Just two decades ago, Singapore was a regional outpost. Today, it has become Asia's premier financial hub. Commercial and investment banks, private banks, insurers, PE and VC firms, fintechs, and family offices have all set up operations here.

A lot of APAC headquarters have also moved to Singapore from Hong Kong or London. So have the senior people running them.

In fact, Singapore's financial sector grew 4.3% in 2025, with a projected growth of 4.0% CAGR by 2029.

As the industry has grown, competition for skilled professionals has increased too. Many companies now spend heavily to attract and retain top talent.

But are they spending anything meaningful on what happens after the hire?

The Real Cost of Hiring in Singapore Financial Services

Recruitment agency fees for permanent roles in Singapore are roughly 11-21% of the annual salary. At a VP level, that's S$30,000-50,000 in fees before the person has attended a single meeting.

Here's how this plays out. A firm spends S$40,000 to fill a VP role. The hire joins, struggles to settle in, and leaves after 11 months. That S$40,000 is gone, and the firm has to start the search from scratch: new job posting, new agency fee, weeks of interviews.

Compare that to a S$80-200 onboarding kit. It is a small expense that can not only improve retention but also cost a fraction of the hiring expense.

What a Physical Gift Does That Nothing Else Can?

A welcome deck, a values statement, a warm email from HR - all of these are great. But they can't be picked up, used, or kept.

A physical object, on the other hand, can be placed on a desk, gets carried on a commute, or gets used every single day, reminding the person that the firm thought about this moment.

Research shows that 87% of employees say company swag makes them feel proud of where they work, and 79% say it makes them feel more connected to their colleagues.

And frankly, you don't need expensive gifts to deliver that.

Take the experience of these Reddit users, for example.

If your onboarding kit doesn’t show up on people’s social media handles, then you’re doing something wrong. They need to show off- and some take it to Reddit to boast about it. Source: Reddit

Someone still uses the duffle bag their old job gave them because the branding was subtle enough that it didn't feel corporate. Another still has the tabletop fire pit and s'mores kit their company gifted them, and their family has used it more than once. A tool kit. A leather wallet that turned out to be the right size for an actual pocket. None of these were flashy, but they still stuck around.

This matters even more in financial services because the people you are onboarding are the same people your rival firms will be calling within months. Corporate gifts for financial services in Singapore are the first physical experience they have of the firm.

Gifting Across the Employee Lifecycle

Across Southeast Asian companies, 1 in 3 employees exit within their first year, and the risk doesn't drop after the standard 90-day onboarding window closes. Months 3-6 come with the same exit probability as the first 3 months.

But most firms stop paying attention right after day 90. A gifting strategy built around the full spectrum of an employee's time at the firm can help address this attrition.

1. Day One Onboarding Kit (All Hires)

This is the moment before the employee has started any work, built any relationships, or absorbed the company culture. The welcome kit is the first physical signal of the kind of firm they've joined.

Most firms still default to the same age-old merch - a branded pen, a printed handbook, maybe a tote bag with the company logo. And none of these says much.

Instead, the gift should be meaningful and look like you've put thought into the product selection and the packaging.

Take Shopee's onboarding kit, for example. Rather than creating the same onboarding kit for everyone, they customized each one for a different business unit. The notebooks also featured company values inside the cover instead of a logo front and center. These small choices make the gifts feel carefully considered rather than generic.

Shopee's onboarding kit skips generic branding for pieces designed around each business unit's own identity. Source: Medium

Some more ideas for day one onboarding kits: A vacuum-insulated tumbler, an annual planner, a wireless charger, a document organizer, and a book leadership actually believes in.

Budget range: S$80-100 per hire

2. Senior and Lateral Hire Kit (VP and Above)

Someone joining at VP level or above left something behind to be here. A stable role, a title they'd built, maybe a team they were close to. Handing them the same kit a fresh graduate gets can make it look like their move wasn't worth noticing.

Your senior kit should acknowledge their decision directly.

