AI stipend covers

An AI stipend covers anything that helps employees learn, test, or apply AI in their day-to-day work.

That includes:

• Tool subscriptions like ChatGPT, GitHub Copilot, and Perplexity
• Courses, certifications, and microlearning
• Prompt libraries
• Role-specific software (e.g., an AI note-taker, writing, or design tool)

The premise is simple: give people room to explore the technology while keeping spending aligned with company priorities.

How employees use stipends to build AI literacy

While ChatGPT already writes most of your devs’ code, less than half of front-line and nontechnical staff use AI tools regularly. Competency and adoption levels naturally vary by department, which is why an ‘across the board’ solution like companywide training doesn’t work.

AI stipends give your people a practical way to build the specific skills their roles demand without forcing everyone into the same training track. Some examples:

• A sales rep uses theirs on a note-taking assistant for prospect calls. (My favorite is Granola, for those wondering.)
• A marketer tests out AI research tools and buys access to a prompt library.
• An ops manager invests in automation training.

And because each person is learning in a way that’s totally relevant to their day-to-day work, adoption feels natural rather than forced.

Professional development accounts and LSAs make it easier to offer AI stipends.

A professional development account is the smoothest way to roll out AI stipends because it’s already built for L&D-oriented spending. It’s a recurring budget employees can use for broader learning, tools, and skill-building.

When you fold AI into that structure, it removes a ton of administrative friction. Instead of creating a brand-new program, Finance and HR can define AI as an approved category and let the same reimbursement process handle the rest.

Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs) work similarly. Their broader focus on lifestyle benefits, however, can make them less effective at specifically driving AI adoption compared to a dedicated professional development account or AI stipend.

But if you’re working with a lean benefits budget or prefer a single wide-net program, an LSA does the job while also addressing your team’s other benefits priorities.

(Based on our midyear benchmarks, some of our customers offer as much as $8,000 per employee per year on professional development through stipends and LSAs!)

3 companies using AI stipends to drive productivity and companywide adoption

Now without further ado, let’s dive into three real-life examples of how AI stipends work in practice. While we’ve redacted the company names, these are all actual use cases from Compt customers.

1. How a midsize B2B gifting platform rewards employee AI ideas

One midsize B2B gifting platform uses AI stipends as a way to spark internal innovation. Instead of limiting the budget to tools or training, they created two spot bonus stipends that reward employees who submit ideas or projects to the company’s AI Challenge.

It’s a light-touch incentive, but it does two jobs at once:

1. Employees feel recognized for experimenting.
2. Leadership gets a steady stream of practical, employee-driven AI use cases.

It’s a perfect case study in how SaaS companies can use these stipends strategically. It reduces the pressure to “get AI perfect” while encouraging hands-on exploration and surfacing ideas that would’ve never seen the light of day in a traditional top-down rollout.

2. How a small AI automation firm enables daily AI usage

One small AI automation firm takes a straightforward, high-impact approach: giving employees ongoing monthly budgets specifically for the AI tools they rely on daily. They get a $24 stipend for ChatGPT, plus a separate $50 stipend for an AI-powered code editor like GitHub Copilot.

This is exactly what to do if your main goal is to normalize AI use across the company. Engineers get the tools they need to be more productive. Nontechnical employees get their foot in the door and familiarize themselves with conversational AI. Everybody wins. 

3. How a small VR gaming studio uses stipends to fuel AI hackathons

A small VR gaming studio uses Compt stipends to power one of its most energizing culture initiatives: a companywide AI hackathon. Employees prototype new AI tools and game ideas, then the company rewards that effort with $250 spot bonus awards.

Just like with our B2B gifting client, the benefit here goes beyond the prize itself. While other companies force idea development and AI adoption, stipends create a safe space for experimentation. That leads to a culture where AI is something people are excited to explore.

What these three companies have in common

What ties these three very different approaches together is that each company started with a clear business goal, then shaped its stipend strategy around the outcome it wanted. 

One used stipends to encourage bottom-up participation in AI initiatives; another to normalize daily AI usage; another to fuel hands-on experimentation. Different paths, same underlying mechanism.

Four other shared takeaways:

• Flexible for employees, predictable for Finance. Everyone uses the budget differently, but Finance always knows the maximum exposure.
• Clear guardrails facilitate safe exploration. Employees know what qualifies, so they can experiment without compliance risks.
• Adaptable across teams and skill levels. Stipends support nontechnical staff taking their first steps just as effectively as experts refining advanced workflows.
• The same software powers every model. Whether it’s monthly, on the spot, or challenge-based, the stipend system gives you control and visibility.

No matter the use case, stipends are the reason these programs work. Had these companies tried to roll out a single corporate license or a one-size-fits-all training program, they’d have lost the individualized approach needed to get people to participate in the first place.

How to launch an AI stipend at your company

Compt makes AI stipends simple.

Inside the Compt platform, all you have to do is set up a category for AI tools and learning. Then, define the specifics of your program and let employees take it from there.

The platform supports global currencies, so international teams can expense anything and you can pay them out in their home currency. And because Compt runs on reimbursement rather than preloaded funds, you’re never going to lose out on money that’s not spent.

IRS compliance is totally automated, which your back office will love, and employees get the flexibility to choose the tools and training that make sense for their role.

It also fits every approach you’ve seen in this guide: recurring monthly stipends, role-specific allowances, and spot-bonus rewards for challenges or hackathons.

Want to see what professional development and AI stipends could look like at your company? Request a demo today.

FAQs: AI stipends for professional development

The post 3 Ways Real Companies Are Using AI Stipends in 2026 appeared first on COMPT.

Written by Kim Rohrer

Kim Rohrer is a veteran people leader, writer, speaker, and advisor with over 15 years of experience building human-centered cultures at high-growth companies. She is the founder of Patchwork Portfolio, author of the I Care Too Much newsletter, and co-host of the HR Confessions podcast. Today, Kim shapes the future of work through a variety of roles, drawing on her HR strategy and storytelling experience to build cultures worth talking about. Her work ranges from Employee Experience and Employer Brand to Communications and Community.

Connect with Kim on LinkedIn.

Every year, HR teams everywhere enter the same spiral: Which holidays do we give time off for? What do we call the December company party? And of course — how do we show appreciation in a way that will actually make people feel valued?

I’ve been there. Working as a People Leader at companies with employees all over the world, I watched well-meaning leaders struggle with the same questions year after year about whose holidays get acknowledged and how to celebrate our teams.

Spoiler alert: there is no perfect one-size-fits-all solution, no matter how many vendor demos promise you there is. And your good intentions only go so far when someone feels invisible or misunderstood.

So let’s talk about which inclusive holiday benefits actually work when you’re trying to give back to your team without leaving people out.

Not everyone celebrates the same way (and that’s the point).

We’ve all experienced that fun time at work where “the holidays” is really just corporate shorthand for “Christmas … oh, um, but also Hanukkah and I guess Kwanzaa and maybe the Winter Solstice too? Here’s our office Winter Celebrations Tree and some candy canes? Secret Santa is inclusive, right?” Awkwaaarrrrrrrd.

Many companies moved past calling it the “Christmas party” years ago, but even “holiday party” dances around the reality: people celebrate different things, at different times, in wildly different ways. 

Some of your employees are fasting during Ramadan or Yom Kippur while meeting deadlines. Others don’t observe any religious holidays, but still like to celebrate the season. Some people want shiny company-branded swag, and others like to end the year holed up in a snow-covered cabin with no technology. 

The point is, plenty of folks have traditions they want to celebrate this time of year — they just don’t want you to assume what that celebration looks like.

It’s nearly impossible to design one holiday experience that reflects the reality of your entire team’s lived experiences — and you should stop trying, like, now. There is a better way!

This is where Lifestyle Spending Accounts start to make sense as an inclusion strategy, not just a benefits offering. When you give people a stipend they can use however they want, you’re not just giving them flexibility; you’re acknowledging the diverse spectrum of needs (and that you don’t know what they all are) and demonstrating that you trust them to make their own choices.

That might mean:

• Buying ingredients for a special family meal
• Covering travel costs to visit loved ones
• Purchasing gifts that align with their traditions
• Supporting a cause they care about through donations
• Using it for something completely unrelated to any holiday at all

And bonus: Compt’s Midyear Benchmark Report found that 70% of stipend spending goes to local and independent vendors rather than big-box retailers — hell yes to keeping those dollars in your local community, where they actually matter!

The point isn’t to celebrate everything. It’s to stop pretending there’s one right way to celebrate anything.

The great swag waste problem affects us all.

Let’s be honest: most company swag is expensive garbage.

Boxes of logo’d hoodies in the wrong sizes, sitting in storage until the company rebrands. Employees who already have four water bottles and zero interest in a fifth. Gift boxes filled with artisanal candles that smell like “forest floor” or whatever, shipped in packaging that could survive a nuclear blast, destined to sit unopened in a closet, waiting for the next white elephant gift swap.

And we do this every holiday season, convincing ourselves that this year’s holiday swag will be different. It’s not.

Not everyone wants to splurge on something for themselves, either. While some employees will definitely enjoy a free massage or a special excursion on an upcoming vacation, some would rather make a donation to a cause they care about during end-of-year giving season. Others might use it to cover groceries or household essentials when finances are stretched thin. 

But maybe someone does want that hoodie with the new company logo. Great! Let them choose it from your swag store so you don’t have to trek to every GAP within commuting distance to track down those cool hoodies in everyone’s sizes that they are sold out of online, so that you can send them to the local embroidery shop in time for the holiday party. (Been there.) 

Rather than giving everyone another mug that will end up at Goodwill because they’re still using last year’s mug as a pen holder on their desk and they don’t need another damn mug … let folks use a company gift platform to buy something for a family member when money is tight. (Done that.)

