August is here which means kids will be heading back to school very shortly! Start the year off right by welcoming back teachers, students, and staff with a small gift and welcome celebration. We’ve compiled our top ten choices for back to school gifts to make your planning easier!

1. Sticky Notes for Teachers. Teachers will love this Flip Top Note Holder and use the handy sticky notes all year. Present this gift to teachers at a meeting before the students arrive to motivate them for the year ahead.

2. Twist Top Tumbler for Student Workers. Colleges and universities have lots of student workers who keep valuable school services up and running all day and into the night! Welcome your student workers back to school with a Twist Top Tumbler. It’s a popular new take on a water bottle that they can use for their favorite hot and cold beverages.

3. Tote Bag for Volunteers. Let volunteers know how important they are to your school. One of our themed tote bags is a practical gift they’ll use every day. Get more volunteer ideas from our Recognition Resource Center, and use VolunteerSpot’s online sign up sheets for easy volunteer coordination.
 
4. Journal and Pen Gift Set for Teachers. A journal and pen gift set provides your teachers with a notebook for staff meetings and conferences that will last months.

5. Pen and Pencil Gift Set for Student Leaders. Recognize your student leaders with a welcome back gift. This sharp pen and pencil gift set will serve as a reminder of the important role they have in your school.

6. Sweet Treats for Students. Place one of these colorful sweet treat candy jars on each student’s desk for a sweet surprise and a warm welcome back to school.

7. Goofy Guy Talking Pen. Just for Fun! Set the tone for fun with a unique talking pen. It will give your teachers and staff a smile and entertain the students.

8. USB Key Chains for Teachers and Staff. Your team will love being able to carry important documents and data with them on a USB key chain. Choose the recognition theme that best suits your team for a memorable welcome back to school gift.

9. Perpetual Calendar for Administrators. Your administrators and leaders will be “perpetually” on top of things this school year with a beautiful perpetual calendar to keep track of the days for them.

10. Themed Lanyards for the Whole School. Make safety and security a priority this school year by outfitting the school with themed lanyards. The lanyards come in a breakaway option great for kids and will keep ID cares prominently displayed.

Looking for more teacher appreciation ideas? Download our Teacher Appreciation Ideas eBook for 60 ideas for back to school, holidays, and year round appreciation.

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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.

As our days are becoming shorter and the air crisper, nature is telling us back to school is around the corner. My first day back to school is the 29th, which is less than a week away. Yikes! Back to school for me means, last year of classes, running my advertising club, volunteering for a professor, and of course, enjoying my friends. Oh but wait, best of all I will still be here at Baudville writing blog posts for you to enjoy!

Last year, another student and I helped a professor of mine put on an advertising competition in Grand Rapids. Throughout the entire experience the three of us would go get coffee once a week to meet and talk about what had been accomplished, what needed to be fulfilled, and then how our lives were going. He took time out of his busy schedule to sit down with us, see how we were doing, and get to know us a little better.

On top of the weekly coffee meetings, I would get emails once or twice a week with words of encouragement telling me to keep up the good work, and praising me for a job well done. These would always bring a smile to my face. The emails motivated me to keep up the hard work, even though I was really busy.

At the end of the year, Grand Valley State University put on a dinner party recognizing all the volunteers and workers for their efforts. This was a perfect way to end the year! I was told that I did a great job and thanked for all my hard work.

Recognizing your student volunteers and workers doesn’t need to be super expensive or grand.  Trust me; students understand the importance of free!

6 Inexpensive tips for acknowledging back to school student workers or volunteers:

1.    Make sure you take time out of your schedule to get to know your student workers because they are taking time out of their busy schedules to help you.

2.    Acknowledge your student workers with a fun low-cost note card, pocket praise, email, or ePraise, our free ecards. These are great was to let your student workers know you care. 

                         Thank You theme Pocket Praise are a great way to write a small note of praise!

3.    Throw a pizza party, have a potluck picnic, bring in cookies, or just have a candy jar. Let's be serious - what student doesn’t like some type of free food!

4.    Have a team bonding day. If your school has volley-ball courts, go out and play a couple games, or get a bocce ball or cornhole game going. Do something as a team that is easily available to you.

5.    Take your student workers or volunteers out for a cup of coffee. Coffee shops are a nice relaxing area to learn more about them!

6.    For more free ideas check out our Recognition Resource Center.

Come on, join the conversation!

Click the button below to start sharing your inexpensive tips to recognize student workers or volunteers!

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Kendra is the newest Baudvillian. She is currently an advertising intellectual at Grand Valley State University, and is ecstatic about the change of atmosphere as Baudville’s web marketing intern. Watch out because this young professional just touched down at Baudville.

I just attended a couple of creative writing workshops in one of my favorite places to visit: New York City! When I enrolled, I wasn’t totally sure what I would get out of the experience. I had done my research and found that the school had a great reputation; but it also seemed from the reviews that overall student satisfaction had more to do with the individual instructors than anything. Of course, I hoped I would get good ones.  

