Gifts from clients/suppliers policy

It’s always nice to receive tokens of appreciation from your clients. However, the receipt of gifts by employees can be open to abuse and they could even constitute bribes. Our gifts from clients/suppliers policy ensures that all gifts are properly declared and it protects against gifts that are intended to influence business decisions.

A small reward

Clients and customers sometimes send small gifts as tokens of their appreciation, usually either when a deal is completed or at Christmas. Examples might include a bottle of wine or spirits, a box of chocolates, or flowers. You probably don’t have a problem with a small gift that is clearly sent to an employee to say “thank you” for all their hard work and effort. However, gifts sent by clients, customers, suppliers or contractors that are intended to influence business decisions are clearly not acceptable. It’s for you to consider the motive of the sender and therefore how you should handle the matter. Our Gifts from Clients/Suppliers Policy statement provides for all gifts to be declared so that you can then take a view on why the gift has been sent, what its value is and whether the recipient can keep it or not (or whether it should be returned to sender). It also provides that if a particular supplier has been specifically used because of the incentive of a free gift (with the result that the employee has not acted in the company’s best interests in their choice of supplier), this is a disciplinary offence. More and more suppliers are offering “free” incentives to put business their way but we all know that there’s rarely such a thing as a free gift, so our policy will help to protect the integrity of your business.