That flexibility matters.

Besides, when you default to one-size-fits-all gifts, you’re not just wasting money; you’re contributing to overproduction, excess shipping, and literal trash. The environmental impact alone should make us rethink the model. If your office swag closet (or apartment, increasingly common in our remote-work environment) is full of unwanted leftovers, you know what I mean.

The gift isn’t the hoodie or the expensive whiskey. The gift is respecting that people have different values and priorities.

Stop managing holiday chaos point by point.

Even if you’ve moved past bulk swag orders, there’s still the vendor management nightmare.

You research gift platforms. Schedule demos. Negotiate pricing. Sign the contract. Send the announcement. Next year (or even sooner), you’re doing it all over again because the last vendor didn’t have enough options, or the interface was clunky, or people just didn’t use it.

And every platform has the same rotation of meal kits, candles, and succulents. It’s like they’re all pulling from the same catalog of things people are too polite to say they don’t want. 🤭

Managing point solutions for every occasion — birthdays, work anniversaries, holidays, life events — is exhausting. You’re juggling logins, budgets, approval workflows, and reporting across multiple platforms, all for “personalization” that isn’t actually personal. And time is money, right? Your time is valuable. Don’t waste it on administrative nonsense that doesn’t make an impact. 

Meanwhile, your employees are drowning in accounts they never asked for, trying to remember which platform has their points, which one expires, and whether this quarter’s wellness credit can be used for that thing they want or if they need to wait for next quarter’s stipend. Only 28% of employees surveyed by benefits broker NFP report making maximum use of perks and benefits because of “the misfit of benefits offered versus what is valued.”

Blegh.

It’s a lot of effort for a system that fundamentally misses the point: people just want choice. Compt’s case study with Quickbase blew my mind (processing benefits now takes 90 minutes instead of literal days!), and — hot off the presses — their new case study with TEN7 says it only takes 5-10 minutes a month to administer!

Wish Compt had been around when I was having “help me organize my swag closet” body doubling sessions and hosting “swag trade” happy hours to help get rid of overstock!

The real gift? Feeling seen.

Holiday planning doesn’t have to be this hard. You don’t need the perfect gift, the perfect vendor, or the perfect way to acknowledge every celebration on the calendar.

You just need to treat your employees like adults — adults who know what they value, what they celebrate, and what would actually make them feel appreciated.

That’s what inclusive holiday benefits (and inclusion in general) actually look like in practice. Not a carefully curated gift box. Not a generic “Happy Holidays” email. Just respect, flexibility, and trust. 

Imagine that.

P.S. I wouldn’t write for Compt if I didn’t love the team and believe in the product. Book a no-pressure demo today and see what the fuss is about! 

The post How to Support Every Employee With Inclusive Holiday Benefits appeared first on COMPT.

If your swag budget keeps vanishing into boxes of unused polo shirts and forgotten onboarding gifts, you’re not alone. While marketing teams often get the spotlight for event swag, HR’s swag budget for internal merchandise is substantial and growing. According to industry benchmarks, many People teams allocate between $150 and $250 per employee per year for branded items like welcome kits, milestone gifts, or team celebrations. More generous budgets can reach $500 per employee annually, especially when swag plays a central role in employee engagement and culture-building.

Yet, multiple reports find that up to 40% of all swag and gifts ends up in landfills. 

Luckily, there are better ways to share the love without the waste. The first is a swag stipend, which is dedicated to giving your employees access to funds to purchase their own company swag and branded merchandise. With Compt, you get a fully branded and on-demand online store combined with a swag stipend that employees can use to choose the branded gear they actually want.

Alternatively, you can use a Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA). These reimbursement-based accounts give employees access to stipends across multiple categories bundled together in one benefit, like wellness, professional development, food, family, and swag. That way, employees can choose how to best invest their discretionary benefits, and companies can make their employee perks budget stretch further. If you choose an LSA with Compt, you can offer a specific swag stipend. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a step back and explore how swag stipends and/or LSAs can eliminate waste, surprise and delight your employees, and help you manage your swag budget (as a part of your overall benefits budget) more strategically and effectively. 

Why traditional swag budgets result in waste (and frustration)

Your swag budget is the portion of your perks or engagement budget allocated to company-branded merchandise like hoodies, mugs, socks, and laptop cases. Traditionally, HR’s role in the process has been placing bulk orders, guessing on the right quantities and sizes, and hoping employees like and want what arrives in their swag bags. Otherwise, all the energy you put in goes straight into the trashcan. 

Swag is often purchased to align people and culture or celebrate milestones, whether the person’s or the company’s. These reasons aren’t inherently wrong, but without real data or feedback on how the swag is received, companies often overspend on merchandise that doesn’t resonate. That results in piles of unwanted gear, all while employees barely notice the effort it took to coordinate the logistics of storing boxes and managing shipments. It’s inefficient, and it drains both time and morale. Which is exactly what you don’t want swag to do. 

In most cases, the waste stems from a few predictable pitfalls:

• Overordering and underutilization: Without knowing what people actually want, companies end up with closets full of leftover swag no one feels compelled to claim. Even if you ask about preferences and sizes, employees may not know, or may change their minds later. 
• HR doing double duty as fulfillment: Someone has to gather sizes, track addresses, ship boxes, and/or coordinate desk drops. That someone is usually your People team. And let’s be honest — no one got into HR to manage inventory and postage. Let’s hand those tasks back to the experts, shall we? 
• Swag that doesn’t land: Generic, one-size-fits-all items rarely feel personal or meaningful. Even with good intentions, it’s easy to get this wrong. The first swag items I toss, personally, are branded mouse pads and cheap plastic water cups with straws or sippy lids. Thanks, but no thanks.   

How stipends and LSAs with Compt flip the swag script

But here’s the thing: employees actually do like swag! After moving on from my previous organization and joining Compt, I had to completely overhaul my remote work wardrobe because I no longer had any accurately branded T-shirts or polos. It was kind of a big deal. 

Needless to say, I’m looking forward to using my own swag stipend. Why? Because I’ll get to choose exactly what I get. That’s the beauty of a solution with a built-in, turnkey Company Swag Store + Swag Stipend. I know for a fact that what I receive will be personalized to my size and preferences, and that it will arrive without hassle. I won’t have to dig through a pile of leftover T-shirts in the company kitchen, searching out that elusive size M in a color I don’t dislike or already own. 

For companies looking to modernize how they manage their swag budget as a part of their overall benefits package, the Company Swag Store + Swag Stipend turn swag into a flexible benefit rather than a forced freebie. 

Here’s how it works: 

• You, the employer, set the budget and then give your employees access to your customized Company Swag Store. If you’re using an LSA to integrate swag with your other Compt lifestyle benefits, you’ll define swag as one of the eligible LSA categories.
• Your employees choose the gear they want, in the sizes and styles they prefer, and check out as normal.
• They submit their receipt for reimbursement in the swag category, either as a standalone stipend or as a part of your LSA. You approve it. 
• The swag they chose ships directly to their door with no fuss and no stress. 

And for you, that means streamlined swag operations: No more bulk ordering (though you still can if you prefer), no guessing games when it comes to sizing or preferences, and no more overflowing boxes of old, untouched swag taking up precious closet space. 

It also adds a couple layers of nuance for Finance:

• Better budget alignment: You only spend when swag is actually ordered.
• Clear reporting: See how funds are being used, by whom, and for what.

According to Compt’s internal data, participation in stipend programs jumps to 93% when choice is introduced. That’s more than triple the rate of traditional perk programs: A survey by benefits broker NFP found that only 28% of employees make maximum use of perks and benefits because of the misalignment between what they value and what their companies offer. 

How Compt helps you manage your swag budget in smarter ways

We already talked a little about this, but let’s dig into the details. To make swag even easier, Compt partnered with Snappy to launch a free, integrated Company Swag Store + Swag Stipend. This integration lets you create a branded experience for employees without the overhead:

• HR sets a swag stipend or includes swag as a category in an all-inclusive LSA.
• Employees choose from more than 80 custom-branded items from brands like Nike, CamelBak, Yeti, and more.
• Snappy handles production and fulfillment, so there’s no on-hand inventory or boxes taking up space.

Orders are fulfilled on demand and shipped globally to employees’ doors in more than 170 countries. Whether your team is hybrid, remote, or global, every employee gets equal access to branded swag (without blowing your swag budget). 

This model solves several issues raised during conversations we’ve had with companies at which distributed teams and uncertain benefit categories created confusion and low adoption. One HR leader noted their CEO had “trust issues” with stipends, fearing employees would misuse funds. But with Compt, spend is transparent, compliant, aligned to policy, and always within budget. 

Every reimbursement submitted through Compt requires a receipt — not just to confirm the purchase matches your policy, but to ensure it’s coded correctly for tax compliance. The platform sorts taxable from nontaxable expenses, integrates with payroll systems, and provides all the reporting Finance needs, providing a level of visibility that builds trust from leadership down.

Traditional swag vs. swag stipends with Compt + Snappy: a quick comparison

To summarize the transformation, here’s a side-by-side look at old-school swag approaches vs. the new Compt + Snappy swag stipend model:

Ready to make your swag budget work smarter with Compt?

Reducing wasted spend in your swag budget is about making swag more personalized, flexible, and efficient, not cutting the benefit. When employees get to choose their own gear through a lifestyle stipend or LSA, it becomes something they actually value (and use). And when you manage it through Compt, you can track, scale, and feel good about it, all without printing out a single shipping label. 

Want to learn more about how swag stipends can make your perks program more impactful (and a whole lot more fun)? Request a demo.

