A new hire welcome kit is a branded box of merch sent to a new employee around their start date to make them feel welcome. The best kits follow a holy trinity: something to wear, something to use, and something for the desk, with a quality hoodie as the hero. Budget €50 to €100 per box, send it inside a two-week window around day one, and automate fulfilment so remote and international hires are never forgotten. Done well, it is the cheapest way to make a great first impression.
This guide is for companies building branded onboarding gift kits for employees, not HR paperwork or new-hire reporting. We will cover what to include, why a hoodie earns the hero spot, what a kit should cost, when to send it, how to automate the whole program, and what actually breaks when you ship across borders. The aim is a kit a new hire genuinely loves, delivered without your team packing a single box.
Why welcome kits matter more than HR thinks
Most HR teams appreciate welcome kits but underestimate their emotional value, which is exactly why the kit is the first thing cut when budgets tighten. That is a mistake. Receiving a branded box at home, or finding one on the desk on day one, makes a new hire genuinely feel welcome. The company was not obligated to do it, so it signals intent. It makes someone feel part of a team and part of a community before they have done a day of work.
The numbers around onboarding make the case. Only around 12% of employees say their company does a great job of onboarding, so the bar to stand out is low. And the payoff is real: great onboarding is linked to roughly 82% higher retention and 70% higher productivity, and employees with a great onboarding experience are far more likely to stay three years or more. Meanwhile about one in three new hires leave within the first 90 days, and many decide whether the job fits within the first week. A welcome kit is one of the cheapest ways to get that first week right.
What separates a great kit from logo junk
A welcome kit a new hire loves has one thing in common: it is actually a welcome kit, not a handful of leftover items someone found in a cupboard. Three rules separate the great kits from the logo junk:
- It is purpose-built. Designed, produced and product-selected specifically for this welcome kit. Not random stock with a logo on it.
- It says welcome. Welcome branding, a welcome note, merch that actually signals the person is joining something. The message is the point.
- It is consistent. Everybody feels welcome in the same way. Not one person getting this and another getting that. Same kit for everyone.
That last rule is the one teams get wrong, and it matters more than it sounds. We have seen every type of gifting campaign, and welcome kits are extremely sensitive. One customer told us a missing welcome kit was more sensitive than a payslip error. If one employee gets a kit and another does not, that is a genuinely difficult situation. The consistency of welcome kits is as important as the consistency of payslips. Build the program so nobody is ever missed.
What to include in a welcome kit
The best kits follow a simple structure, the holy trinity: something to wear, something to use, and something for the desk. Then one item that is unique to your company to make it memorable.
| Category | Items | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| Something to wear | A hoodie and a t-shirt as staples; sometimes a cap or socks | The hero of the box. Apparel has the highest recall and the longest life of any merch. |
| Something to carry | A laptop sleeve, a backpack or a roll-top backpack | Useful from day one, and it travels with your brand. |
| Something for the desk | A webcam cover, pen, notebook, water bottle or coffee mug | Daily-use items that keep the brand in view on every video call. |
| Something unique | A company mascot, a teddy bear, a signature item | The differentiator people remember and photograph. |
One item to watch: the water bottle. Everybody has a lot of them now, so it is becoming a bit overrated. If you have refill points in the office and it is part of the culture, add it; otherwise spend that budget on the items people will actually carry.
A Productsup welcome kit. Something to wear, something to carry, something for the desk, and one unique touch.
Why a hoodie is the kit hero
If you put one item at the centre of the box, make it a branded hoodie. It is genuinely the number-one piece for a welcome kit, not just convenient to recommend. It is heavy, people can hold it, and a nicely embroidered logo is tactile in a way no flat print is. It feels like a warm hug from the company someone is joining. Apparel also has the highest brand recall and the longest lifespan of any swag, so the hero item keeps earning impressions long after day one.
Get the hoodie right and the whole kit lifts. That means the right weight, a double-layered hood, a brushed inner and embroidery, the details that separate a premium hoodie from a giveaway. Preview one in your colours with the free hoodie mockup generator, or browse the custom hoodies range.
The hoodie is the hero. Heavy, tactile, embroidered, the piece a new hire keeps wearing.
