Unique and Thoughtful Retirement Gift Ideas

Commemorating an Illustrious Career

First, understand Employee Lifetime Value, or ELTV. If you have an employee putting in 40 hours a week for 30 years, and the average value of the work they produce is about $40 per hour after you subtract the costs of their acquisition and maintenance, then they make $2,496,000 for your company. They could be worth much more to you, if they’re specialized.

Now that’s the value they bring to the table, and it’s a minimum value. If an employee isn’t bringing more value than they extract, then you’re running personnel wrong. In that event, it will be less likely you retain long-term employees. The truth is, the better you run a company, the greater rates of retention tend to be.

So if you’re doing well, a lot of that will have to do with your staff. Accordingly, they deserve to be recognized. It can be hard to determine the best way to recognize them, though. Follow this link for some further options if you’re trying to find the perfect gift for ending a career. We’ll explore a few suggestions in this writing beyond those of the link to help inspire you.

1. Permanently Recognize Them

Maybe name an entire wing of your new facility after a retiring employee, or give them a huge mural on a wall somewhere. Perhaps put their picture up as an everlasting testament to quality work for other employees to emulate. However, you do it, when you choose to recognize them, do so in front of the whole company, and make a big deal out of it.

2. Throw an Appreciation Party

Recognizing an employee will almost necessitate some sort of event, to begin with; you might as well lean into that. If an employee has been working with your company for 30 years, you can afford to suspend production for a Friday and have a party to recognize them with everyone on staff.

Well; maybe. Some businesses may not be able to do that, but you get the idea: it is worthwhile to spend a little money on someone who has given their life to your company.

3. Offer a Portion of Company Stock, if Feasible

Company stock is very attractive to many employees and retirees. Some employees will be with your company from the time it starts as a small storefront until it becomes a nationwide regional chain. Well, an individual like that probably ought to be given a little company stock; especially if the company is doing well.

4. Give Them Unused Sick or Vacation Days as a Monetary Gift

Almost all employees accrue unused vacation days or sick days. Each of those “days” has a monetary value. You might award that to the retiring employee as an exit bonus; you’ve already budgeted for it.

Celebrating the Life of Your Employed “Partner”

Employees are really like partners, especially if they work for you for a long time. Commemorate them accordingly. Recognition, retiree parties, awarding unused company perks in monetary form, and company stock gifts are all fine retirement gifts for employees you appreciate.