FAQs: How to optimize your swag budget

The post How to Optimize Your Swag Budget to Reduce Wasted Swag Spend appeared first on COMPT.

Compt, the best lifestyle benefits platform for personalized employee stipends and perks, and Snappy, the leading corporate gifting platform, today announced their partnership and the launch of the Company Swag Store — giving companies a free, fully branded and on-demand online store combined with a free swag stipend that employees can use to choose the branded gear they actually want.

Compt enables HR teams to deliver flexible, tax-compliant stipends across categories like wellness, professional development, family, and recognition. Snappy enables companies to create memorable, branded moments with personalized gifts, produced and shipped on demand. This is the first integrated solution that links stipends with a print-on-demand company swag store.

The free* Company Swag Store + Swag Stipend product brings these strengths together: HR can launch a fully branded store in minutes, employees get ongoing access to choose swag anytime, and everything integrates seamlessly into Compt’s stipend and recognition platform.

Swag made simple: branded items, employees order, store to door

Traditional swag programs require HR to manage bulk orders, track sizes, store inventory, and ship boxes, often resulting in unused closets of merch, wasted spend, and countless hours spent on facilitating shipping. At the same time, employees rarely connect with generic gear or gift cards.

With the Company Swag Store, HR selects products and sets a swag stipend, while employees shop on demand. Snappy produces and ships items directly, eliminating the need for HR to manage fulfillment or inventory. In other words, Compt and Snappy give HR the best way to set up an end-to-end swag program that lets employees spend their swag stipends on branded products without managing closets of merch.

Top Company Swag Store options and use cases

• Culture and community building: Always-on access to swag, purchased with stipend (or personal) funds, helps employees show pride in their company year-round.
• Onboarding: Day-one swag and a stipend help new hires feel connected from the start — a simple policy for onboarding that works just as well for global or remote teams.
• Recognition: Automate stipends and celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, and new hires with personalized gear.
• Distributed teams: Employees across locations can access the same branded perks, ensuring consistency and inclusion.
• Uniforms: Give front-line and customer-facing teams the branded gear they need to represent your company every day.

Everything runs inside Compt, eliminating the need for HR to act as a fulfillment center.

Best way to launch a free Company Swag Store 

The Company Swag Store is free for all Compt customers, with no subscription fees. Companies only pay when employees order, plus a one-time $500 setup fee for payroll integration. Because everything is tax-compliant and automated, HR saves hours while budgets stay predictable, making this the best way to budget for branded merchandise alongside other wellness or recognition stipends.  

“Too many HR leaders are stuck wasting time and money managing swag no one uses,” said Amy Spurling, Founder and CEO of Compt. “With Snappy, we’ve built a turnkey way to build culture and celebrate employees with branded gear they’ll actually want.”

Stores come stocked with 80+ high-quality items, including hoodies, hats, water bottles, backpacks, tech gear, and more. The catalog is always growing, so employees never run out of options.

“Snappy Stores empower HR professionals to bring culture to life. From branded
collections that reinforce identity to personalized campaigns for milestones, Stores create pride, belonging, and connection throughout the employee journey, no matter where employees are.”

— Hamutal Oren-Fox, Chief People Officer, Snappy

FAQs: Company Swag Store + Swag Stipends

See how the Compt + Snappy Company Swag Store works

Get started with a quick call with the Compt team to explore the first free company swag store powered by stipends. It’s the easiest way to link swag stores to lifestyle stipends and benefits, give employees print-on-demand swag credits, and manage everything in one tax-compliant platform.

Need buy-in first? Download our one-pager to share with your team.

About Compt

Compt is the global lifestyle benefits platform trusted by companies in all 50 states and 75+ countries. Compt’s flexible, easy-to-use, tax-compliant platform helps HR teams deliver stipends across wellness, professional development, family, commuter, recognition, and more. For more information, visit www.compt.io.

About Snappy

Snappy is a leading corporate gifting platform that helps organizations drive engagement, retention, and business growth through thoughtful, scalable gifting. Trusted by over half of the Fortune 100, Snappy has delivered over 7 million gifts to 176+ countries. Snappy’s gifting platform supports use cases across employee, customer, and prospect lifecycles, offering curated gift collections, branded swag, global experiences, and gifting APIs. Founded in 2015, Snappy is a series D company that continues to redefine how businesses build meaningful connections through gifting.

The post Compt and Snappy Launch First Free Company Swag Store + Swag Stipend for HR and Employees appeared first on COMPT.

If you’re here, you already know that managing lifestyle benefits isn’t as simple as handing out stipends. It’s about delivering a program that actually fits your employees’ lives, works across countries and currencies, stays compliant, and doesn’t bog your team down with manual admin. Too often, teams using platforms like Forma run into the same roadblocks: merchant code restrictions, declined transactions, incorrect transaction approvals, tax headaches, and systems that just don’t scale.

A truly effective stipend platform should remove those pain points and support your team’s growth, not create more work. Based on what we’ve seen from teams transitioning away from Forma, here are the core capabilities to look for in a modern stipend management platform:

Platform consolidation that reduces tool sprawl

Forma users often end up supplementing the platform with separate tools for rewards, learning, wellness, and/or DEI. A strong alternative should bring all of these programs under one roof, reducing administrative chaos and vendor costs.

Built-in tax compliance you don’t have to fix later

One of the most consistent frustrations we hear from teams leaving Forma is around taxes. While it’s known that many benefits carry tax implications, Forma provides no visible guidance in its customer support documentation on how taxable vs. nontaxable spend is tracked or reported — just look at their support page.

The absence of documentation raises a few questions:

• Is the process simple or complex? If it were seamless, you’d expect it to be clearly documented. The silence suggests there may be hidden complexity.
• Who carries the burden? Without clear guidance, Finance often ends up retroactively sorting taxable vs. nontaxable benefits, making manual adjustments, and absorbing the compliance risk.
• What about employees who leave? A Finance team lacking clarity is left without an easy, visible reconciliation process for employees who received taxable benefits but are no longer at the company.
• Is this a priority area? If tax compliance were a core strength, it would likely be highlighted more prominently.

By contrast, a better platform bakes in tax compliance from day one. That means handing taxability in real time and generating audit-ready payroll files from the start. For detailed guidance, explore our comprehensive tax compliance guide.

True global scalability

If you have employees across multiple countries, you’ve likely run into Forma’s limitations with currency support, time zones, and compliance. Look for a platform that can support international teams with localized stipends and automated tax handling.

Vendor-free flexibility (no merchant code blockages)

One of the top frustrations with Forma is merchant code restrictions, leading to declined transactions, underused stipends, or merchant approval but with items listed on the no-go list. Every merchant is considered “unverified” until manually approved (yes, even individual sellers on Amazon), which means extra work for program admins. Employees are then stuck in a loop: their transaction gets blocked, they escalate to HR, and HR has to work with Forma to request approval and the code. This results in a frustrating experience for everyone. 

The best Forma alternatives use a reimbursement model that lets employees choose any vendor that fits your benefit policy, without time-consuming delays or having to approve each new vendor added. 

No more embarrassing card declines

Forma’s card-based system often leaves employees stranded when transactions get declined, damaging trust in the benefits program. A reimbursement-first platform puts the employee in control: they make the purchase, upload the receipt, and get reimbursed quickly — no awkward moments at checkout.

In this article, we’ll walk through four alternatives to Forma. But if you’re looking for a stipend solution that truly puts flexibility, compliance, and the employee experience first, Compt stands out from the rest.

Ready to eliminate stipend management headaches? Request a demo.

Comparing top Forma alternatives

1. Compt: The all-in-one tax-compliant choice

Compt is a lifestyle benefits platform built to help companies offer personalized, meaningful perks, without the complexity. Instead of locking employees into a rigid marketplace or forcing HR teams to juggle multiple tools, Compt gives people the freedom to spend their stipends in ways that fit their lives. Whether your program includes wellness, family support, and/or professional development, employees can use stipends within the categories you define, buying from any merchant that fits. HR and People Ops stay firmly at the helm with programs that are inclusive, easy to manage, and flexible enough to grow with your team. 

And where Compt really shines is behind the scenes. Built with robust functionality and a simple, intuitive user experience, Compt makes life easier for everyone. Designed by a former CFO, it’s built with Finance in mind, delivering real-time visibility into spending patterns, automated tax classification, seamless payroll integrations, and global currency support.

No merchant code issues. No card declines. No year-end surprises. Just a smart, scalable platform that keeps employees happy, HR confident, and Finance in control.

Feature #1: Simplify benefits by consolidating features, stipends, and rewards into one powerful platform (not a mess of disconnected tools).

One of the biggest headaches for HR and People Ops teams is managing a scattered tech stack: one tool for wellness stipends, another for professional development, a third for rewards and recognition. With Compt, you can consolidate to save money and reduce administrative burden.

Compt combines all your core employee programs: lifestyle stipends, LSAs, professional development, and employee recognition. That means less vendor management, fewer logins, and more time spent on strategy (not admin). You also get real-time reporting that’s payroll-ready, helping HR and Finance teams stay in sync and prepared for an audit, should it occur. 

Compared to platforms like Forma, which only handles stipends and pre-tax benefits, or Bonusly, which focuses purely on recognition, Compt’s all-in-one setup offers a truly unified experience for employees and admins alike. Benefits include:

• One platform to manage all employee reimbursements and rewards
• Unified reporting across programs for simpler analysis and decision-making
• A single source of truth for Finance and Payroll (no spreadsheet chaos!)
• Less training and setup time for HR admins
• A consistent, seamless employee experience across all programs

Learn more about how Compt’s stipend administration software can streamline your entire benefits program.

Feature #2: Tax compliance is automatic, accurate, and built in from day one.

