How Employee Swag Stores Help Build Good Company Culture

Employee retention strategies are more important than ever – especially for companies in the healthcare, technology, and retail industries seeking to reduce employee turnover during the Great Resignation. According to research recently published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR), resignation rates between 2020 and 2021 were highest among mid-career employees in the 30-45 age group.

With more employers now offering remote work opportunities, an increased demand for mid-career workers may be partially responsible for this trend. According to Ian Cook of HBR: “…it’s possible that the shift to remote work has led employers to feel that hiring people with little experience would be riskier than usual, since new employees won’t have the benefit of in-person training and guidance. This would create greater demand for mid-career employees, thus giving them greater leverage in securing new positions.” To increase employee retention during the Great Resignation, Cook suggests creating data-driven customized employee retention programs to address the key factors driving turnover in your organization.

Importance of Good Company Culture

Talent drain is often attributed to inadequate opportunities for advancement/upward mobility, toxic corporate culture, lack of job flexibility in the workplace, poor work/life balance, and inadequate compensation. While pay raises, promotions, and better benefits go a long way towards keeping your staff happy, good company culture and high employee engagement also help attract and retain staff with in-demand skills, such as technology and healthcare professionals. Millennials are especially likely to cite non-financial factors such as passion, purpose, company reputation, and company mission as key to job satisfaction. In fact, back in 2018, 86% of surveyed Millennials said they “would consider taking a pay cut to work at a company whose mission and values align with their own,” according to research from LinkedIn shared with CNBC Make It.

Employee Swag Stores for Good Company Culture

Good company culture is crucial to employee engagement, motivation, and retention – regardless of generational differences in the workplace. According to LinkedIn: “Cultivating an environment where all employees feel like they belong is the secret weapon for retention. The number one factor keeping today’s professionals at their jobs for more than five years is having coworkers they enjoy working with and who they can be themselves around.” That’s why employee experience management is so important for companies seeking to improve employee retention. Starting with recruitment and onboarding, ensuring your employees feel connected to your company’s culture helps build social cohesion which contributes to employee engagement. Both productivity and employee retention are positively influenced by high employee engagement.

Building an effective employee experience strategy requires a strong company culture that workers find engaging and intrinsically rewarding. Employee experience is influenced by everything from user-friendly software to diversity, equity and inclusion programs to workplace perks such as gym memberships or free meals.

Company Swag Reinforces Company Culture

Company swag is a popular workplace perk that helps build team identity and reinforce company culture, in addition to boosting employee morale, motivation, and engagement. Some examples of how swag is used by companies in various industries to promote team-first company culture and improve employee engagement include:


Technology corporations like Twitter and LinkedIn distribute swag bags to welcome new employees during the onboarding process. In fact, promotional products are often used throughout the talent acquisition process to recruit high-value candidates in competitive industries.


Branded jackets, t-shirts, and hats are frequently handed out at corporate retreats and workplace events to help with employee brand engagement and team building. Bags, drinkware, notebooks, and tech products like power banks and wireless speakers are other popular swag items for employees.


Non-cash rewards like promotional products are some of the most effective incentives for employee motivation. According to recent research from the Incentive Research Foundation, 50% of employees at top performing U.S. companies in the technology, financial services, and manufacturing/automotive industries expected to earn non-cash rewards (such as company swag, event tickets, travel vouchers, and gift cards) in 2020, compared to just 39% of employees at average-performing firms.


Employee Swag Stores Provide Choices

Top performing companies are also more likely to allow their employees to choose their own rewards and incentives. Employee swag stores make it easy to incorporate flexibility into your employee incentive programs. An employee swag store is a branded merchandise management platform that automates the process of selecting, storing, packing, and shipping branded apparel, accessories, office supplies, tech products, and other items. An employee swag store is the most streamlined, cost-effective way to source and manage all the promotional products needed to support employee engagement throughout the employee lifecycle.

BrandHub Employee Swag Stores Build Good Company Culture

Poor company culture is one of the top reasons why employees leave jobs. Great company culture significantly reduces employee turnover. An employee swag store can help your organization build a dynamic, positive company culture and improve employee retention by increasing employee engagement. To learn more, click here for a detailed guide to our BrandHub technology or fill out the form below for a free consultation.