New Year, New You, New Team?

Leaving presents for work colleagues

It’s the New Year and with it comes the usual raft of resolutions - the things you are determined to do or achieve this year.

This is usually accompanied by a renewed focus on a fitness regime and healthy eating plan which you will either stick to, or not, for the whole year, a month or two, or it’ll be out of the window in time for payday pizza!

Regardless of your own plight, there is something else you need to be aware of…the new year is the peak time for job boards - people deciding that with the new year should come a new job. Be it that they can’t face another year in their current role or they just want a change, what it does mean is that pretty soon you will have a leaving colleague to buy a present for!

You might be a team leader, line manager, the office administrator, in HR or simply the person that ends up getting lumbered with this task. One thing is for certain - it’s a burden, and for whatever reason that burden is yours. Well, I’m pleased to say that Collctiv is here to take all of those woes away, so that the only dread you’ll have when you get the email telling you they’re leaving is centred around who will replace them! Download Collctiv and start collecting money today.

How do I make a pool for a leaving colleague?

Before I tell you more about how Collctiv provides the solution, let’s talk about the current ways that exist for you to sort our a leaving gift for a work colleague.

The first option - bank transfer;

Pros - the money goes straight into your account. Send one email or Whatsapp with your details and you are done

Cons - Yes, you only need to send one email, but then you have to chase and chase for people to actually pay. Why? Well, cast your mind back to the last time you added a recipient to your online bank account. You have to log in, get to the right screen, flick back and forth from your banking app to where the bank details are, then if you don’t do this quick enough you will get logged out, or the bank needs to send you a one-time only password…..yeah, it’s a faff, and a faff that people will mostly avoid, delay or just not do at all.

Do I need to mention the risks involved in sending your name, sort code and account number out across your company to be opened anywhere and to stay on the server forever?

The second option - the brown envelope;

Pros - erm. It’s brown. And most envelopes have a self adhesive strip now so you don’t have to lick them to activate the stickiness, so none of that weird taste.

Cons - are you sitting comfortably? No-one carries cash anymore. Very few businesses are operating 100% in the office so the chances of seeing everyone are slim. The envelope ends up in random drawers or under keyboards, goes missing or ends up on the person who is leaving’s desk. You’ll get whatever is in people’s pockets, not necessarily what they want to give. You’ll be left with cash, which you then have to take to a bank (do they still exist?), cash it in to then buy the gift (or of course you can count out all the slummy at the checkout as you pay…everyone behind you in the queue will love that!)

The third option - PayPal

We know that PayPal money pools is gone, (read more about this in our blog here), so we’re talking about standard PayPal

Pros - global brand, well-trusted for handling everyone else’s money, easy transfer if both you and the contributor have PayPal. No sharing of bank details needed.

Cons - both of you need a PayPal account. If the person paying in doesn’t have one, there’s a lot they need to go through to get one.

Each payment just hits your PayPal account so you end up having to be an administrative whizz with numerous spreadsheets logging who has paid what and when.

There is no transparency - unless you want everyone seeing your PayPal history, you’ve no way of sharing the current situation with everyone in the group.

Fees. Substantial and mandatory ones.

The fourth option - Collctiv!

Pros - super easy to set up as the organiser - within a minute and without cost you have downloaded the app, shared the link and are ready to receive payment.

The contributor doesn’t need to download the app, create an account or do any banking. Within 10 seconds they will have paid.

No constant questioning on Whatsapp about how this or that works and whether they can just pay cash.

Contributors can leave a message for the leaving person that you can put in a card.

Collctiv’s third party payment provider - Stripe - is a global business regulated by the FCA so your money is totally safe.

You can choose what you want to do at the end of the collection and those choices cover all bases - withdraw the money to your bank account, send it to someone, buy vouchers or buy a physical gift.

Cons - Collctiv is spelt with no E’s. Some people really dislike that. It takes 2-3 working days for your money to land in your account.

What should I get for a colleague leaving gift?

So we mentioned earlier that you have all the choices available to you once you’ve collected the money.

Vouchers - give them the gift of choice. Whether it’s a voucher for an experience or for a famous branded store, give them a voucher that will let then choose the best thing for them….ideal for the colleague that you know well, but not so well that you can nail down exactly what they’d like as a gift. Read more about this option in our blog here.

Physical Gift - so you may want them to have something to keep to remember you and the team by. Why not engage our partners needi? They are gifting experts and will find you the most perfect and personalised gift for your colleague. Access their services straight through our app which you can download here. Find out more about needi in this blog.

Cash monayyyyyy - have ultimate freedom by being able to draw the money straight to your bank account so that you can do whatever you like with it!

Send it - this might be to the recipient, where nothing says ‘good luck, we’ll miss you’ like a three figure sum in the current account OR if you’ve been wise enough to enlist the help of someone else to source the present then you can send the balance to them.

So, New Year, New You, New Team, new solution for your group gifting!

Organisers bring people together

Since 2019 Collctiv has helped over 400,000 people from 83 countries come together by making it simple for Organisers to collect money from groups. Whether it's leaving gifts, group holidays or grassroots sports teams - download our free app today and start bringing people together!

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