Tax compliance is one of the biggest pain points for Finance teams when it comes to stipends, and most platforms make it harder than it needs to be. With Compt, tax treatment is handled at the source. That means every stipend is automatically classified as taxable or nontaxable, the right reporting is applied at the time of reimbursement, and payroll-ready reports are generated without any extra work.

In contrast, card-based and marketplace solutions like Forma and many other Forma alternatives leave the heavy lifting to you. Finance teams are often stuck manually sorting through year-end reports, retroactively adjusting payroll based on unclear tax rules, handling employee complaints about surprise tax withholdings, and taking on compliance risk from incorrect or inconsistent classifications

Compt eliminates all that. Our platform is 100% IRS-compliant and integrates directly with your payroll system, so Finance doesn’t have to second-guess classifications or chase down receipts. No more tax season surprises, no more year-end cleanup — just accurate, audit-ready data every single pay period.

Learn more about our payroll integrations and how we keep compliance stress off your plate.

Feature #3: Scale benefits effortlessly across 75+ countries with a unified global platform.

Managing employee benefits across borders is notoriously complex, but it doesn’t have to be. While card-based or marketplace platforms often break down across countries, time zones, and currencies, Compt was built to scale. Whether you have employees in five countries or 75, we make it easy to deliver a consistent, compliant experience — no workarounds required.

Compt supports global teams out of the box, combining vendor-free flexibility with built-in tax handling and multicurrency support. You don’t need separate vendors for each country, and there are no surprise exchange fees or compliance gaps to manage. Just one platform that works everywhere.

With Compt, you get:

• Multicountry support for 75+ countries (and counting)
• Multicurrency reimbursement without hidden fees
• A consistent experience for employees, no matter where they work
• Local country payroll process so you’re not chasing rules per country
• No vendor contracts or region-specific platforms to manage

For example, imagine having employees in both Albania and New York City who want the same robust experience without setting up separate vendors. Compt will handle that automatically.

See how Compt helps build global stipend programs that work seamlessly across borders.

Feature #4: Vendor-free flexibility, without restrictions, so employees choose what works for them — not what’s on an approved list.

Too many stipend platforms limit employees to a short list of pre-approved vendors — or worse, rely on confusing merchant codes that frequently block legitimate purchases. That leads to a familiar cycle: declined transactions, frustrated employees, and underutilized benefits that cost your company money but don’t deliver value. For example, an employee might be at Target picking up vitamins as part of their health and wellness stipend, but when they check out, the transaction gets declined because Target isn’t on the approved vendor list.

Compt takes a different approach. Our category-based reimbursement model gives employees the freedom to choose any vendor that fits within your program’s guidelines. There are no merchant codes to navigate, no restrictive vendor lists, and no red tape.

Imagine this: One of your employees wants to use their wellness stipend for a local climbing gym or a niche meditation app that isn’t part of a marketplace. On a card-based platform like Forma, the transaction might get declined or flagged for manual review simply because the vendor doesn’t match a specific merchant code. With Compt, they make the purchase, submit a receipt, and — if it aligns with your policy — it’s approved and reimbursed. It’s that simple. In fact, more than 99% of expenses were approved in the first half of 2025. 

This kind of flexibility leads to dramatically higher participation, fewer support tickets, and a more inclusive experience for your team. It also saves HR and Finance from chasing down exceptions or manually approving one-off vendor requests.

Feature #5: Zero transaction failures — because a declined benefit isn’t a benefit at all.

Card-based stipend platforms often come with a hidden risk: failed transactions. Whether it’s because of merchant code mismatches or vendor restrictions, declined purchases frustrate employees and flood HR with support requests.

Compt takes a reimbursement-first approach that eliminates this issue entirely. For example, say an employee signs up for a virtual conference using a card-based platform, and the payment is declined because of an unrecognized merchant. With Compt, that employee pays upfront, submits the receipt, and is reimbursed — smooth, simple, and stress-free, with no card declines or confusion.

When benefits work reliably, employees use them confidently, and HR doesn’t have to play tech support.

Feature #6: Maximum ROI on every benefit dollar with 100% of your budget going to employees, not intermediaries.

When you invest in employee benefits, every dollar should go toward … well, your employees. But with many platforms, a surprising amount gets lost to card processing fees, currency exchange charges, lost or stolen cards, and marketplace markups. Compt avoids all of that by using a vendor-free, reimbursement-based model, so 100% of your benefits budget actually supports your people, not third-party middlemen.

Unlike card-first platforms that require preloading funds (and leave unused balances behind), Compt reimburses only real, approved purchases. That means you’re paying for what employees actually spend, not what you offered. There’s no pre-funding. No wasted dollars. No expiration-related losses or hidden fees skimmed off the top. Every dollar is used with intention, and you’ll know exactly where it went.

Let’s say your team rolls out a $500 quarterly wellness stipend. With card-based platforms, you end up losing a percentage of that to processing fees or unused balances. With Compt, if an employee has an annual $500 wellness stipend and spends $300 at a local gym and $100 on a meditation app, they get fully reimbursed for the combined $400, and your company keeps the remaining unused $100 — no fees, no leftovers, no waste. 

The result is full transparency, maximum ROI on your benefits budget, and no wasted spending on unnecessary intermediaries.

Get a custom quote to see exactly what you’ll pay with Compt.

2. Benepass: A strong card-first option for personalized stipends

Benepass offers a card-first approach to employee stipends and lifestyle spending accounts, making it easy for employees to pay directly for their benefits without fronting any cash. This zero out-of-pocket experience is a big win for many companies, especially those looking for a smooth, familiar purchasing flow. Benepass also supports a broad range of benefit categories, giving employees plenty of flexibility to choose what fits their unique needs.

To help ensure compliance, Benepass codes eligibility rules into its Visa card, enabling most transactions to be automatically approved or declined at the POS. This built-in logic reduces the need for manual receipt review.  While such automation helps lighten the administrative load, some companies may still prefer more flexible, vendor-free models for niche use cases or global reimbursement. 

Benepass currently has more limited global support compared to other platforms, which isn’t ideal for organizations with international teams. For those seeking broader geographic coverage, tax automation, or reimbursement-based flexibility, Compt offers a more scalable alternative. 

3. Espresa: A modern choice for well-being–focused lifestyle spending accounts

Espresa specializes in lifestyle spending accounts (LSAs) with a strong emphasis on employee well-being and engagement. Their mobile-first, globally inclusive platform is built to support distributed teams — whether in-office, remote, or hybrid — with features like wellness challenges, rewards and recognition, and employee communities. This makes Espresa a good fit for companies looking to boost culture and engagement alongside benefits.

That said, Espresa’s focus is more narrowly tailored to well-being and LSA-type benefits, which means it lacks some of the broader stipend program capabilities that larger or more complex companies might need. If your goal is a unified platform that consolidates all types of personalized employee stipends across professional development, rewards, family benefits, and beyond, Espresa might feel a bit limited.

Ultimately, Espresa is a solid option if you want to create an engaging, culture-driven employee experience centered on well-being. But for organizations seeking a more comprehensive, vendor-free reimbursement platform that scales globally and automates tax compliance, Compt’s broader scope and Finance-friendly design make it the better all-around solution.

4. Bonusly: A go-to for recognition-driven employee engagement

Bonusly stands out as a user-friendly platform focused on peer-to-peer recognition and micro-bonuses. It’s built to help companies boost morale, strengthen team bonds, and reinforce company values through frequent, meaningful shout-outs and rewards. The gamification features make celebrating wins fun and visible, which helps create a positive and connected culture across teams.

That said, Bonusly’s strength lies mainly in recognition programs rather than comprehensive stipend or benefits administration. It doesn’t offer the full suite of personalized employee stipends or lifestyle spending accounts that companies might need for broader employee benefits management. So, if you’re looking for a platform that handles everything from professional development reimbursements to global tax compliance, Bonusly isn’t quite built for that level of complexity.

In short, Bonusly is a solid choice for organizations wanting to ramp up engagement through recognition. But for teams needing a unified, scalable platform to manage personalized stipends with zero transaction failures and seamless compliance, Compt offers a more complete and flexible solution.

Choose Compt, the stipend platform built for modern HR

When evaluating Forma alternatives, the best choice becomes clear. While traditional point solutions restrict benefits to narrow marketplaces or apps, limiting employee choice and leading to low participation, wasted budget, and poor ROI, Compt delivers a fundamentally different approach.

Compt is the only platform that delivers: 

• True all-in-one consolidation of stipends, LSAs, professional development, and rewards and recognition
• Guaranteed tax compliance with automated classification and payroll-ready reporting 
• Seamless global scalability across 75+ countries 
• Complete vendor-free flexibility without merchant code restrictions
• Zero declined transactions through reimbursement-based processing 
• 100% of your benefits budget going directly to employees

Don’t let another year pass managing multiple tools, cleaning up tax compliance issues, and dealing with employee complaints about declined cards or restricted vendors.

Ready to see how Compt can transform your employee benefits program? Request a demo today and discover why leading HR teams choose Compt over Forma and other traditional stipend platforms.

The post Top 4 Forma Alternatives for Personalized Employee Stipends in 2026 appeared first on COMPT.

“I’ve been in HR my entire career,” Corey says, summarizing her past 20+ years.

“I was an HR leader in lots of different organizations. And then I moved into my rebellious phase, where I started really trying to challenge and do things differently. And that moved me into my pay-it-forward phase where I’m still doing that. I’m still shaking things up, but I’m doing it in a more intentional and proactive way.”

For Corey, HR is second nature. She provides consulting services, is a frequent keynote speaker, and has published six books on industry topics. And on the latest episode of our monthly podcast ‘Getting Personal,’ she gave me an inside look at how HR teams can stay flexible to take care of their people in the best way possible. 

