Thoughtful gifting

Seven years ago, Kadonation was created to make gift giving to friends, family and colleagues easier. Today, the company is well established for individuals and, with the launch of Kadonation Select in 2020, for businesses too. Kadonation Select is an intuitive platform that, as a blueprint, makes you compliant with your thoughtful gift policy in just a few clicks. You simply link your staff file to the tool, decide which occasions you want to provide a gift for and, if you wish, you can also set the amount you want to spend.

Media company GroupM has been using Kadonation Select since January 2023. Mandy Stoop, HR & Recruitment specialist at the company, tells us more.

Done with chaos

Three years ago, GroupM consisted of different entities, each with its own gift policy. When the entities started working more closely together, it soon became clear that there was a need for harmonisation, and this was addressed in 2023. All internal processes were streamlined and the gift policy was also reviewed.

For us, this harmonisation was the perfect opportunity to clarify the moments that matter to our 1,000 employees. Both personally and professionally. Not an easy task, but much needed to foster better cooperation across entities, and that’s how Kadonation Select came into the picture.

Memorable moments

Anniversaries, weddings and retirement celebrations. They are all what we at GroupM call ‘moments that matter’. We have specifically chosen to omit traditional holidays such as Christmas and Easter and pursue a modern gift policy to promote inclusion.

For each moment, Kadonation Select sets a maximum amount that team managers are free to spend on a suitable gift for their team members. In this way, not only do we lighten the load on the HR department that used to be responsible for implementing the gift policy, but we also make the gifts a lot more personal. After all, the manager knows his or her team best.

By defining all these moments in concrete terms, discrimination is ruled out and we avoid friction between our employees over the gifts they receive throughout their careers. Moreover, a specific gift policy creates clarity for managers. Of course, in addition to the list of moments that matter, there is also room for ad hoc initiatives when someone wants to make an additional gesture of appreciation to a colleague.

Transforming the flow

Today, the whole process from selecting a gift to invoicing is much more efficient, thanks to Kadonation. All employees are on the Kadonation Select platform, so the HR department does not have to share personal details with the team manager.

In addition, the platform allows us to automate a number of things. For example, by setting up simple workflows, our employees automatically receive gifts for their birthdays, which saves us a lot of time.

Furthermore, Kadonation Select is linked to AFAS, our HR system that makes it easy for us to keep track of our tasks. Suppose an employee is sick for more than two weeks, his or her manager gets a pop-up in AFAS to go to Kadonation Select and order a gift.

In short, with Kadonation Select we have a powerful tool in-house to automate, streamline and at the same time keep our gift policy flexible. In this way, we can improve our employees’ satisfaction, promote their well-being, and strengthen our position in the labour market.