What a welcome kit should cost
A fair, good-but-not-wasteful range is €50 to €100 per box. Here is roughly what each tier buys:
| Per-head budget | What it gets |
|---|---|
| ~€50 | A t-shirt, a backpack and a few extras. A solid, complete kit. |
| ~€75 | Adds a quality hoodie as the hero item. |
| ~€100 | Room for special, unique items that make the box memorable. |
Two levers bring the unit cost down. Higher volume gets you better pricing. And you can reuse some kit items for other use cases, like events, which increases volume and lowers the per-piece cost. Put the spend in perspective: at €50 to €100 a box, 100 hires is only €5,000 to €10,000, tiny next to a salary or a recruitment fee.
When to send it
As close to the start date as possible, and never weeks after. The rule of thumb is a two-week window: from the week before they start to the week after.
- Pre-boarding. Arriving a week before day one is a lovely touch and builds anticipation.
- Day one or two. For office-based hires, leave it on the desk so it is the first thing they see.
- A little later for remote hires. Fine, as long as they know it is coming. A redeem page with track-and-trace means they never feel forgotten.
The point is to show intent inside that two-week window so the new hire knows a welcome kit is on its way. Miss the window and the gesture loses most of its meaning.
How to automate new hire kits
This is the real differentiator, and the part most programs get stuck on. Remembering each new hire, collecting their size and address, shipping the box and following up is a side task for an HR team. It is important for the welcome moment but it is not core business, so at any kind of scale it quietly stops happening. The fix is to automate it completely. Here is how Sunday does it end to end:
- Design, produce and stock. Sunday designs and produces your box and the items inside it, then holds them in stock for you.
- Build a premade package. You bundle the items into a pre-made package in the platform and see live stock of that package at any time.
- Create a redeem campaign. Add the package to an onboarding campaign with visual effects and rules. The system generates a redeem link that acts as your landing page.
- The new hire self-serves. On that page they pick their size, choose the package and any variants, enter their home or office address, and claim it. It ships automatically.
- Drop the link into your HRIS. Paste the redeem link into your existing automated comms in Personio, HiBob, Workday or similar. The welcome email just adds a line: claim your welcome kit here. Then it runs fully automatically.
Economics make outsourcing close to free. You save on shipping with better rates than doing it yourself, and the product price is the same whether you pack in-house or not. The rule of thumb: outsource the moment you are sending around 10 packages or 10 hires a month.
Welcome kit for remote employees
Remote hires are the ones most likely to be forgotten, precisely because they are not physically in the office to remind anyone. The HRIS-triggered automation above is what stops them slipping through. Two things make a remote welcome kit work:
- The recipient confirms their own address. The delivery address often is not where someone actually lives. The redeem link gets it straight from them, so the box goes to the right door.
- They know it is coming. The redeem page plus track-and-trace means a remote hire never wonders whether they were left out. Even if the box arrives a little after day one, the intent is clear.
Receiving the box at home is what makes a remote employee feel part of a team and part of a community. It is in the name: it really does make someone feel welcome, even when they work from another city or country.
Welcome kits for international teams
One country is easy. Global is another story, and it is where DIY programs die. Here is what actually breaks when you try to ship welcome kits across borders, and how Sunday solves each one:
| What breaks | The fix |
|---|---|
| Remote hires get forgotten | HRIS-triggered automation means every new hire is included automatically. |
| The address is wrong | The recipient confirms their own address on the redeem page before anything ships. |
| International shipping is complex and manual | Customs documentation and couriers are handled for you, so it does not fall to someone at the front desk. |
| Mistakes cascade | A wrong customs file means endless loops with authorities and a new hire who never gets their kit. Getting it right the first time avoids the complaint. |
| Customs duties surprise the recipient | Sunday ships DAP and pre-finances the duties, so the new hire is never asked to pay to receive a gift. |
That last point deserves emphasis. If you ship internationally yourself, your new hire can get an email or a courier at the door demanding €10, €25 or €70 in duties to accept a package from their new employer. It is a terrible first impression. Sunday always ships DAP, Delivered At Place, and pre-finances the duties, so the recipient is never confronted with a bill. Doing this in-house is challenging, error-prone and frustrating for everyone, the new hires and the team stuck managing it. Deel is a great example of a company that runs this well at global scale.
A KLM box. International onboarding works when stock, customs and DAP shipping are handled for you.
The new hire welcome box and unboxing
Presentation is not optional polish. A nice box, branded silk or tissue paper, rounded and on-brand, plus a personalized note, turns delivery into an experience. It also drives the moment that matters most for your employer brand: people photograph a good unboxing and share it. At least one in five new hires will post about a welcome kit on social media, which is word-of-mouth and employer branding you cannot buy.
