The gift does not disappear after delivery
December reporting often ends at dispatch: the gifts were delivered, the campaign is complete. But the employee's experience continues into January.
An unwanted item still needs somewhere to go. A wrong size may need exchanging. A duplicate gift may be returned, stored or quietly passed to someone else.
Delivery success is therefore not the same as reward relevance.
Returns create hidden administration
If the company sourced the item, employees may naturally come back to HR when something is wrong. Who handles the exchange? Is there a receipt? Can the supplier replace only one unit from a bulk order?
These are small questions individually and exhausting questions at scale.
They are part of the real cost of fixed Christmas gifts.
Re-gifting is feedback
When an employee gives the gift to someone else, the gesture has not necessarily failed completely — another person may enjoy it. But it does tell you the original recipient was not the right match for the item.
That is useful programme feedback, even if it never appears in an HR dashboard.
A choice-based model tries to resolve that mismatch before the item is selected.
Choice moves the decision earlier
If employees choose the product themselves, preference, size and category decisions happen before fulfilment rather than after delivery.
That cannot eliminate every return. Products can still be faulty, sizes can still be wrong and people can change their minds.
But it removes the largest source of mismatch: HR choosing on behalf of the employee.
January is the right time to learn
After Christmas, ask what generated support work. Was it addresses? Sizes? Dietary requirements? Delivery? Low engagement? Catalogue relevance?
Do not wait until next November to remember the pain.
Turn those lessons into requirements for the reward infrastructure you use throughout the year.
Planning employee Christmas rewards?
See how PeopleCredits gives your team one branded store while each employee chooses the reward that works for them.
Explore Christmas rewards