Are you ready to build a custom onboarding kit for your business? Our account executives will guide you step by step through the process below to help you create an incredible onboarding experience for your new employees.
(Note: Before you begin, we recommend going through the list of questions on our custom care kit page to make sure a custom kit is right for you.)
1. Choose products for your onboarding kit.
After considering your overall budget, selecting the type of items you want to include is the next essential step. This will determine the type of packaging you need and the shipping costs. (For example, if you have a smaller budget, you might want to choose items that will fit in a bubble mailer or poly bag.)
Other things to consider: Will your employees be working in an office? Remotely from home? On a job site or in a manufacturing plant? Knowing your industry and the types of jobs you are hiring for will help you determine their interests and what items might be helpful.
Here’s a look at some popular items in our onboarding kits.
Water bottles, mugs, and cups are popular items because they are useful, easy to brand, and something everyone can use regardless of their work site.
Hats are another favorite for onboarding kits. The endless options for hats make it easy to create one that fits your brand. During the winter some of our customers switch the ball cap for a beanie.
Pens are a great cost effective addition to an onboarding kit. If you don’t have a favorite pen check out our staff favorites pen blog.
Many of our clients include journals in their onboarding kits because they can fit easily into any packaging. A custom notebook also gives your employees a convenient place to keep up with notes during those critical first few weeks at their new job.
2. Include print collateral if needed.
We highly recommend adding printing collateral to your onboarding kit as a way to connect with your new employees and convey a warm welcome. Examples might include a welcome note, a gift card to your online store, a sticker, or a booklet that showcases your brand values and mission.
3. Design your branded packaging.
Custom packaging creates a great experience for your new hires, and the three most popular options include boxes, poly bags, and bubble mailers. If you are feeling creative you can also use items like backpacks, duffle bags, or drawstring bags, although we’ve found that those work best if you’re going to be handing out the new hire kits yourself vs. mailing them.
Custom Box
Boxes can be decorated with full color on the inside and the outside, or full color on the outside only. You can also feature your message on the inside lid of the box instead of additional print collateral.
If you are planning on using a box, you will most likely need a filler to ensure that your items are padded for transit. Our favorite filler is crinkle paper.
Bubble Mailer
Bubbler mailers work well if you need a budget-friendly packaging option, but want to include items that need a little extra cushion. You can now purchase bubble mailers in a variety of sizes with full color printing on one side.
Decorated Polybag
Polybags should be used for softer items like t-shirts, custom socks, koozies, etc. The bag can be fully decorated on the front to create amazing brand messaging.
4. Select your shipping method.
Shipping is another important thing to consider when putting together an onboarding kit.
Bulk Shipment
If you prefer to distribute the onboarding kits yourself, we can bulk-ship boxes for you to hand out the onboarding kit to your employees on their first day. When you start running low on kits, simply contact your account exec to place a reorder. We can also split your bulk shipment up between multiple locations if needed.
Individual Drop shipment
If you need kits to go to individual addresses, drop shipments are the best option for you. We can set up an on-demand option where your team can place orders for kits when needed.
Perhaps you’ve acquired a new company, and with it, a large number of new employees. If you provide us with a spreadsheet of names and addresses, we can ship to multiple individual addresses at once as part of a bulk onboarding process.
See your account executive for a quote on individual drop shipments.