Halloween is next weekend which means most workplaces will be having Halloween parties on Friday to celebrate. Does your workplace do anything fun for the holiday? Tell us about it!

You don’t have to do much on Halloween to have a big impact on your employees and your organization’s culture. Send out some communication about the festivities, provide a few prizes for participation, and sit back as your employees all have fun!

At Baudville, Halloween is highly anticipated, yet we keep things pretty simple. Here’s our usual agenda:

1. Costumes. Employees are able to wear their (work appropriate) costumes for the day. There is often an impromptu costume parade throughout the building so the costumes can be admired by all.

2. Costume Contest. Employees who wear a costume have their picture taken and posted in Club Baudville (our gathering place/lunch room). Employees each get one vote for their favorite. Winners are announced at the end of the day and receive an award certificate and bragging rights.

3. Trick-or-Treating. Our employees bring in their families for afternoon trick-or-treating. Employees keep candy at their desk and have fun seeing all the kids’ costumes. This is one of the few times a year we see our co-workers’ families, and it’s fun to remark on how much all the kids have grown.

Visit our Facebook page on Friday, October 29th to vote for your favorite Baudville Halloween costume!

Previous Halloween celebrations at Baudville.

Here are a few more ideas for your Halloween celebration from our 52 Ways to Have Fun card deck:

4. Pumpkin' Chuckin' Contest. See who can toss their pumpkin the furthest either under their own power or by a contraption designed to catapult jack-o-lanterns through the air!

5. Bobbing for Apples. For a twist to this traditional Halloween game, hang apples from the ceiling on a piece of string. You can also hang donuts and see who can finish their donut the fastest. Remember, no hands allowed! 

6. Pumpkin Bowling. Use water bottles as your bowling pins, and see who gets the best score!

7.  Dessert Competition. Employees can enter this contest for the chance to win casual days, PTO or other prizes. Elect judges and create specialty categories, like Best Use of Pumpkin or Scariest Dessert.

8. Decorating Contest. Have your departments decorate their areas in a Halloween/harvest theme and judge the best decorations. Award casual days or free lunch to the winning team. I used to participate in a similar competition in college between the residence halls. It was fun to walk through campus and admire everyone’s decorations. The friendly competition was motivating, too!

9. Carve Pumpkins. We recently did this for a Customer Service Week event. Bring in pumpkins for your teams or individual employees to carve. If you’re concerned about the carving equipment, bring in paints instead!

For more Halloween office celebration ideas, check out these articles:
Halloween at the Office
How to Throw an Office Halloween Party
Ready for Halloween in the Office?

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

Thank you for joining me at today's Recognition TV webisode to talk about peer-to-peer recognition programs! You can watch the complete recorded version on Baudville.com or Baudville’s Facebook page. Several of my tips, ideas and best practices are below, but I recommend you watch the entire video (it’s only about 15 minutes!) to catch everything.

What is peer-to-peer recognition?
At Baudville, we’ve defined peer-to-peer recognition as the genuine expressions of appreciation between co-workers. Peer-to-peer programs typically equip the entire staff with low-cost tools and give employees the ability to recognize one another without any manager approval.

Does Baudville have a peer-to-peer recognition program? How does it work?

Yes, we do. Our program is called Shout Outs, and we designed it to reinforce our brand, values and culture. Allison did a great job explaining  our program in a previous blog post, so visit her post for all the details.

We liked our Shout Outs program so much, that we made a version for our customers, too. It’s one of our most popular peer-to-peer recognition programs. We recommend posting the Shout Outs pads in multiple common areas, so employees have access to recognition everywhere, all the time. Because the program is so simple to use and straightforward, employees begin using it right away without much training.

