The challenge
Four merch suppliers, four invoices, four lead times, and a People Ops team running an internal post office on top of their day job.
The brief
The People Ops lead inherited a swag programme spread across four suppliers: one for tees, one for stationery, one for drinkware, one for bags. Each had its own minimum, packaging quality, and lead time. New hires kept arriving before their kit shipped. The brief was to consolidate, hit a £80 per-hire ceiling, and ship to international remote starters without an internal post-office step.
The approach
- Audited the existing four supplier programme line by line. Per kit cost was £94 once shipping and re packaging time landed in the figure.
- Picked six SKUs from the Norma catalogue that matched the brand. Brand colours sampled against the dye lot range; foil stamp proof signed off in two days.
- Set up the workspace with three roles (admin, approver, ordering) and a £100 per kit cap. Approvers get notified via email and Slack.
- Wired a Zapier listener on the BambooHR new starter trigger to drop a CSV row into the workspace, ready for the People Ops lead to approve.
- Switched to Net 30 invoicing after the first paid pilot run. One monthly invoice replaces four.
The kit
- Heavyweight cotton tee (180gsm GOTS) in the brand sage
- Heavyweight hoodie (400gsm) for the winter cohort
- Hardback notebook with foil-stamped logo
- Ceramic mug
- Heavy canvas tote
- Letterpress welcome card
“Four suppliers down to one. The starter kit lands on day one in nine countries and we are not the bottleneck any more.”
The outcome
Norma onboarded the workspace in 48 hours. The People Ops lead uploads a CSV when a new starter signs; the kit ships to the recipient address, paid on Net 30 via a single monthly invoice. Per-recipient delivery tracking. New starters now have the kit on day one in 9 of 11 countries; the two outliers ship within five working days. The programme expanded to client gifting in month three.
Deliverables
- Workspace with three roles, address book seeded from BambooHR, brand kit uploaded.
- Six SKU curated catalogue with brand colour matched apparel and foil stamped stationery.
- Zapier listener on BambooHR new starter event, dropping a CSV row into the workspace.
- Approval rule: every order over £500 routes to the approver in app and via Slack.
- Net 30 invoicing, single monthly invoice, PO referenced.
- Per recipient delivery tracking on one order page.
Companion playbook: Read the post →