The Hindu Business Line : Our gift, your choice

With increased focus on business demands, choosing gifts is one decision-making area that companies, especially tech players, are passing on to their employees.

Infinite Computer Solutions, a $100-million (about Rs 450 crore) global IT company rewards its employees using vouchers from retail outlets. "We prefer vouchers over actual gifts because there is no ambiguity over whether an employee has liked or disliked his gift. He can buy an item of his choice," says Prashant L.J., Global Marketing Head, Infinite Computer Solutions.

Perot Systems has a programme called "Vision$" where employees are awarded points for good service such as 100 per cent attendance and overtime work. The points are redeemed for equivalent gifts or vouchers from specific retail chains that the company has tied up with. Murali Swaminathan, Senior Vice-President, HR, Perot Systems says, "Gift vouchers are great substitutes for our in-house currency. It is also easier from an administrative perspective."

Giving away gift items involves stocking these items, cataloguing them, maintaining and updating the online gifts portal, disbursing these items based on orders and getting feedback from employees. It is a lot simpler giving away gift vouchers.

Voucher-based gifting is not new to hotel chains such as Marriott that have been rewarding employees in this way for some time now. "Vouchers can be obtained for the exact amount you want," says Ajey Kashyap, HR Manager, Courtyard (a Marriott hotel).

Most vouchers are valued between Rs 250 and Rs 10,000 and are given to all levels of employees in the organisation. They are from branded retail stores such as Lifestyle, Westside and the Central Group. These outlets offer a mix of items to choose from — such as shoes, mobile phones, sunglasses, jewellery, watches and apparel.

Gift stores have also started special corporate gifting solutions to cater to voucher-based gifting. Kesar Gift Mall specialises in customising and branding gifts. Their vouchers are valid for up to six months from the date of issue. Started six months ago, voucher-based gifting today constitutes about 15 per cent of the company's total business.

"Gifts received from office are generally re-gifted. This seldom happens with vouchers as people always redeem them for their choice of items," says D. Suresh Jain, Chief Executive Officer, Kesar Gift Mall. He feels the sheer variety of items to choose from is fuelling demand for vouchers. "It is an opportunity for new companies like us to showcase our products. Customers later start frequenting our stores and develop a sense of loyalty," he says.

Kesar Gift Mall sells only utility items and says most customers prefer to redeem their vouchers for them. "Of the 12-13 corporate clients we have, most are IT companies," he says. IT company employees generally buy pen drives, mouse pads and other accessories that might help them at work, he says.

For those wanting more variety, Fabmall.com is an option with over 3.5 lakh products listed online. Started less than a year ago, the company expects revenues of about $5 million (about Rs 22.5 crore) this year. "Of this we expect 20-25 per cent revenues to come from voucher-based gifting," says K. Vaitheeswaran, Chief Operating Officer, Fabmall.com.

The company offers gift certificates along with vouchers to clients. Each certificate has the name of the organisation, brand logo, and the name of the employee receiving it. Gift certificates can be sent via e-mail from company bosses to employees. "This certificate is tangible and indicates that the company has gifted its employee. The employee can flaunt this certificate and feel a sense of loyalty for his company," says Vaitheeswaran.

Unlike other vouchers that have to be cashed in at one purchase, Fabmall's vouchers can be reused until their complete value has been realised or their validity expires. The company's clients include Infosys, Wipro, Hewlett-Packard, MindTree and some government agencies.

Vaitheeswaran says the demand for voucher-based gifting, and specifically online gifting, is rising. The voucher-based gifting market is valued at about Rs 2,000 crore and online gifting at Rs 1,000 crore. "There are at least 100 large corporates who spend about Rs 5 crore each year for gifts and about 5,000 small companies that spend about Rs 25-30 lakh," he says. Fabmall.com has sold over 2.5 lakh gift certificates so far. Jain of Kesar Gift Mall is also upbeat on online voucher-based gifting. "Though vouchers will not constitute more than 15 per cent of a store's revenues, I see online gifting boosting sales as people today want to sit at their desk and choose gifts," he says.

Most companies have received positive feedback on vouchers from their employees. "As our vouchers are redeemed for branded goods, employees feel we have rewarded them well," says Swaminathan of Perot Systems.

Most vouchers have the company name on them along with that of the stores where they could be redeemed.

This helps employees associate their purchases with the company's brand name. Some companies, such as iGATE, however, feel a gift in kind is appreciated better by employees than a cash or voucher-based gift, unless its value is significant. "A cash gift of over Rs 5,000 per annum is taxed. Also, cash vouchers lose their value once their validity is over. So we prefer to reward our employees through ESOPs (Employee Stock Options)," says U.V.G. Sekar, Senior Vice-President and Global Head HR, iGATE Global Solutions.

Indu, a software programmer, says her loyalty to the company would not be affected by voucher-based gifts. Nithya Hariharan who works for a Delhi-based company, says "I look forward to voucher based-rewards as they not only give me a choice of gifts but also foster healthy competition at the work place."

archana@thehindu.co.in

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