The giving of retirement gifts is so different now than when our grandparents or parents were given the iconic standard gold watch for their faithful years of service with one company. Today, there are a plethora of corporate retirement gifts in the marketplace – gift cards, adventure travel, experiences and more.

However, some of these retirement gift options are very personal in nature and, although appreciated, they do not really acknowledge the person’s contribution to the organization. So, while they may be great at the moment of receiving, the long-term reflection on a career lifetime isn’t there.

This is why organizations tend to seek out retirement gifts that make a statement about:

the employee,
their contribution to the organization,
their contribution to the organization’s culture,
their years of service,
their advancement within the organization, or
a twist on their position or personality within the business.

A retirement gift does not necessarily have to be serious in tone, but can be fun, creative and individual to the recipient. It some instances it can be almost playful. Then again, it can be thoughtful and reflective of the time the receiver has spent with their respective organizations. The following four unique retirement gifts are good examples of both fun and thoughtful ideas to celebrate and capture the moment forever with a unique service recognition gift.

1. Embed a Meaningful Piece of their Work History

We had a company approach us about a retirement gift idea for someone who was retiring after 60 years of faithful service. They asked: “Can you embed a door handle?” They wanted to give him a retirement gift that really meant something to him and they thought that embedding the door handle which he used to enter the building every day for 60 years was perfect! We said yes so the company removed the door handle and we embedded it in Lucite. It is now a creative reminder of all of those the days he came to work and how the organization valued him and his contribution.

2. Retiring Police Officers Honoured

When an officer joins the police force, their motto is about serving and protecting. Many police officers spend their whole lives working their way through the police ranks for this purpose. It is always a pleasure to put together police retirement gifts as they are a visible reminder of all the hard work and time spent serving the community

Depending on where you serve, change in rank may be achieved through years of hard work and dedication. Others can spend their whole careers protecting and serving one community.

We truly enjoy creating special retirement gifts for police officers and we’ve written about some of these unique awards and recognitions on a few occasions:

3. Recognizing Leadership with “Years of Service” Retirement Gift

When a well-known business’ executive team wanted to honour their retiring Senior Vice President, they thought it would be a great idea to recreate the time he spent leading the company. But instead of honoring years of service, they wanted to highlight the business quarters. We all agreed that the best way to do this was with actual quarters!

It was a cool corporate retirement gift to create to recognize the recipient’s time dedicated to leadership within the organization. Who says big business isn’t fun?

4. Employee Retirement Gift that Recognizes Contributions

Sometimes companies want to recognize the employee’s specific contributions to the organization. In this case, the company wanted to honor the executive’s participation and commitment to specific company values:

health and safety,
product quality, and
employee engagement.

So, we constructed an inner pyramid which represented the company’s vision. This was then embedded within a larger Lucite pyramid which highlighted the executive’s values. On the front of the retirement gift, a personal message with signatures from his team was digitally printed.