For example, a leather passport holder, a card case, a genuinely good tech accessory like noise-canceling headphones or a travel organizer, a gourmet snack box, and elevated, custom packaging.

A high-end manager roles don’t deserve the same generic onboarding kits that other new hires recieves, it needs to be excellent and in par with their experience.

VaynerMedia, a media agency, gifted it high-level leaders and manager roles of new hires with a highly curated professional audio and video conferencing kits that included noise-cancelling headphones, ring lighting set-up, and multi-port charging hubs. These are what’s useful for their role in the company.

It doesn't have to be extravagant, but it should feel like it was chosen with the recipient in mind.

Budget range: S$100-S$150

3. Probation Completion Gift (Months 3-6)

For many organizations, the first 90 days are seen as the finish line. After that, employees are expected to be fully integrated.

But the data suggests otherwise.

By month 6, more than 1 in 5 employees across Southeast Asian companies have already left. This window doesn't get less risky just because nobody notices.

A meaningful gift at probation confirmation can change that. It tells the employee the firm noticed they stayed, and is genuinely glad about it. It's also the moment they stop being the "new hire" and start being part of the team.

UberEats have other amazing offers for corporate companies that are always willing to program according to your needs. Source: UberEats

Unilever gifted their employees with UberEats vouchers to celebrate with their family at any local prime restaurant for finishing a very challenging year back in 2020. This earned a lot of respect of the employees for handling hard work that finally paid off.

Some probation completion gift ideas to consider: Personalized gifts with the employee's name or start date, aromatherapy, a quality tea set, or an ergonomic desk accessory.

Budget range: S$80-150

4. Work Anniversary Milestones (1, 3, 5, 10 Years)

An employee's tenure at a financial services firm isn't guaranteed. 71% of finance and insurance employers say they struggle to find talent. This number tells you something important: the same people a firm hired are being approached by competitors constantly.

So if someone actually reaches five years at a firm, that's a choice they keep making year after year.

The anniversary gift should reflect that choice. And it shouldn't look the same every year.

Year 1 could be a quality leather notebook or premium drinkware engraved with their start year.
Year 3 calls for a curated set with tech accessories and a personal touch.
Year 5 deserves something bigger, like an experience voucher or an executive tech kit with packaging built around them specifically.
Year 10 should have an individually chosen gift that feels like someone specifically thought about this person.

This is also where corporate gifts for banks in Singapore start looking noticeably different from one firm to the next. And your employees notice too.

For example, when its tech team crossed a milestone, Singapore Airlines gifted its Group Developers a set of playing cards with hand-drawn illustrations of Singapore landmarks and airline lifestyle details, right down to a durian on the King card. It cost far less than a typical milestone gift, but it felt far more personal and distinctive.

Singapore Airlines didn’t jsut gift a generic playing cards, these had landmarks, food, culture drawn on them. Source: Gumtoo.

Budget range: S$80-200

Note: The IRAS treats gifts up to S$200 per occasion as tax-exempt for the employee. If you exceed this threshold on a single gift, the entire value will become taxable income for them, not just the amount above S$200. A Year 10 gift can carry more perceived weight within that same range through better personalization.

5. Year-End Gifting (Firm-Wide)

A year-end gift sent to 200 employees is still received by one person at a time. If it feels like it came from a bulk order with a generic item, heavy branding, and zero thought, that's exactly what it communicates.

Belonging shouldn't be reserved for long-time employees. New hires, employees on satellite teams, and long-time team members should all feel equally valued and included.

Some year-end gift ideas to consider: A collaboration with a Singapore craft brand, a thoughtfully curated food and beverage set, or a premium candle or diffuser.

Since employees often travel or gather with loved ones during the holidays, gifts like a cocktail kit, board game, or compact travel kit are more likely to be used and appreciated.

Budget range: S$80-150 per employee

Concept-Led Gifting for the Win

The branded pen, the generic tote, the printed handbook - these are low-effort gifts that new hires can see immediately. Instead of taking an off-the-shelf product and adding your logo, think about the story you want your gift to tell and build it from there.

