The best way to collect employee addresses for a gift: a short form, the right fields, and a cut-off dateThe best way to collect employee addresses for a gift: a short form, the right fields, and a cut-off date

A short HR form beats an email thread

The best way to collect addresses for an employee gift is a short form that HR sends and owns, with a clear reason, a cut-off date and an opt-out. Replies to an email thread or a group chat end up in five formats, with half the pincodes missing and somebody's address visible to the whole team. A form gives you one clean sheet you can hand to the supplier.

Use whatever form tool your company already approves, so the data stays inside your systems.

The fields to ask for, and the ones to skip

Ask for:

1. Full name as it should appear on the parcel. Couriers deliver to a name; nicknames cause returns.
2. Mobile number for the courier. A courier who cannot reach anyone is a common reason a parcel comes back.
3. Full address in separate boxes: house or flat number, building or society, street, area, city, state.
4. Pincode, as its own field. Check it is six digits. A wrong pincode sends a parcel to the wrong hub.
5. A landmark. Still the most useful line on an Indian address.
6. A choice: home, office or opt out. Some people prefer the office; some live in a PG or hostel that does not accept parcels; some would rather not share a home address at all. Respect all three.
7. For a personalised gift only: the name or initial for the tag, spelt as they want it.

Skip anything you do not need for delivery: date of birth, personal email, family details. The less you collect, the less you have to protect.

Running the collection without chasing people for weeks

• Give one reason in the first line: "We are sending everyone a Diwali gift and need to know where to send it."
• Set a cut-off date a few days before you must give the list to the supplier, and send one reminder.
• Default the silent ones to the office address, or to a hand-over by their manager, rather than holding the whole order.
• Clean the sheet once: remove duplicates, fill missing pincodes, and mark anyone who will be travelling.
• Add joiners after the cut-off separately, as a small top-up order, so the main order is not held up.

Ways to collect addresses, compared

How the address list works with Raajkosh

When you ask for a quote at raajkosh.com/corporate, choose many addresses. We do not ask for anyone's address at that stage. The quote comes first, with the pieces, the branding (your logo on the tag, the note card or a wax seal), the timeline and the price per gift with GST. Once the quote is agreed, we ask for the address list, and each gift is delivered to its address across India. The details you share are handled as described in our privacy policy.

A few pieces that suit a gift sent to many homes, at shop prices per piece (your quote confirms the final price per gift with branding and delivery):

• Sunflower Tealights, Rs 449: ten ivory tealights, each topped with a small yellow wax sunflower.
• Lotus Candle, Rs 349: a sculpted lotus in green and red or coral pink.
• Heart Bubble Candle, Rs 249: a small desk piece in white or light blue.

Orders start at 10 gifts with no minimum order value; payment is prepaid as set out in the quote; you get a GST invoice in your company's name. The rest is on our corporate gifting terms page.

When collecting addresses is not worth it

If most of your team is in one or two offices, skip home addresses and deliver to the offices. If your company policy does not allow sharing employee addresses with any outside supplier, a gift handed out at the office or an e-voucher is the honest answer, and we are not the right route. And if half the team will be travelling in the festival week, hold the gift until after it.

Send the number first, the list later

Tell us how many gifts, the budget per gift and your date at raajkosh.com/corporate, or WhatsApp +91 85958 24586. Start your address form the same day.