What are some of the benefits of peer-to-peer recognition program?
There are many benefits of peer-to-peer recognition! Here’s a list of some of the primary benefits:

 Peer-to-peer recognition empowers employees to give recognition themselves
 It relieves some pressure off managers
 Employees have greater ownership in the program because they can give recognition without any manager approval
 Peer-to-peer recognition programs require little ongoing administrative work
 More employees receive recognition more frequently
 It can improve your culture
 Peer-to-peer recognition can impact loyalty and job satisfaction by increasing employees’ sense of attachment and closeness to the company
 It can foster camaraderie and build more positive relationships between co-workers
 Peer-to-peer recognition crosses department and position lines – everyone has the ability to recognize everyone else!

What advice would you give to our viewers who are interested in starting a peer-to-peer program at their organization?
It’s very important that the program reinforce your company brand, values and culture. Use a recognition theme that ties these different elements together or use one of our programs that’s a good fit. Shout Outs comes in 4 different themes, Thanks for All You Do, TEAM, Essential Piece and Exclamations.

It’s important to get buy-in early in the process. Make sure your organization’s leadership is excited about the program and supports it. When we created our program, we pulled several different people into a brief brainstorming meeting to talk about program design and execution.

That would be my other piece of advice – don’t do it alone! Involve some of your recognition enthusiasts to help get the program implemented. Even if you use one of our ready-to-go programs, you’ll need to have organization-wide communication and some training on how to use the program.

Our other popular peer-to-peer recognition program is Spot On, and our Sales team used this program for a while to encourage intra-departmental recognition. Spot is a truly versatile program because you can change the goal or the behavior that you want recognized by writing it on the dry erase part of the dog house. Visit Spot’s website for more information.

What are some of the key elements to keep in mind when creating a peer-to-peer recognition program?
One of the most important elements of peer-to-peer recognition is accessible tools. One option is to give everyone their own tools that they can keep at their desk. This way, they always have access to recognition. Otherwise, be sure to put the note cards or whatever tool you’re using in a public place because the tools serve as a visual reminder for employees to recognize. Look at your high traffic areas – a few suggestions may be near the printer, coffee station or break room.

Again, having buy-in from your leaders and management team is very important. Even though peer-to-peer recognition takes some of the responsibility off of managers, they still need to be active and use the program.

I also recommend some kind of measurement that allows you to track participation in the program. When you measure results, you have data to show that you’re meeting your participation goals and more employees are receiving recognition.

How do you maintain the momentum for a peer-to-peer program?
That’s a great question and certainly one of the ongoing challenges of recognition. At Baudville, we provide an incentive for meeting our 100% participation goal. If we have 100% participation – meaning everyone writes one Shout Out during the month – the entire company gets rewarded either with a special casual day or a snack/treat. We’ve also recognized the individuals who have written the most Shout Outs and some of the most creative Shout Outs as reminders to the company that they need to recognize.

For additional peer-to-peer recognition resources:
 Watch the entire peer-to-peer Recognition TV webisode.
 Download our Peer-to-Peer Recognition White Paper from our Recognition Resource Center.
 Read the past blog posts on Peer Recognition.
 Ask a question of all the recognition practitioners on our Facebook page.

 

 

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Cindy is the Human Resources Manager at Baudville and has over 14 years HR experience. In addition to her HR Generalist duties, she’s the center of positive mojo for the company and heads up many of our recognition initiatives, events and awards. In other words, she’s got it going on!

I returned to my alma mater the other weekend to celebrate homecoming. It had been two years since I was last on campus, and I enjoyed my time immensely! I got to see good friends, enjoy the campus, and spend time outside in the beautiful Michigan autumn weather.

The visit also served as a reminder of the importance of recognition. I can get so caught up encouraging companies and managers to recognize their employees that I forget the application of recognition to other organizations, too.

Part of the annual festivities at homecoming includes alumni awards. Multiple alumni were presented award plaques, top donors and 50 year reunion participants honored with lapel pins and flowers. Even at rehearsal for the alumni choir concert, seniors who had been in choir all four years received a custom lapel pin to signify their accomplishment.

You may think that giving a lapel pin to a group of college students would be considered passé and “old school.”

You’d be wrong. These students immediately put their lapel pins on their t-shirts and wore them proudly for the choir concert in front of a packed auditorium.