Reddit's own end-of-year gift is a good example. Instead of the usual notebook-and-tote combo, their marketing team built a kit around one small business each year. A recent version paired a hand-thrown ceramic mug from an independent potter with a moka pot and coffee beans branded as 'Reddit Roast.'

Reddit follows a new business every year- and we think that keeps their employees looking forward to which one they’re going to get.

Reddit's employees didn't just keep it; they also posted about it. And that post did more for the brand than any internal memo could.

MikMak went a step ahead with its onboarding gift: an actual cookbook filled with recipes submitted by their own employees. Every recipe carries a name and a story, so opening it becomes a real conversation starter that has nothing to do with work.

*Mikmak gifted their new hires with a recipe book with a collection of recipes submited by their employees- its very unique and super thoughtful. Source:* *Brilliant*

Other companies have run with this idea too:

Canon's welcome box opens like a camera housing before you see a single item inside.
Google's Noogler kit leans into playful energy with polka-dot socks and a propeller cap.
DigitalOcean greets new hires with balloons, oversized plush slippers, and a genuinely funny welcome setup.
Ogilvy & Mather hands new employees a red book written by its founder, one you can only get by working there.

The Compliance Question

MAS doesn't publish an actual dollar limit on gifts. However, it does require financial institutions to have policies to prevent conflicts of interest. According to its fair dealing guidelines, a gift that looks like it's meant to influence a decision is a problem, even without any real intent behind it.

This mostly shapes client-facing gifting, which is why most firms end up setting stricter internal caps than what MAS technically demands.

On the tax side, IRAS treats a gift as tax-free for the recipient as long as it stays at or under S$200 per occasion. If you go over this limit, the entire value becomes taxable, not just the difference.

On top of this, there's also a physical safety layer, especially for premium corporate gifts for Singapore financial firms that include electronics like:

Power banks
Wireless chargers
Or anything with a battery

These items must have proper safety certification before they go out. An uncertified item can get flagged during internal audit, held up at customs, or worse, cause an actual safety incident.

How to Think About Return?

There isn't a fixed formula for calculating ROI on corporate gifts for financial services in Singapore. But there are two angles you can consider:

Retention: If a hire sticks around three months longer than they otherwise might have, that alone covers the cost of the gift, especially against another round of placement fees.
Employer Brand: If the kit is genuinely good, someone will post about it on LinkedIn. That post reaches their whole professional network, and it costs the firm nothing beyond the gift itself.

Here’s What To Do Next

Singapore's financial firms are already spending heavily to win talent. But the gap lies in what happens after that. A day-one kit, a probation gift, or an anniversary gift aren't expensive. All they need is planning, and the same intent firms bring to the hiring process.

That's exactly where Gumtoo comes in. We help financial services firms in Singapore build gifting programs that are compliant, well-designed, and memorable. From day-one kits to milestone anniversaries to firm-wide year-end gifting, get in touch with Gumtoo to build something your employees will actually want to keep.

FAQs

1. What are some good corporate gifts?

A great corporate gift doesn't have to be expensive. It simply needs to feel intentional. Practical items like a tumbler, notebook, wireless charger, or bag are always useful, and a personalized detail, such as the recipient's name, often means more than prominent company branding.

2. What is a good gift for a financial client?

Many financial institutions in Singapore keep client gifts in the S$50 to S$75 range to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest. That is why it is usually better to keep things simple. A thoughtfully curated food or beverage hamper or a well-packaged desk accessory is often the right choice.

3. What are the latest trends in corporate gifting?

Here are some trends shaping corporate gifting right now:

Concept-led gifts over logo merch.
Collaborations with small, local brands.
Personalization, like names, start dates, or handwritten notes.
Experience-based gifts, such as vouchers for a workshop or a spa day.
Sustainable and reusable items.

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Employee Onboarding & Engagement Gift Ideas for Financial Services Firms in Singapore