Walk through Corey’s career milestones where she’s taken risks to provide her people with better benefits — and learn how you can, too. 

Making an impact with flexible benefits

We all have our own story of our ‘rebellious’ moment (think: sneaking out of the house in high school). I wanted to hear from Corey an experiment she risked because she thought it could positively change company culture. 

“I was doing a review of our global benefit programs at a company [via] focus groups. Every single focus group talked about wellbeing — but everybody had a different thing written on their card. That’s where we came up with the idea of a wellbeing allowance.” 

The wellbeing allowance was a specific sum of money (around $500 annually) based on employees’ locations that could be used on ‘anything’ that could improve overall wellbeing. Employees simply had to provide their goal, how they would reach it, and the cost of the chosen activity or equipment.

Corey was nervous to let employees use their allowance on whatever they wanted. But after all, she had just co-written a book called ‘The Rebel Playbook.’ So, she decided: “I’m going to be a real rebel. I’m going to say, you know what, you can do whatever you want to do.”

Corey did put up some guardrails by having all employee requests come through her for approval. And in the end, her gamble panned out. In fact, the impact lasted well after she was gone. 

By listening to people and implementing a scalable, supportive program, Corey is still making a major impact in this company, even long after she’s left. The wellbeing allowance supports employees on whatever unique journey they’re on. And we’re not surprised: Health and wellness stipends continue to be one of our most popular employee stipend categories among our Compt customers, offering employees ultimate flexibility in how they live their best lives.

A small ‘rebellious’ choice for a major positive impact.

Flipping the script on employee recognition 

Is recognition a form of rebellion? At first glance, you might not think so. But so many companies are slacking with employee recognition — often without even realizing it — that it could take a little rebellion to get there.

Many times, recognition in the workplace takes a top-down approach. 

“Why are we spending all of our recognition money on the top 3-5% of our people?” asks Corey, who has written two books on employee recognition. “Why can’t I spread it like peanut butter across all the other people who are doing great things?”

Debra’s recognition pyramid does exactly this, with four levels to show the different types of employee recognition employers can offer at their organization.

Psst: We have more employee recognition ideas in our blog post with 9+ examples to create a culture of appreciation. 

65% of employees say they haven’t received any form of recognition from their employer within the past year. And it’s just common sense that if people don’t feel appreciated, they aren’t going to stick around. I clearly remember my college job at a shoe store, where my manager saddled me with the type of responsibilities that would be handled by an assistant manager — but when someone new started, she gave them the assistant manager position instead. I quit a couple of days later. 

Corey believes the informal side of recognition (what is often called peer-to-peer recognition) is more important than we know. Formal recognition programs created by HR are great. But often, the informal things — “how you develop your people, how you promote your people” — are what stick with us long into the future (for better or for worse, like my shoe-shelving fail).

Start with these simple free or low-cost ideas for recognition:

• Create a dedicated Slack channel for shout-outs 
• Highlight employees on social media
• Allow employees to give each other a small monetary peer bonus 

(Even better: Let us work with you to create a turnkey, tax-compliant rewards and recognition program for your people!)

Providing personalized flexibility 

As Corey and I wrapped up our conversation, I asked her about what she’d learned about trust and flexibility in the workplace and how she’d seen these ideals evolve over time.

“How critical they are,” was her immediate answer. Years ago, Corey found herself stuck in a situation where she wanted to run focus groups about benefit programs. 

“That’s what I pay you to do,” her boss said to her. Corey’s leadership team didn’t think that employees ever needed to be involved in benefit planning.

That voice stuck in Corey’s head for a long time. But now she counters: Why wouldn’t you do this? We need to leverage employees’ fresh ideas and thoughts. As HR, our employees are our ‘customers,’ and they’re going to help make our ‘product’ better.

This is especially true, Corey says, when it comes to flexibility. For employees, flexibility drives engagement. But flexibility also means something different for everyone — the ability to work from home because of chronic illness for one person, the ability to come into the office to escape a challenging home situation for someone else. The solution? Once again, listening to your employees. 

Throughout her career, Corey has been a rebel for a cause: making a difference in people’s lives. And she’s succeeded. A few months ago, someone commented on her social media, saying they remembered Corey — that she’d encouraged them to join the company’s 401K back when they were 21 years old. And they were so thankful she had done that.

“We have ripple effects that we don’t even know we’re causing in HR. And that’s what makes it such a gratifying field to be in,” Corey says. And since I’ve started speaking with HR leaders all over the world, I just have to say: We see you, and we truly appreciate you.  

Take care of your people with Compt

Data from our 2025 Annual Benchmark Report backs up Corey’s emphasis on flexibility. For example, employees love the broad choices they get from Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs): All-inclusive LSAs have the highest utilization rate among stipend programs at 85%. That’s almost 15% higher than programs that don’t include an LSA.

At Compt, we’re here to help you design programs that make your people feel recognized, valued, and supported, both at work and in their personal lives. And if that takes a little rebellion, well… so be it. 

Compt’s employee stipend software equips your HR team with everything you need to support your employees. Enjoy a flexible reimbursement system, low-effort employee recognition features, streamlined expenses management, and other valuable features. Learn more by scheduling a demo today. 

The post Rebel for a Cause: Debra Corey on Recognition, Flexibility, and Ripple Effects appeared first on COMPT.

In this article, we will explore some of the most important employee milestones to celebrate and discuss how acknowledging these milestones can contribute to higher levels of employee satisfaction and productivity. 

What are Employee Milestones?

An employee milestone is a significant event, achievement, or development stage in an employee’s career. Promotions, work anniversaries, completing a project, receiving special recognition, and reaching a specific performance goal are all examples of employee milestones.

Common Employee Milestones

As a perk stipend platform, we have unique insight into the types of employee milestones companies frequently like to recognize. We’ve identified the following employee milestones as the most commonly celebrated in a professional context:

1. Onboarding

The onboarding process marks the beginning of an employee’s journey with a company. By celebrating this milestone, organizations can make new team members feel valued and welcome, setting a positive tone for their future engagement. 

2. Promotion

Promotions are significant career milestones that reflect an employee’s hard work, professional growth, and potential. Celebrating promotions demonstrates the organization’s commitment to recognizing talent and providing opportunities for advancement. Companies that celebrate promotions reward and motivate the promoted employee and inspire others to work towards similar achievements, fostering a culture of excellence and ambition.

3. Anniversaries/Years of Service

Work anniversaries or years of service milestones celebrate an employee’s long-term commitment and loyalty to the organization. Recognizing these milestones demonstrates appreciation for an employee’s dedication, hard work, and valuable contributions over time. 

Pro tip: It’s common for companies to celebrate a 5-year or 10-year anniversary with a special gift or experience, such as an extra vacation day or a personalized award. But in 2024, the average tenure for employees aged 25 to 34 is just 2.7 years, meaning most won’t reach the traditional 5-year milestone. Recognizing achievements in the earlier years will make this more effective.

4. Training and Development

Investing in employees’ growth through training and professional development programs is crucial for their professional advancement and the company’s success. Celebrating employee milestones related to training and professional development, such as completing courses, earning certifications, or acquiring new skills, emphasizes the value placed on continuous learning. By acknowledging these milestones, organizations inspire a culture of learning, encourage employees to enhance their skill sets, and create a more productive workforce.

5. Performance

You can celebrate role-specific milestones that are tied to an employee’s performance. For example, if a sales rep closes their biggest deal ever, a team celebration might be in order. Or if a healthcare employee receives multiple commendations from patient families, recognition at the next team meeting will make them feel incredibly valued. Performance milestones can be team milestones, too — for example, if the marketing department achieves an all-time high for website traffic, this could be considered a milestone.

6. Retirement

Retirement is one of the most significant moments in an employee’s personal and professional life and should be celebrated to honor their contributions. This milestone marks the transition into a new phase of life and symbolizes the end of a successful career. Recognizing retirees’ contributions shows appreciation and helps foster positive relationships and a sense of continuity within the organization.

7. Company Achievement

A company milestone represents a significant achievement or turning point in the history of a business. Some examples of company milestones include exceeding revenue goals, celebrating company anniversaries, securing a partnership, and winning an industry award. 

Personal Employee Milestones

It makes sense that most companies’ recognition efforts are dedicated to professional milestones. However, recognizing personal milestones can help you take your employee recognition strategy to another level.

Birthday

Celebrating an employee’s birthday is a simple yet powerful way to recognize and appreciate them as an individual. It shows that the organization values and acknowledges their existence beyond their professional role. Whether it’s a virtual celebration, a thoughtful gift, or a personalized message, honoring an employee’s birthday helps create a sense of camaraderie and makes them feel valued, boosting their overall morale and job satisfaction.

Becoming a Parent

Welcoming a new addition to the family is a significant milestone in an employee’s life. Recognizing and supporting employees during this time shows compassion and strengthens their bond with the organization. Providing parental leave, flexible work arrangements, or even organizing a baby shower or sending a thoughtful gift can make a tremendous difference. By acknowledging the joy of becoming a parent, employers foster a culture that prioritizes healthy work-life balance, enhances employee loyalty, and showcases a long-term commitment to employee well-being.

Psst: We have a lot more ideas on how to support employees with fertility and family-friendly benefits.

Engagement/Marriage

Getting engaged or married is a momentous event in a person’s life. Organizations can demonstrate that they’re paying attention these happy milestones by celebrating it with their employees. Some ideas: be Send a congratulatory message, flowers or gifts, or even grant (more) time off for the wedding or honeymoon.

By celebrating this milestone, employers convey support and appreciation for their employees’ personal lives, contributing to positive work-life integration and overall job satisfaction. This shows that companies value employees far beyond their professional contributions.