Despite a little hesitation, I was excited about the workshops and, like a big nerd, actually giddy about being given a homework assignment to complete before one of the workshops started.

Happy about homework? Crazy talk!

But, along with the assignment, the instructor had taken extra time to introduce herself and tell us a little about what we could expect from the class and what she would expect from us. Her message was infused with humor, heart, and energy. I couldn’t wait to get started.      

That’s the power of good teachers: they don’t just contribute to the quality of your education, they also inspire you. They make you want to work. They fuel your desire to learn. They feed your hunger for knowledge.

And, as with this creative writing institution, they also help build a school’s high standing in the educational community.

Whether you’re a student, parent, or school administrator, if you’re starting back to school in a few weeks, there’s no better time to show your appreciation for your teachers. Every day, they put their passion and energy into providing the best education possible to their students – and go the extra mile to motivate their students to care as much they do. These are the gifts our teachers give to us and our communities. What do you think about giving back?

Because they make a difference…

Because they’re essential…

For all they do, say thanks!

What are your favorite ways to recognize and appreciate teachers? Click the button below to share your ideas in the comments section!

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Allison is a self-proclaimed Copywriting Diva and has the certificate to prove it! She’s been writing for Baudville for two years and has worked in a variety of business settings for more than 17 years. Before becoming a professional writer 10 years ago, Allison worked as a department manager where she used Baudville products to motivate her team. She’s what we call a true believer!

Thanks for joining me today for our Recognition TV, our 15 minute video webinar! Today I shared tips and ideas to give your recognition program a boost. How do you know when your program is in need of a boost?

a. Participation levels have dropped dramatically
b. Employees are grumbling about the reward options
c. Your program hasn’t experienced any changes or updates in a long time 

Keep your eyes and ears open for these symptoms of an employee recognition program in need of a boost. In today’s webinar, I shared ten tips that can give your program the boost it needs. For a copy of all ten tips, download our new eBook, “10 Ways to Revitalize Your Employee Recognition Program” now available in our Recognition Resource Center.

 According to Recognition Professionals International, a best practice for employee recognition programs is to be open to change and flexibility. As the architect or caregiver of your organization’s recognition program, you need to be frequently reviewing your program and making the necessary tweaks and adjustments to keep it running like a well-oiled machine.

Hopefully the ideas from our webinar, which you can watch on demand, and new employee recognition eBook give you the tools and ideas to keep your recognition program running strong!

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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.

Does this title sound familiar? Gary Chapman, the author of "The Five Love Languages," recently partnered with Dr. Paul White to create a workplace application of his popular relationship book. The new book, just released in August, dives into the value and benefit of making employees, volunteers, and members of your organization feel appreciated. (Disclosure: I was given an advanced copy of the book to review.)

Early on, the authors make a solid case for appreciation by outlining the return on investment organizations receive from appreciation, such as job satisfaction, long term commitment, and retention. They also point out that employees most commonly leave an organization because they don’t feel valued, not because of money. The first section of the book is a great resource for anyone working to convince management of the value of making employees feel appreciated.

The book drives home two simple truths: one, appreciation makes people enjoy their jobs and perform better; and two, you need to express appreciation in a way that is meaningful to him or her to make an individual feel truly appreciated. The book expands on these themes by discussing the five languages of appreciation in the workplace and sharing examples. The authors even created an assessment, Motivating by Appreciation, that teams can complete to discover their language of appreciation. 

"The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace" is a great resource for managers, teams, and companies that are new to the practice of appreciation and recognition. This book will provide the data to make the case for appreciation and helpful tips for understanding your team’s appreciation preferences.

However, the authors consider only a limited view of “recognition” in their chapter on the difference between recognition and appreciation. They define recognition as public recognition for performance-based achievements and limit it to individual-based, top-down praise with significant financial cost. If you look at the three tiers of recognition, the authors seem to only address formal recognition and forget about informal and day-to-day recognition.

A recognition strategy should include formal, informal, and day-to-day recognition.

Informal recognition and day-to-day recognition are valuable strategies that companies should incorporate into their total reward plans as they include the languages of appreciation discussed by the authors. These strategies can include peer-to-peer recognition which gives everyone in the organization the ability to recognize, includes low cost forms of recognition, such as handwritten notes and small gifts, and encourages celebrating together. You can learn more about day-to-day recognition in this free employee recognition white paper.

Recognition is intricately tied to appreciation. Both express gratitude, thanks, and admiration for an individual’s contribution to the organization, big or small. It’s a mistake to think that they are mutually exclusive. Your recognition must have appreciation in it, and your appreciation should be connected to behaviors for it to be effective.

I recommend that you get a copy of "The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace" for your organization. Read it as a team and access the resources they have available on their site.

Then hop back over to Baudville.com and our Recognition Resource Center where our Tell Us About You form is perfect for keeping track of employee preferences, our Print and Posts are a fun way to make someone’s day, and our new products keep you stocked with small gifts and tools to keep appreciation fresh.

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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.