How to create the perfect personalised gift for any type of co-worker
Coworkers are a bit like relatives: you can't pick them, but sometimes you get lucky.
When coworkers become friends, it’s all the more sad when they leave. You want to get them a gift, but traditional corporate gifting is all a bit uninspiring.
The truth is, chocolates and champagne aren’t for everyone. And even for those happy to receive alcohol or snacks, it can feel a little old-hat to present a long-serving and much loved colleague with a supermarket bottle of bubbly.
Letting them know you’ll remember them and their efforts takes something a bit more special. Something personal and heartfelt that they can keep hold of forever (instead of polishing off in a day).
Enter Memory Books. Photo-books and life stories are perfect for anyone - totally unique and customisable ways to show your appreciation and celebrate your happy memories.
Here are some gift ideas for every different type of coworker, whether they’re leaving for another job, retiring, or setting off on an exciting move or adventure.
1) The respected colleague: The mother or father of the team that everyone turns to. Let's call her Jenny.
Recommend gift: Life stories book
You could include a summary of Jenny's career history, facts about the company, or even have a bit of fun and include a pretend appraisal singing her praises in her own life-story leaving book. Get all your colleagues to send you their photos (or a photo of them with Jenny), stories of when they first met Jenny, what they respect most about her, and what they think she will be doing in 5 years time. This one is bound to get some laughs, and maybe some tears too!
2) The 'young and free' colleague: The 'young-un' who can party on a school night and is the glue that brings the team together. Let's call him Hazza.
Recommend gift: Photobook
Create your life-of-the-party colleague a personalised photobook containing shots of the company sports day, the time he won the office bake-off, or snaps of the whole team having a ball at the Christmas do. Get your colleagues to send you any photos they have of Hazza (the more outrageous the better), a fun photo of themselves (suggest fancy dress or funny face or at the Christmas party), their farewell message for Hazza, and their funniest memory of him.
3) The über cool colleague: Latest undiscovered music artist? They know it. Ridiculous outfits? They have them a-plenty.... however, they somehow pull them off? Let's call her Sara.
Recommend gift: In-joke gift book
If they have a sense of humour, have a giggle with their coolness. Whether you reference their next-level crush on Boris Jonson or their questionable obsession with bringing Crocs back (yes, this is a movement!), get them to shake their suave demeanour and have a giggle with an in-joke photo album. Have all of your colleagues send you a photo of themselves, any photos they have of Sara, their favourite joke along with the stories of all the laughs and private jokes that made your time together hilarious.
4) For the food-lover colleague: When they bring in homemade sweet treats: win! When they bring in last night’s leftover fish dinner and have no qualms eating at their desk: definitely *not* a win. Let’s call him Phil.
Recommended gift: Recipe Book
Phil’s the type of guy who loves anything to do with cooking or baking. If he’s not watching Great British Bake Off or Masterchef, he’s spending his free time creating new culinary inventions in the kitchen. He’s even considering setting up his own TikTok channel to share his passion for food, but ever since this disclosure, the poor guy’s had jokes of ‘he’s leaving to become an influencer’. If this sounds like your colleague, you and the team could rally around to share your favourite recipes in a team Recipe Book.
Have a laugh with the range of dishes that come forward: from Gary from Accounts’ impressive 8-hour BBQ pulled pork recipe, to the graduate Esme’s ‘spicy baked beans on toast’, the eclectic mix will surely raise a smile… and possibly even help him create a viral TikTok video.
If you’re short on photos, or simply think gifting a ready-made photobook isn’t quite right for your departing coworker (but you know they’d still love one anyway!) you might consider a gift card instead. That way, they can turn their favourite memories into a printed book to cherish for years to come.
5) So, for your parent colleagues…
Recommend gift: Family yearbook
Perfect for the mums and dads whose time at work is actually time off! They appreciate the adult conversations but are also probably tinged with guilt as they manage their work/home life juggling act. These are the ones who can’t stay a minute past their clocking off time - there are kids to collect!
Give them a gift card so they can spend quality time putting together a beautiful family album or yearbook, complete with dates, memories, pics, and quotes . . . or if they really are the perfect parent they can make it together with the kids.
6) For the colleague who loves to travel...
Recommend gift: Travel book
Goodbye house deposit, hello world's my oyster. You know the type: all their money gets poured into travelling, they’re constantly Googling discount flights, they’re VIPs on AirBnB, and they're probably already planning their next year off around South America (post-pandemic, of course!).
It’s no fun having all your travel memories stuck on your phone. We’re all terrible at making the time to put photo albums together, especially those of us who are always jetting off on their next trip. If your coworker is one of these people, a gift card for a travel book can be an amazing way to make documenting their journeys easy.
7) And finally, for the animal-loving colleague...
Recommend gift: Pet book
Whether it's a dog, a cat, or a whole menagerie, people *love* their pets.
Pet books are a way to celebrate that love. Give them a gift card to compile their favourite snaps of their furry friends. You can’t go wrong with a fun and heartwarming gift that celebrates their favourite thing.
Head on over to Memory Books now to discover how to quickly and easily create the gift of a lifetime. It’ll be your favourite way you’ve ever said farewell.