Why is it important to celebrate employee milestones?

Research from Great Place to Work reveals that ~65% of employees report receiving no form of recognition from their employer in the past year.

And out of organizations that have recognition programs, only 31% rate their programs as ‘highly’ or ‘very highly’ effective, with cost and inconsistent application cited as primary challenges, according to HR.com’s 2024 State of Rewards and Recognition Programs and Tools report.

But research from Workhuman and Gallup reveals that employees who received high-quality recognition in 2022 were 45% less likely to have left their jobs by 2024, which emphasizes its role in increasing job satisfaction and reducing voluntary turnover.

Milestone celebration is one of the most important forms of employee recognition at work. Not only does it recognize and appreciate their individual achievements, but it also strengthens their bond with the organization and connects them to your company culture.

By acknowledging and celebrating these milestones, employees feel recognized, motivated, and engaged. It can…

• Boost employee morale further
• Strengthen their sense of belonging
• Ultimately, enhance employee loyalty and retention

Not to mention, it’s one of the easiest to implement. With a rewards and recognition platform like Compt, you can set the date for milestone celebrations and send automated reminders to managers or team leads to recognize employees on their special day. You can also trigger monetary rewards (e.g., a stipend) to automatically disburse.

How to Recognize Employee Milestones

Employee experiences don’t matter much if they’re not effectively recognized. In fact, how you acknowledge employee milestones is just as important as whether or not they get recognized at all.

Many organizations implement a recognition program to ensure they’re celebrating milestones thoughtfully and at regular intervals. Here are some common methods for an employee milestone recognition program:

Personalized Recognition

• Writing a handwritten personal note to express appreciation and value.
• Creating personalized videos where team members share their congratulations and appreciation for the milestone achiever.
• Peer-to-peer recognition in the company Slack channel.
• Note: It’s especially important they hear from their boss. In a Talker Research survey of 2,000 employed Americans, nearly half (48%) said ‘personal thank you’s from their direct boss’ was the most way they felt most appreciated at work.

Team or Company-wide Events

• Organizing celebratory lunches, dinners, or social events where the entire team can come together and congratulate the employee.

Gifts & Monetary Rewards

• Offering tangible rewards such as physical gifts (including company swag), spot bonuses, or incentives to recognize the employee’s accomplishments.
• Note: With Compt, managers can easily send spot bonuses for personal and professional milestones. Your team can also celebrate employee milestones by sending peer recognition awards!

Communication and Sharing

• Publicly acknowledging the employee’s achievement during team meetings or company-wide gatherings.
• Sharing the milestone announcement on internal communication channels like company newsletters, emails, or social media platforms.
• Encouraging colleagues to congratulate and share their well-wishes creates a sense of community and support.

Time Off

• Many companies give employees time off to celebrate a milestone. For example, if they’ve completed a particularly challenging project, a few days off to recharge is a nice gesture that can prevent burnout. This is sometimes referred to as a duvet day. 

Continuous Feedback and Growth

• The milestone celebration will allow constructive feedback and discussions about the employee’s future development and goals.
• Providing resources, training, or mentorship opportunities to support ongoing growth and career progression. For example, a professional development account could be offered to someone in a new leadership role to help them take management courses.
• Consider promotions or opportunities for career advancement as a special reward for significant milestones.

FAQs on Recognizing Employee Milestones

Ready for an employee milestone program?

Employee milestones are pivotal moments in an individual’s professional journey, and celebrating them is crucial for promoting workplace happiness and success. Recognizing milestones such as onboarding, promotions, years of service, training and development, performance reviews, and retirement demonstrates employee appreciation and fosters a positive work environment. 

Want to recognize employee milestones thoughtfully while maintaining tax compliance? Schedule a demo today with Compt.  

Originally published in 2023, this post has been recently updated for clarity and relevance for our readers.

The post 7 Important Employee Milestones Worth Celebrating appeared first on COMPT.

Employee Appreciation Day is an annual workplace holiday celebrated on the first Friday in March to recognize employees’ contributions and strengthen company culture.

This year, instead of giving out the same old gift cards or generic thank-you notes, try one (or more!) of these 29 creative ideas to make your employees feel truly appreciated.

Every year, National Employee Appreciation Day falls on the first Friday in March.

From 2026 through 2030, here are the exact dates:

• 2026: Friday, March 6
• 2027: Friday, March 5
• 2028: Friday, March 3
• 2029: Friday, March 2
• 2030: Friday, March 1

Looking for Employee Appreciation Day ideas that actually resonate with your team? Mark your calendars and start planning ahead to make this day a memorable one for your employees. Below are 29 creative ways companies celebrate employees in both in-office and remote workplaces.

What is Employee Appreciation Day?

National Employee Appreciation Day is a day to recognize and celebrate the hard work, dedication, and contributions of all your team members. It is a chance for employers across the country to show gratitude toward their employees and make them feel valued.

Today, thousands of companies worldwide observe Employee Appreciation Day, and it has become a significant part of workplace culture.

Why should my company celebrate Employee Appreciation Day?

For starters, because you appreciate your employees (right?). And if you don’t, you’ve got bigger problems than not knowing what to do on Employee Appreciation Day.

Beyond the obvious, there are several reasons to make this holiday a priority:

• It’s a foundational building block in your rewards and recognition program.
• It’s good for your employer brand (current team members, future talent, customers, and investors will all see your company as a great place to work).
• It boosts employee engagement, happiness, and retention.
• It facilitates a positive workplace culture.
• It shows your team you care about them as individuals, not just as employees.

Now … we can’t understate how much your team values a culture of recognition in the workplace. More than 1 in 4 employees say they don’t feel appreciated at their job.

But in November 2024, Motivosity and Talker Research polled 2,000 American workers. A huge portion of them said they value appreciation from peers (48%) and direct supervisors (46%) even more than regular raises (39%).

In that same study, 58% said their company demonstrating a commitment to employee rewards and recognition plays a ‘major’ or ‘significant’ role in whether or not they stay at that company.

All these factors explain exactly why Gallup’s meta-analysis of more than 100,000 teams found companies with recognition programs to be 21% more profitable.

Not to mention, Employee Appreciation Day is low-hanging fruit! You know exactly what day it falls on, and you can plan something across the entire organization. So, if you’re not sure where to start with rewards and recognition, this is the perfect place.

Writing an Employee Appreciation Day message

At the bare minimum, no matter what you do, we suggest starting with a message to your team. You have options here to consider:

• From the top level of your organization, a companywide email or Slack message.
• From department heads, a departmentwide email or, ideally, a personal private message.
• From team leads, a brief team huddle speech.
• On the company socials, a thank-you post with a photo of your team.
• On the company blog, a formal thank-you post, complete with team photos, accomplishments, and testimonies from executives.

Whatever your approach, here’s a quick 5-step formula for crafting an Employee Appreciation Day message that hits the right notes:

• Show sincere appreciation. This goes beyond a simple ‘thank you.’ Tell your employees why you appreciate them and their work.
• Highlight specific accomplishments or contributions. This shows that you truly see the value in each individual employee and their unique role within the company.
• Share the impact of their efforts. Letting your team know how their hard work has affected the company, client satisfaction, or team success reinforces their value and importance.
• Include future goals or plans for the company. This allows employees to see how their contributions fit into the bigger picture and motivates them to continue working hard.
• End with a sincere thank you. End your message by reiterating your gratitude and expressing how important each employee is to the company’s success.

Employee Appreciation Day ideas for in-office team members

1. Host an office party.

If you have an office, the best way to make employees feel appreciated is to dedicate a few hours in the afternoon to spend time together. Order food, play games, and have casual conversations.

Here are a few of our favorite office party ideas:

• Have a local restaurant cater the event (poll everyone beforehand for dietary restrictions and preferences).
• Hire a few food trucks and comp everyone’s meals.
• Host a potluck where everyone brings in their favorite dish to share.
• Set up a DIY mimosa bar or coffee bar in the break room.
• Have a fun theme like ‘Luau’ or ‘Casino Night.’
• Plan team-building activities like escape rooms or laser tag.
• Organize a companywide game tournament (trivia, Pictionary, etc.).
• Rent out a karaoke machine and have a singing competition.
• Hold a cornhole championship, with an exciting prize for the winning team.

There are literally millions of possibilities here. You can be as creative as you want.

2. Hold a company-sponsored happy hour.

Office parties are great, but sometimes it’s nice to get out of the office. So, why not host an after-work happy hour at a local bar or pub? This gives employees the chance to relax and bond outside the office walls.

If you’re able to rent the whole place out, you can even take the above-mentioned ‘office party’ concept to a bar or restaurant. Keep in mind that not all employees may want or be able to drink, so a place that has other activities, like board games or good gathering tables (and offers mocktails!) can be key here.

One additional pro tip: If you have remote employees who work in the same city, invite them along, too! Getting face time with colleagues helps build stronger relationships and promotes a more cohesive team dynamic.

3. Have a picnic and games in the park.

If the weather permits, take your team outside for a fun picnic and games in the park. This is a great option if your office doesn’t have a designated break area or if you want to switch things up from the typical indoor lunch in the break room.

In addition to food and drinks, bring along some fun outdoor games like frisbee, cornhole, or even a simple game of catch. Bring a speaker to play some music and make it a relaxing afternoon for everyone.

4. Invite everyone for a barbecue.

There’s something about gathering around food that brings people together and allows for genuine conversations and connections.

If you’re running a startup or smaller company, inviting your whole team to your home for a barbecue can be a great way to show your appreciation in a more personal setting.

5. Host your own version of The Dundies.

The Office is meant to be a parody of what everyone thinks office life shouldn’t be, but there are a few gems in there.

