{"id":989107,"date":"2023-05-22T12:25:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-22T10:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/promopack.es\/employee-welcome-kit\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T14:47:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T13:47:18","slug":"employee-welcome-kit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/employee-welcome-kit\/","title":{"rendered":"Employee welcome kit: what to include and how to budget for it"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"vgblk-rw-wrapper limit-wrapper\">\n<p>An employee welcome kit is a welcome pack the company gives every new hire on their first day. It usually includes the custom box or carton, a welcome letter, basic work materials and two or three branded items people will really use. To budget for it, separate three items: packaging, contents, and assembly or logistics.<\/p>\n<h2>What is a welcome kit, and what is it really for?<\/h2>\n<p>A welcome kit isn&#8217;t a gift. It&#8217;s the first physical evidence of how the company works. If the box arrives well printed, with everything neatly arranged and a note with the person&#8217;s name, the message is clear: we care about the details here. If a plastic bag arrives with a loose pen and notebook, the message is clear too.<\/p>\n<p>Companies that do it well use it for three things: reducing first-day uncertainty, explaining the culture without a PowerPoint and getting the person to share it on social media. That last point isn&#8217;t minor. A photo of the kit on LinkedIn reaches hundreds of contacts in the industry, many of them future candidates.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s why the packaging matters as much as the contents. A <a href=\"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/products\/custom-cardboard-boxes\/\">custom printed cardboard box<\/a> with the logo and an inside message costs little more than a plain box and completely changes how the whole thing is perceived.<\/p>\n<h2>What to include in an employee welcome kit<\/h2>\n<p>The temptation is to put in everything. The usual mistake is filling the box with items that end up in a drawer. Our recommendation: a few pieces that are useful and consistent with the work the person will do.<\/p>\n<h3>The essentials<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A welcome letter<\/strong>, signed by the direct manager or by leadership. Better printed than photocopied. If it can include the person&#8217;s name, even better.<\/li>\n<li><strong>A quick guide<\/strong> to the company: who&#8217;s who, hours, tools, who to ask. A booklet of a few pages is enough.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Work materials<\/strong> they&#8217;ll use from day one: notebook, pen, access card, laptop stickers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>One branded item they&#8217;ll really use<\/strong>: bottle, mug, sweatshirt, backpack. One good one is worth more than five mediocre ones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What earns extra points<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Something edible, locally produced or related to the company.<\/li>\n<li>A personalized detail for the role: an adapter for someone who travels, headphones for someone who takes calls.<\/li>\n<li>An inside message printed on the box lid. It&#8217;s the first sentence the person reads on opening.<\/li>\n<li>A specific invitation: coffee with the team on Thursday, a welcome lunch on Friday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>What to avoid<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Generic plastic items unrelated to the brand.<\/li>\n<li>Clothing sizes without asking first.<\/li>\n<li>Loose paper that gets crumpled inside the box.<\/li>\n<li>Too much fill: the box should fit the contents, not the other way round.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How to choose the welcome kit packaging<\/h2>\n<p>The contents decide the box format, not the other way round. Before asking for a quote, lay out everything you&#8217;ll include on a table and measure it. With that, you can talk to the printer about dimensions, materials and finishes.<\/p>\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Format<\/th>\n<th>When it fits<\/th>\n<th>What to bear in mind<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Self-assembly micro-flute cardboard box<\/td>\n<td>Kits with several medium-weight items, home delivery<\/td>\n<td>Sturdy, affordable on medium runs, optional inside printing<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Folding carton<\/td>\n<td>Light kits: stationery, cards, small items<\/td>\n<td>Good print finish, less resistant in transit<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Rigid box with lid<\/td>\n<td>Senior roles, key hires, premium brands<\/td>\n<td>Higher unit cost, gift feel, gets reused<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Paper bag with handles<\/td>\n<td>Handed over on the first day, tight budget<\/td>\n<td>Quick to assemble, little protection, less of a surprise<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>For most companies, a self-assembly box with one- or two-ink outside printing and an inside message is the sweet spot. If the kit is couriered to remote staff, add a die-cut insert or a cardboard tray so nothing moves.