It may be hard to believe, but the holiday season is sneaking up on us! Have you started your gift shopping yet? It can be very difficult to find gifts for your team that express your appreciation for their contributions throughout the year and don’t break the bank. In our newest Recognition TV video, I shared my top five employee gifts for the holidays, and I’ve included them here on the blog for you, too!

My first holiday gift choice is Spinner Christmas Ornaments. These are by far our most popular and best selling holiday gift! The center part of the ornament rotates to show off exclusive holiday artwork on one side and a blank silver back on the other side. You can personalize the back with up to four lines of personalization, such as the employee’s name, the year, and company name, or you can customize it with a logo. Each ornament comes with a gift box with space for you to write a personal note. To make your gift more memorable, write a short thank you message in this space and sign your name. It shows the employee that you put personal thought and effort into the gift.

My second choice for the holiday season is new to Baudville, a Snow Globe Photo Frame. This item is really fun and festive! It includes holiday artwork and a message of appreciation, but the recipient can add their own photo to personalize it. The snow globes come in a gift box, but I recommend you add your own gift wrapping to make a grand impression when you give this gift. Putting the item in a gift bag with some tissue or wrapping it in special paper will help this gift stand out in your employees’ minds.

The holidays mean winter, and winter means warming up with a hot mug of coffee, hot chocolate, or tea. I am never without my coffee mug, even in the summer! That’s why I chose a new coffee mug or Twist Top Tumbler as my third holiday gift pick. We have a couple travel mugs featuring new holiday designs, or you can choose from our large collection of recognition themed cups. To make this gift extra special, include a gift card to a local coffee shop, or an assortment of teas or hot chocolates that your recipients can try during the months of cold weather.

Gifts that are personal to the recipient are the most effective at expressing your appreciation. A personalized gift set, like the pen and pencil gift set and on-the-move gift set, have the capability for you to engrave each recipient’s name on the cover of the tin. The items inside are practical and can be used either at work or on the go. The benefit to these gift sets is you can make it personal to each individual by selecting a different character story for their unique attributes and skills. Read the story out loud when you present the gifts for a gift event they won’t forget!

My fifth and final idea for your employee holiday gift giving is desktop gifts. A desktop gift is almost anything that can be used on a desk, like a Perpetual Calendar or Flip Top Sticky Note Holder. Because these items sit on a desk and can be used nearly every day, they are a great way to remind your staff of your appreciation. Desktop items are great for volunteers, teachers, and doctors, too, because they can all use these items in their workplace or home. These gifts are very versatile and appropriate for many different people!

The holiday gift season is an important time to tell employees and staff that they’re appreciated. I hope these gift ideas and gift giving tips will help your shopping go smoothly and make a positive impact on your team. Happy shopping!

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Kendra is Baudville's Product Coordinator. Using her awesome powers of organization and research, she brings new and innovative products to our customer. She is a recent graduate and is ready to help with your recognition wants and needs. Watch out, because this young professional just touched down at Baudville!

We’re excited to announce that we’ve been recognized for excellence in multichannel marketing with a Multichannel Merchant Gold Award for our 2011 holiday marketing campaign!

The award program is organized by Multichannel Merchant, the leading information source serving the catalog, Internet, and merchant community. All of the entries are judged by a panel of industry experts who examine the award submissions for the best use of cross-channel marketing, and the award winners were announced at the National Etailing and Mailing Organization of America in Mystic, Connecticut, on September 20, 2012.

We've won the Gold Award for the business-to-business mid-size company category. The winning holiday campaign included catalog, email, website, and Facebook elements. As an award winner, we will be promoted by Multichannel Merchant across its communications channels, and we've received a badge to promote the award to customers.

At Baudville, we strive for excellence in everything we do, from marketing our products to shipping them to our customers. On behalf of the entire team, we’re honored by the Multichannel Merchant Award and excited to receive industry recognition for our team's hard work and creativity!

Interested to see what’s coming this season? You won’t have to wait long! Our 2012 holiday campaign will officially launch in mid-October when our new catalog with new holiday ornaments, employee gifts, and trophies is delivered to customers. If you can’t wait for your new catalog, you can preview our new holiday products on Baudville.com. 

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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.

At Baudville, our Spirit Team is busy meeting behind closed doors and completing top secret projects in preparation of Customer Service Week starting next Monday. Who’s the Spirit Team ? They’re a group of employees representing several different departments at Baudville who put on their party planning hats and organize our employee events. Customer Service Week is one of their biggest since they have to plan for an entire week of appreciation and fun.  And they do a great job! Our Customer Service Week celebrations are always a favorite among the Baudville staff.

We’ve found two major benefits to planning employee events as a team. First, it helps distribute the workload among several individuals. Events like Customer Service Week require a lot of work! It can be too much for one person on top of their full time job responsibilities. Second, the additional minds lend to more creative, original, and unique ideas. With a recurring annual event like Customer Service Week, getting new ideas is imperative to making your team feel appreciated during this holiday. If you’re not currently planning this event as a team, consider recruiting a few individuals to help you next year.