On personalization, keep it simple. Always include a personalized card in the box; you do not need to personalize every item. The size is already picked by the recipient through the redeem page, so the touch that matters is a note that says this package is specifically for you. Sunday can add the personalized message for you.
The unboxing moment. Branded paper and a personal note turn a delivery into shareable content.
Employee welcome kit checklist
A quick checklist to get a program right from the start:
- Purpose-built kit, designed specifically to say welcome, not leftover stock.
- The holy trinity: something to wear, something to carry, something for the desk, plus one unique item.
- A quality hoodie as the hero, with the right weight and embroidery.
- A budget of €50 to €100 per head, with volume and item-reuse bringing the unit cost down.
- Delivery inside the two-week window around the start date.
- A personalized card in every box; size confirmed by the recipient.
- Full automation via a redeem link in your HRIS, so nobody is ever missed.
- DAP shipping with pre-financed duties for international hires.
- Consistency above all: the same kit for everyone.
How Sunday delivers
Sunday is merch infrastructure, not a supplier. We design and produce your kit, hold it in stock, and turn it into a self-serve redeem campaign that drops straight into the HR tools you already use. The new hire picks their size, confirms their address, and the box ships automatically, anywhere in the world, DAP with duties pre-financed. No integration build, no manual packing, no forgotten hires. Merch, in your brand, live in 30 seconds. That is how brands like Twilio, Productsup, KLM and Deel run their onboarding. To convince a team spending nothing today: just do it. Fully automated, it takes near-zero work, it costs a fraction of a recruitment fee, and people walk around in your merch feeling part of the community. Explore the platform, see how it works, or browse the full catalog.
Automate your welcome kits
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Build this campaignNew hire welcome kits: questions answered
What should you include in a new hire welcome kit?
Follow the holy trinity: something to wear, something to use, and something for the desk. A quality hoodie and a t-shirt as wearables, a backpack or laptop sleeve to carry, and desk items like a notebook, pen, webcam cover or mug. Add one item unique to your company, and always include a personalized welcome note. A hoodie is the natural hero of the box.
How much should a welcome kit cost per head?
Aim for €50 to €100 per box. Around €50 gets a t-shirt, a backpack and a few extras; around €75 adds a quality hoodie; around €100 leaves room for special, unique items. Higher volume and reusing items across other use cases bring the unit cost down. At 100 hires, that is only €5,000 to €10,000 in total.
When should you send a welcome kit?
As close to the start date as possible, inside a two-week window from the week before they start to the week after. Pre-boarding is a nice touch, day one is ideal for office-based hires, and a little later is fine for remote hires as long as they know it is coming. Never send it weeks after they join.
How do you automate new hire welcome kits?
Sunday stocks your kit, you build a premade package, then create a redeem campaign that generates a self-serve link. The new hire picks their size, confirms their address and claims the kit, which ships automatically. You paste that redeem link into your HRIS welcome email in Personio, HiBob or Workday, and the whole program runs without manual packing.
How do you send welcome kits to remote and international employees?
Trigger fulfilment from your HRIS so remote hires are never forgotten, and let the recipient confirm their own address on the redeem page so the box reaches the right door. For international hires, Sunday handles customs documentation and ships DAP with duties pre-financed, so the new hire is never asked to pay to receive their gift.
Is a hoodie a good welcome kit item?
Yes, it is the best hero item for a welcome kit. It is heavy and tactile, a nicely embroidered logo feels premium, and apparel has the highest recall and longest life of any merch. A quality hoodie feels like a warm hug from the company someone is joining, which is exactly the first impression you want.
Do welcome kits actually improve onboarding?
They help close a real gap. Only about 12% of employees say their company onboards well, while strong onboarding is linked to far higher retention and productivity. A welcome kit makes a new hire feel part of the team from day one, including remote hires, and at least one in five will share it on social media.
Should every item in the kit be personalized?
No. The size is already chosen by the recipient through the redeem page, so the touch that matters is a personalized note saying the package is specifically for them. You do not need to personalize every item; a card in every box is enough, and Sunday can add the message for you.
When should you outsource welcome kit fulfilment?
A good rule of thumb is the moment you are sending around 10 packages or 10 hires a month. The product price is the same whether you pack in-house or outsource, and you save on shipping rates, so outsourcing is effectively free or cheaper while removing all the manual work and the risk of forgetting someone.