‘The Dundies’ is one of the funniest episodes from the series, and we can’t help but think employees would love a chance to recognize each other in silly, ultra-personalized categories, just like the characters at Dunder Mifflin.

Of course, if you actually do this, use it as a time to be constructive. Draw inspo from Pam’s ‘Whitest Sneakers’ award, not Toby’s ‘Extreme Repulsiveness Award.’

Bonus points if you encourage employees to submit nominations, then order custom-engraved trophies for the winners.

6. Take the team out for bowling.

Some of us are great bowlers. Most of us are average at best. That’s part of the fun. Rent out a few lanes, grab some refreshments, and knock some pins down with your team.

7. Go on an adventure together.

Depending on where your office is located, geography might be able to bail you out when you’re trying to come up with employee appreciation ideas.

• Live by the mountains? Take the team on a hike.
• Near the coast? A paddleboarding or kayaking tour will help everyone bond.
• A pool or lake? Grab some floats and spend the afternoon relaxing.

8. Hold a team retreat.

Whether it’s a spa weekend, camping trip, or adventure excursion, getting away from the office can be a refreshing way to show appreciation and strengthen team dynamics.

Team retreats are great for getting to know each other personally, building trust, and reenergizing the team for future projects.

Since retreats generally cost more than other appreciation ideas, they’re best for when Employee Appreciation Day coincides with a huge milestone, like a successful product launch or record-breaking sales quarter.

9. Offer everyone a small bonus.

You might think bonuses are best saved for incentive programs and end-of-year rewards. But giving a small financial reward on Employee Appreciation Day is an awesome way to say “thank you” while giving each team member the freedom to choose how they use theirs (something a gift card could never do).

Compt’s lifestyle benefits platform makes it easy to disburse these bonuses through payroll, while maintaining tax compliance and visibility into how funds are used, without having to give out cash or cut physical checks.

10. Have everyone take a cooking class together.

This idea is a little more involved, but hear us out.

You can rent space in a commercial kitchen or find a local business that offers cooking classes to groups. Plus, everyone gets to enjoy the fruits of their labor (literally) at the end.

11. Get everyone personalized desk toys.

Everyone on your team has something they love that has nothing to do with work.

• A sports team
• A favorite movie
• A music artist
• Pets or a certain type of animal
• Something they don’t stop talking about

Whatever it is, we’re willing to bet you can find something unique that’s related to it for sub-$25.

12. Make a scavenger hunt.

Hide eggs with prizes and money all around the office, then watch everyone scramble and have fun searching for them.

For a twist on traditional scavenger hunts, use QR codes or virtual clues that lead to different locations around the office.

13. Have a companywide car wash (from the leadership team).

Okay … maybe you offer commuter benefits. But is “free car wash” one of them?

When your team members pull up to work on Employee Appreciation Day, they’ll be excited to learn they’re going home in a freshened-up ride.

14. Bring the team to a sports game.

This Employee Appreciation Day idea works if you live in a city with a sports team. Get everyone tickets to an upcoming game. Or, ball out and get a box suite.

15. Give everyone a half day.

Who works ’til 5 PM on Friday every week, anyway?!

Letting your team out early to kick off their weekends is a small, thoughtful gesture that will make everyone smile. Plus, a half day here and there is good for their work-life balance.

For team members with big meetings or important deadlines that afternoon, give them the option to take their half-day at a different time.

Employee Appreciation Day ideas for remote employees

1. Send handwritten notes.

We can’t tell you how much more meaningful a card is when it’s written by hand. For your in-office staff members, it’s easy to slide an envelope onto their desks. You’ll need to plan a little further ahead for your remote folks, who will want to open and read their cards on Employee Appreciation Day.

In each note, say one personal thing you appreciate about that team member. It could be something they did recently, or just a character trait you admire. Make sure these are handwritten and signed thoughtfully. No digital signatures or stamps allowed!

2. Make personal video calls.

If you want to take the personal message a step beyond a handwritten note, call each remote employee personally to thank them and let them know why you appreciate them. Saying it to their (virtual) face makes everything more sincere.

3. Give everyone ‘pick-your-own’ company swag.

Giving your work-from-home employees the ability to rep the company with swag and branded merchandise while they’re logged in at a coffee shop, headed to the gym, or taking their dog to the dog park makes them feel like they’re a part of something bigger.

• T-shirts
• Coffee mugs
• Water bottles
• Pint glasses
• Tote bags
• Anything with utility

Set a budget for each team member, then let them choose the item they want the most. Many companies now pair this with a company swag stipend or a branded swag store so employees can pick items they’ll actually use instead of receiving one-size-fits-all merchandise. We love this idea because it allows employees to choose what they feel most comfortable with, rather than sending out mis-sized T-shirts no one likes or wants to wear.

4. Curate personalized gift baskets.

There are plenty of different sites where you can order customized gift baskets filled with food, drinks, self-care products, and more. Give each remote employee a basket full of goodies based on their personal preferences or interests.

5. Get everyone something from their Amazon wishlist.

For something completely personalized to each team member, you could get them a gift from their Amazon wishlist.

Before the actual day, have everyone send your HR department a link to their wishlist, then send them something that’s in your budget. If you have in-person and remote workers, you can send the remote workers a gift to their address and order the rest to the office.

Make sure you plan this one in advance to account for shipping time.

(Psst: Or, give everyone a small stipend bonus so it can go toward what they really want!)

6. Send them an extra work-from-home bonus.

You may already offer a remote work stipend. And you might be familiar with what to buy with them.

The idea here is a little different. While they might use it to spruce up their home office, let them know they can use this cash reward for anything they like — health and wellness, entertainment, or education — whatever would make them personally happy.

7. Order them lunch on the company.

It’s hard to feel recognized and celebrated when you’re sitting at home by yourself. But it’s a little easier if you’re sitting at home by yourself eating a free meal your company (that appreciates you) paid for.

Have everyone order their favorite delivery food and expense it back to the company using your expense reimbursement platform.

8. Send a houseplant (or deskplant).

Everyone’s home office needs a little greenery. It’s calming. It freshens the air. It looks flat-out nice.

Succulents, cacti, snake plants, and air plants are all incredibly easy to keep alive. And pretty much everyone likes them.

9. Write LinkedIn recommendations.

LinkedIn recommendations are the new highly personalized references. They’re broadcast to anyone who views that employee’s profile, which is great for them.

But also it’s an opportunity for you to say something meaningful about that particular team member, which is great for your relationship.

Make sure you mention their impact on your company and team. Include specific projects or accomplishments you think would impress someone viewing their profile.

10. Hold any of your in-office events virtually.

If you have an all-remote team (or employees who work from offices around the country), use video conferencing tools to connect with them and celebrate.

• Have a virtual happy hour.
• Play online games together.
• Host an award show.

Not all Employee Appreciation Day events translate well to a virtual setting, but team bonding activities like games and happy hours are perfect for keeping your team connected and appreciated.

11. Have everyone treat themselves!

With Compt, you can offer flexible Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs) and 28 stipend categories that give employees the freedom to choose rewards that actually matter to them.

According to Compt’s benchmark data, flexible stipend categories drive the highest participation in LSAs.

Treat Yourself — a Compt-exclusive category — has become one of the most commonly enabled options inside flexible LSAs. According to Compt’s 2025 Lifestyle Benefits Benchmark Report (analyzing 2024 customer spending data), Treat Yourself grew 30% year over year and ranked as the third most redeemed stipend category. Compt’s 2026 benchmark data also shows that 75% of all-inclusive LSAs include a Treat Yourself category, giving employees a simple way to spend their benefit on whatever matters most to them.

Encourage your team to use their Employee Appreciation Day Treat Yourself stipend on something that brings them joy, relaxation, and personal satisfaction. Whether it’s towards a spa day, a new book, hobby supplies, or a date with their partner, they’ll associate their appreciation day with a special treat, making it all the more impactful.

And for employees who love showing off their company pride, the Company Swag Store + Swag Stipend lets them pick branded gear they’ll actually want and use. This turns appreciation into a culture-building moment instead of a one-size-fits-all giveaway.

12. Tie rewards and recognition to a positive impact.

Give Appreciation Day recognition to your team through Slack (you can automate this via the Compt Slack app). For every team member you individually recognize, donate a small amount to a cause of your choice (e.g., a clean water initiative). In addition to making your team members feel appreciated, you can show them they (and you) are making a positive impact on the world.

13. Recognize a milestone or small victory.

For each employee, it’s a good idea to mention something specific they’ve recently achieved or improved upon. This can be anything from completing a difficult project, learning a new skill, or coming up from behind to hit their sales target. It’s a lot more meaningful to tie recognition to a specific accomplishment rather than just a general thank you.

14. Host a company paint-and-sip.

A ‘paint-and-sip’ is a workshop where employees can paint while enjoying a beverage of their choosing. It’s a fun and creative way to bond with coworkers on a special day like Appreciation Day. And everyone can share a good laugh as they reveal their artistic skills (or lack thereof).

Through companies like Paint the Town, you can host a virtual, in-person, or hybrid paint-and-sip workshop.

There’s more to recognition than Employee Appreciation Day …

While 98% of employees who receive daily recognition feel their employers value them, just 37% of those who are recognized once a year can say the same.

Taking advantage of this annual holiday is a good start when you’re forming an appreciation habit within your organization. But you have to recognize employees on a more consistent basis.

• Peer-to-peer recognition
• Employee milestones
• Birthdays
• Regular performance feedback and positive reinforcement
• Shoutouts in team meetings or on companywide communication channels
• Spot bonuses and spot awards
• Career advancement opportunities
• Company swag and branded merchandise

Making employee appreciation part of your culture requires a rewards and recognition program employees actually use — not just perks that look good on paper.