In the meantime, you have the entire Baudville team at your disposal to come up with creative Customer Service Week ideas your team will love! If you’re still searching for a few great ideas to celebrate your team, try our five resources for last minute ideas. I guarantee you’ll find at least one idea both you and your team will love!

1. Browse our Recognition Resource Center. We have resources dedicated to Customer Service and Sales recognition, including lots of articles, tips, and ideas on Customer Service Week!

2. Shop our recommended Customer Service Week gifts and themes. Our team has pulled together some of our favorite Customer Service Week gifts to help you start shopping.

3. Call a Recognition Specialist at 1-800-728-0888. Our team is always ready and willing to help you plan your employee recognition event! They have great product and event knowledge that they are dying to share with you.

4. Engage with us – and your peers! – on social media. One of the best places to get ideas for Customer Service Week is from your peers. Ask us a question on Twitter or Facebook, and our
followers will share their ideas, too.

5. Get ideas on Pinterest. One of my favorite places for event and recognition ideas these days is Pinterest! We’ve created boards for all the major employee recognition holidays, including Customer Service Week, to inspire you and give you some great ideas.

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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.

Friday September 21 is World Gratitude Day 2012! Make the day all about saying thank you for the people you appreciate. Who are you grateful for? Let them know! It’s often the people we appreciate the most who hear “thank you” from us the least. Let’s change that! Use one of these ideas to express thanks and gratitude on World Gratitude Day.

Send an ePraise.  Free, easy, and fast, ePraise are a great way to say thanks on World Gratitude Day. Select your ecard design from over 100 different options and type a personal note to the recipient. You can even schedule the card to be delivered at the date and time of your choosing.



Mail a Thank You Card. Even though the volume of mail being delivered has dwindled, everyone still loves to receive a card in the mail! Drop a card in the mail today with your personal note, and your recipient will feel both appreciated and surprised!

Give a Thank You Gift. Giving a personal gift is a great way to express appreciation! Choose a gift that will be meaningful to the recipient, whether it’s an item for their favorite hobby, a book by a favorite author, or a gift card to their favorite restaurant. If you’re looking for ideas, shop our Thank You Themes.



Say Thanks in Person. It’s wonderful to give someone tangible appreciation in the form of a gift or a note card, but we shouldn’t underestimate the power of saying thank you face-to-face. Seek out the coworker or neighbor and use these four tips to give a sincere thank you.

At a loss for words? We’ve put together over 25 positive feedback phrases and 101 Ways to Praise to help you start writing. We have tips for writing a great thank you note  in our Recognition Resource Center, too.

Next Thursday September 27 is National Thank You Day! Keep the thanks flowing by acting on one of these ideas for that holiday, too!

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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.

Is the fourth quarter a busy time of year at your company? It certainly is for us here at Baudville! We’re launching new products, taking orders for employee Christmas gifts, engraving trophies for award ceremonies, and getting ready for the start of the New Year!

With so much going on, it’s easy to forget to say thank you and appreciate your team’s efforts. It’s important to remember that when we’re really busy, appreciation is more important than ever! Recognition and praise can keep employees engaged, productive, and happy at work.

Managers can’t let recognition fall by the wayside just because things are busy!

To help managers appreciate their team during the busy season, we’re just released four new recognition themes and over forty new employee gifts. Our new recognition themes give managers fresh ways of expressing their appreciation and inspiring staff, and each has unique employee gifts that you’re going to love!

The new themes are each very different and are best used in different situations. Here are my recommendations and new product picks!

The new “You are a Star” recognition theme is great for recognizing employees for their unique contributions. I recommend the colorful on-the-spot items that you can use to encourage your team on the fly. For the most motivation for your money, create a stockpile of memo clips, fun pin packs, and Pocket Praise mini-note cards. These items are all around $3 each or less!

To honor an individual or team at the end of a big project, choose a gift from the “Thanks for Making a Difference” recognition theme. This theme acknowledges all the small acts that go into a big goal, and provides an important reminder to look for the little things that make a big difference in accomplishing your goals. My favorite new gift in this theme is a sleek silver kaleidoscope. Not only is it a unique employee gift, but you can personalize it with up to three lines of engraving!

A new theme for recognizing teamwork, “Supreme Team” should be used to encourage teams during a busy season in business. Pass out water bottles or Twist Top Tumblers, pens, and wrist bands to your team at the start of a busy week to promote teamwork, remind the group of important goals, and let them know you appreciate everything they do!

It’s important to recognize managers, too. The new “Leadership Begins with You” recognition theme is perfect for thanking the individuals who lead teams.  If your managers don’t feel appreciated and receive positive feedback for their performance, they won’t be able to effectively praise their employees.

When you make recognition and appreciation a part of your work routine, you have the ability to influence employee and company performance through increased engagement and productivity. Use one of these new recognition themes and their corresponding employee gifts to show teams appreciation and keep them motivated during the busy fourth quarter!

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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.