<\/p>\n<p>If you want to see how your design looks before printing the whole run, order a physical sample. On <a href=\"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/samples\/\">the samples page<\/a> we explain how it works.<\/p>\n<h2>How to budget a welcome kit step by step<\/h2>\n<p>A welcome kit budget has three blocks. Separating them avoids the most common confusion: comparing the cost of a box with the cost of the full kit.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Packaging<\/strong>: box or carton, insert, tissue paper, closure label. It depends on size, material, number of inks, finishes and, above all, the print run. Ordering 50 boxes four times a year costs considerably more per unit than ordering 200 once.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Contents<\/strong>: each item has its own supplier, minimum and lead time. Group orders to reduce minimums and shipping costs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Assembly and logistics<\/strong>: someone has to put things in the box, close it and deliver it. It can be HR, a fulfilment service or the kit supplier itself. It&#8217;s the cost most often forgotten.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>A useful trick: calculate the cost per new hire, not the total order cost. Leadership understands &#8220;each welcome costs X&#8221; better than &#8220;we&#8217;ve spent Y on boxes&#8221;.<\/p>\n<h3>What pushes up the packaging price<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Large boxes with little inside: you pay for board and for shipping air.<\/li>\n<li>Full-colour printing inside and out when one ink outside and an inside message work just as well.<\/li>\n<li>Special finishes (foil stamping, spot varnish, embossing) on small runs, where fixed costs weigh heavily.<\/li>\n<li>Orders split across the year instead of one annual run with storage.<\/li>\n<li>Design changes after every order: each new artwork may mean new machine set-up.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Common mistakes when ordering welcome kits<\/h2>\n<p>After seeing many welcome kits, these are the mistakes that come up most:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Designing the box before finalizing the contents.<\/strong> Then things don&#8217;t fit or there&#8217;s spare space and the cutting die has to be redone.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Not planning for remote delivery.<\/strong> A box designed to be handed over in person gets dented by couriers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Forgetting stock.<\/strong> If you hire every month, you need boxes in storage and a system to restock them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Comparing quotes on different terms.<\/strong> Same board, same paper weight, same inks, same finishes and same print run. Otherwise you&#8217;re comparing different products.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Accepting the first quote from your usual printer.<\/strong> A welcome kit is a recurring order; a small saving per unit multiplies every year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you want more ideas for kits and formats for teams, our <a href=\"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/packaging-by-industry\/corporate-gifts\/\">corporate gifts<\/a> section covers the most common cases.<\/p>\n<p>If you already have a quote from your printer for welcome kit boxes, upload it on <a href=\"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/quote\/\">our quote page<\/a>. We review it at the same quality, materials, finishes and print run, and within 48 business hours we tell you how much you can save. If we can&#8217;t improve it, we tell you anyway and you pay nothing.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>How many welcome kits should I order at once?<\/h3>\n<p>It depends on how often you hire. The usual approach is to estimate planned hires for twelve months and add a 10 or 15% margin for the unexpected. A single annual run usually lowers the unit cost considerably compared with small quarterly orders.<\/p>\n<h3>Is a rigid box or a self-assembly box better for a welcome kit?<\/h3>\n<p>For most roles, a self-assembly micro-flute box offers the best balance of image, strength and cost. A rigid box makes sense for key hires or brands with a premium positioning, where the kit gets kept and reused.<\/p>\n<h3>Can the welcome kit be personalized with each person&#8217;s name?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes, but you don&#8217;t need to print every box differently. The most practical approach is a standard box with a personalized letter, label or insert card. That way you keep a single packaging run and add the personal touch during assembly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .vgblk-rw-wrapper --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A practical guide to putting together a welcome kit for new employees: contents, box format and how to work out the budget.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":989272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-989107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gifts-and-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989107"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989107\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":989108,"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989107\/revisions\/989108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/promopack.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}