Launch a new reward and recognition program with Compt just in time for Employee Appreciation Day.

Looking to put a new program in place? Software like Compt makes it easy to fairly recognize and reward your employees to deliver ultimate choice (and tax compliance!)

Request a demo and let us show you how it works.

FAQs: Employee Appreciation Day

Editor’s note: Originally published in 2024, this post has been recently updated for clarity and relevance for our readers.

The post 29 Creative Employee Appreciation Day Ideas appeared first on COMPT.

Talk about a Grinch moment.

But why? Well, it’s because that swag bag, with its one-size-fits-nobody approach, totally missed the mark. Your CEO probably doesn’t want to hear this, but their “great idea” that turned into yet another off-brand Yeti mug with the company logo is as good as landfill — especially when you could give employees a stipend to choose their own gear through the Company Swag Store.

A survey from FinanceBuzz show that 60% of respondents would prefer a bonus over a holiday party, and 52% are expecting said bonus. While bonuses can vary, HR Future notes that holiday gifts typically falls between $25 to $150 per employee — which of course will depend on your corporate budget, number of employees, etc.

How do you win? Understand and recognize that everyone wants something different.

Swag snafus happen. But if you keep our dos and don’ts of end-of-year employee gifts in mind, we promise you’ll be met with smiles instead of becoming a viral sensation for all the wrong reasons.

(Already given out lackluster presents? Skip ahead to the last section for how to roll it back.)

Point 1: The “meh” in merch

You thought a $100 voucher for company merch would be a hit, right? Plot twist: it wasn’t. In an era where personal style and comfort reign supreme, limiting your team to a single unisex shirt and pair of pants is like giving a music lover a CD in the age of Spotify — which is exactly why the Company Swag Store lets employees pick the branded gear they actually want.

It’s not just about the gear; it’s about giving your team choices that they actually care about.

In fact, to offer the ultimate choice, nearly 25% of Compt customers gave spot bonuses during the holiday season to their employees, covering things like end-of-year team lunches or appreciation bonuses.

Data, but make it fashion

Diving into the deets from Gallup’s latest research, the big reveal is: Casual is king and queen in today’s workplace wardrobe. But here’s the kicker — it’s not just about being casual; it’s about craving choices.

When employees can strut their stuff in gear that’s authentically them, that’s where the magic happens. You’ll see that every time an employee wears something of their choosing, they may even think more positively of you, dear employer. It’s an easy way to boost job satisfaction and office morale, especially if they were given the choice between athleisure for work from home versus a snazzy new blazer.

The message is crystal clear: A voucher for the same old company gear? Meh. Letting them jazz up their work wardrobe with their own picks? Now you’re talking their language.

Point 2: The disappointing token of “appreciation”

I’m going to be blunt here: The end-of-year ceremony where everyone gets a mug or a generic plaque is more or less a slap in the face. It’s supposed to say, “Thanks for all your hard work,” but instead, it whispers, “Welp … here you go.” These token gifts often miss the mark in making employees feel genuinely valued.

In an age where personalization is possible at every turn, sticking to these one-size-fits-all tokens can make your team feel undervalued and overlooked. Instead, find inspiration from people-first companies on corporate gift-giving. You’re welcome.

Show me the money

A survey from Robert Half found that most employees prefer monetary recognition, such as cash bonuses. Other popular forms of recognition included promotions, praise from a manager, extra time off, and recognition lunches or dinners. This suggests that employees value tangible and practical acknowledgments that reflect their contributions and achievements. It also indicates that personalization in employee recognition programs, allowing employees to choose the form of their reward, can be more impactful than generic gifts.

More importantly, though, there are several prime examples of employee recognition that should be given in real time and year-round, not just in December.

It’s more meaningful to say thanks or “Wow, what a great job on this project” in the moment.

Pair that with a cash bonus for them to spend on what they want? Now you’ve hit the jackpot.

Psst: Read our ultimate guide on spot bonuses for more tips on how to launch a successful bonus program.

Point 3: The one-off experience — missing the mark on lasting impact

Many companies have shifted to gifting experiences, like a day at the spa or a fancy dinner. It’s a step in the right direction but still a shot in the dark. While some might revel in these experiences, others may find them out of sync with their interests or lifestyles. An extravagant dinner is great, but what if the employee is a homebody who prefers a quiet night in? The key is in the details and offering choices that cater to diverse preferences.

Data dive

The Incentive Research Foundation’s study highlighted that nearly half (49%) of respondents listed getting a paid day off among their top three preferences, and another 21% listed it among their next four top preferences. The lowest-ranked recognition approaches included getting a trophy, certificate, or plaque, and receiving company-logoed merchandise.

But if you’re going the experience route, it can’t be (bet you can’t guess what I’m about to say) a one-size-fits-all approach.

This is the perfect opportunity for a “Take a Break” stipend that people can use to take their kids to Disney, go sit on a beach somewhere, or relish in multiple DoorDash deliveries while they unwind in the comfort of their own homes. 

A Tax-Compliant Gifting Platform? Yes, there is a Santa.

Gift your employees spot bonuses and personalized stipends through Compt. It’s time for you to sleigh this year’s holiday gift.

Schedule a demo

Point 4: The eco-friendly faux pas — green gifts that aren’t always gold

Jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon, some companies opt for “green” gifts. While this is commendable, these gifts absolutely must be practical and desirable. A reusable straw set or a plant might check the eco-box, but do they resonate with everyone?

A survey by Custom Ink found that nearly 70% of employees prefer sustainable gifts. This preference aligns with a growing concern for the environment, with 60% of respondents expressing high levels of concern for environmental health.

While being sustainable and environmentally-friendly is commendable, here’s where I remind you that the gift should match the effort. Imagine getting some straws as a thanks for exceeding revenue/sales goals the whole year. Sustainability is critical, but so is usability. Gifts that combine eco-consciousness with everyday utility are the real winners.

Data dive

The same CustomInk survey found that a significant percentage of employees, particularly in the 25-34 age demographic, prefer sustainable corporate gifts aligning with their environmental concerns. But what about your employees outside this 9-year age range?

Vantage Circle suggests a range of eco-friendly gift options, such as recycled plastic products, digital gift cards, and stainless steel drinkware, which are both environmentally friendly and practical. If you’re going down this road, maybe combine this approach with another, like those straws AND a drink or meal allowance idea that can be spent on their favorite coffee or adult beverage. Take it to the next level when you can.

Psst: See how others spend their meal tickets in our roundup of top food stipend ideas. Getting hungry yet?

Damage control: making it right

So you gifted before you read this, huh? Well, like we said. It happens. The good news is that if you act quickly, you can turn the situation around with honesty and transparency. Here are a few pointers:

Real-talk time: Send out a no-BS, all-heart email. A little “Hey team, looks like our gift game was more ‘miss’ than ‘hit’ this year, and for that, we’re sorry.” Honesty is refreshing.

Spill-the-tea session: Set up a chill, no-judgment feedback sesh or send out a survey to see how people are truly feeling. Think of it like a virtual coffee date where everyone can dish out their thoughts on the gift-gate. It’s all about listening and learning.

Make-good move: Show you’re not just all talk. Maybe swing them a spot bonus, something small yet thoughtful that they can spend to get exactly what they want. It’s like saying, “We goofed, but hey, here’s a little something to brighten your day.”

Long-term fix: gift game glow-up

Getting your gifts right might not happen overnight. Especially if you’re a larger organization, it can be difficult to understand what your people really want and how to scale your programs appropriately. While the above dos and don’ts of end-of-year employee gifts can help, here are a few more ideas you could try out:

Gift squad: Assemble a diverse crew of employees to be your Gift Avengers. Their mission? To make sure future gifts aren’t a yawn-fest. Have them represent different types of employees in your organization — those who sit at desks, those in the field, those who have been there 20 years, and those who just started. You’ll likely get a lot of diverse opinions, but if they can agree on something, that’s a really great start.

Choose-your-own-adventure gifts: Scrap the one-size-fits-all nightmare. Roll out a smorgasbord of options — gift cards, experience passes, swag, you name it. Let everyone pick their own brand of joy.

And (we’re just saying) a Compt stipend is the most sensible (and tax-compliant) way to do this so you don’t have to stand in front of the gift card wall at Target, tossing them all into your cart.

Shoutouts over stuff: Pivot to props that matter (more shoutouts, career and professional development growth goodies, and maybe an extra day to chill at home). Show love in ways that count throughout the year. Spontaneous recognition in April can be so much more meaningful (and memorable) than the gifts that come every December because the company feels like they have to do something for the people.

Feedback loop-de-loop: Keep the convo going. Do regular check-ins on what’s hot and what’s not in the world of workplace perks, and not just on LinkedIn or at HR conferences. Ask your employees what they like just as often as you ask your HR friends what’s working at their companies.

Spreading the word

Clear the air with some straight-up chat about the new gift plans. Lay it out like, “We heard you, we’re shaking things up, and here’s how.” Then, build the hype. Get everyone jazzed about the new plan. It’s like the trailer for a movie everyone’s been waiting for — build that excitement!

By keeping things honest, fun, and employee-focused, you’re not just fixing a gift mishap — you’re building a culture where everyone feels heard and valued. And that, my HR pals, is the real gift.

Gift like you mean it with Compt

Don’t get too overwhelmed with end-of-year employee gifting. We’re here to help, with tax-compliant stipend programs to make end of year gifts and bonuses a breeze. More time to craft a perfect eggnog recipe, less time agonizing over spreadsheets.

Ready to get started? Get in touch with a member of our team to chat.

The post The Dos and Don’ts of End-of-Year Employee Gifts appeared first on COMPT.