Observing the recognition reminded me of three attributes of truly effective recognition that were perfectly demonstrated that night:

 Recognition must be sincere.
The recognition at the choir rehearsal was accompanied by a few choice words from the choir director and a boisterous round of applause from all the observers. Everyone in that room was radiating appreciation.

 It must be earned.
You could receive the grandest award available, but if you know you didn’t earn it, it won’t mean much to you. The student choir members practiced anywhere from 3-6+ hours a week…for four years! That takes a lot of dedication for busy college students.

 For recognition to be memorable, it needs to be presented appropriately.
These students were honored for their commitment to the choir in front of over 200 fellow choir members, alumni along and fellow classmates. It was obvious that the presentation of the lapel pins would be fondly remembered.

By the way, I got my own pin at the concert that night, and I love it!

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

Peer-to-peer recognition is a growing trend in companies looking for ways to increase engagement and morale without over burdening managers. In WorldatWork’s 2008 survey, Trends in Employee Recognition, they discovered that 42% of the 554 companies that responded offer peer programs. Of those, 67 percent stated the program's impact on retention was moderate or high. Human Resource Executive also recently wrote an article on the Power of Peer-to-Peer.

Peer-to-peer recognition is popping up everywhere. Do you want to learn more about peer recognition programs and their potential impact on your organization?

Join me next week as I talk with Cori about the Peer-to-peer recognition program we have at Baudville. I’ll also provide guidelines and ideas for you to create your own peer recognition program!

Register for our Recognition TV Webisode taking place next week Thursday, October 21. The webisode is only 15 minutes, so it’s less like a webinar and more like a coffee break with a couple of friends! Our webisodes are live streaming video, and you have the opportunity to ask us questions in real time through a chat room, so bring all your peer-to-peer recognition questions with you!

You can also watch past Recognition TV Webisodes in our Recognition Resource Center for helpful tips on appreciation events, starting a recognition program and more.

I look forward to seeing you on Thursday!

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Cindy is the Human Resources Manager at Baudville and has over 14 years HR experience. In addition to her HR Generalist duties, she’s the center of positive mojo for the company and heads up many of our recognition initiatives, events and awards. In other words, she’s got it going on! 

We all love receiving recognition. We just completed Customer Service Week at Baudville, and the entire company enjoyed the thrill of being recognized for our exceptional customer service. Employers typically do a great job recognizing the employees, but often managers get overlooked.

Thankfully, we created a holiday to help us remember to thank the bosses, managers and executives in our lives. Boss’s Day happens annually on October 16. Since that falls on a Saturday this year, I’m encouraging people to celebrate this Friday.

Here are a few ideas that you can use for celebrating Boss’s Day:

Get the whole team involved. Send a few quick emails and remind the entire team that Boss’s Day is taking place this week. If you’re super organized, offer the team a card from your note card collection so they can write a thank you note to your boss.

Give your boss a gift. You could put together a gift basket of snacks and treats your boss loves or engrave a journal with your boss’s name. When everyone chips in, it’s easy to give a personalized gift. Get more Boss’s Day gift ideas at Baudville.com.

Write a handwritten note of appreciation. Sometimes, the simplest acts of recognition mean the most. Buy a Boss’s Day card or use a set of note cards you have lying around. Write a personal note of thanks and be specific! What attributes does your boss possess that you really appreciate? If you have multiple bosses, this is the most affordable way to recognize all of them!

Take your boss out to lunch. Organize the entire team or department and treat your boss to lunch. Not only will your boss appreciate the free lunch, but it will give the entire team a chance to bond!

Create a “Best Boss Award.” Have a little fun on Boss’s Day! Create an award certificate or have a trophy made that officially declares your boss the best. Arrange a small award presentation with your team. Have each team member share one reason why your boss deserves the high honor. You could invite your boss’s family to the presentation to make it even more personal.

 

Michael Scott certainly isn't the Wolrld's Best Boss, but his team makes him feel that way. How will you recognize your boss on Boss's Day?

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.