How To Create An Employee Onboarding Kit

We all know the feeling of excitement that comes with a new job. There’s new people, new challenges, a new environment, and most importantly— new swag! Onboarding kits are now a staple for companies invested in making sure all of their new employees feel welcomed and prepared to hit the ground running from day one. Traditionally, onboarding kits are something that new employees find on their desk when they first arrive at the office. Opening them up is one of the joys of the first day. Times are changing however, and onboarding kits have to as well. It’s no longer taken for granted that employees will be in the office full time— in fact, you might not have an office at all! Onboarding kits become all the more important in cases like this where they become the only physical touchpoint with your company. In either case, we have some simple steps you can use to think through what the perfect employee onboarding kit will look like, and then how to build it! Remember that Swag.com can help you get fully custom boxes delivered to remote addresses all over the world. Whether you’re onboarding ten new employees at the office, or 100 WFH hires, we can help you get the job done. Let’s get started!

Step 1: Set your goals

Every company will have a slightly different set of goals when it comes to building an onboarding kit for their new hires. For example, you might have a team working full time in the office— and your goal is simply to give them things that will excite them about your brand. You could also be sending these boxes to remote employees working from home offices, in which case you should include all the items they need to set up their space to work.  Here are some of the common goals our customers have when building new hire kits:

Equip their employees for day one work, no matter what that looks like Build excitement and company pride Send a heartfelt welcome message Tell the story of your company

You may have more goals than this, or only one of them. The important thing is to keep them at the front of your mind as you go through the rest of the building process. Choosing the right products and finishing touches will be so much easier if you have overarching goals to guide you! 

Step 2: Choose the right items

Now comes the fun part! There’s no hard formula for what exactly belongs in an onboarding kit. But with the knowledge you gained in step one, you should have some idea of what might get the job done for you!  With that being said, there are a few common categories that our customers turn to time and time again when building onboarding kits. We’ll go over them, and hopefully something will spark some inspiration for you.  Apparel Clothing that can show off your branding is a surefire way to get people excited about working for your company. Standard onboarding kits usually include a t-shirt, hoodie, hat or some other combination of fun items your new hires can wear with pride.

Desk and office supplies Outfitting your new hires with the things they need to be successful on day one is a crucial component of the onboarding kit. Including items that will help them stay organized is a great way to set them up for success!

Moleskine Ruled Hardcover Notebook Jotter Pen Pop Pen Cup

WFH supplies If your employees are going to be WFH most of the time, you should think about gifting them some custom items they can use to make their home office more comfortable and productive.