Achievements. Proudly displayed in offices, cubicles, in waiting rooms, on bookshelves, in the way we hold our heads high, shoulders back, walk with a pep in our step... we take pride in our achievements in many different ways. Being recognized for the value that we bring to our jobs, to our communities, to our families, is important. When we're recognized for our contributions, we want to do more.

It's important to note that not all achievements have to be acknowledged with grandiose crystal trophies. In fact, I would argue that smaller, more frequent acts of recognition and appreciation are more powerful than that once-in-a-blue-moon super celebration. And when the acknowledgement comes from all levels throughout the organization - peers, managers, leaders - the impact it has is more pronounced.

Our all-new Collect Your Flair Kits give you a program for recognizing defined behaviors throughout your organization, ultimately creating a culture of recognition and appreciation.

Kristy Sherlund, Baudville's VP of Product and Merchandising, explains the inspiration for our new Collect Your Flair Kits, "When I looked around most workspaces I found certificates hung on the walls, awards decorating desktops, and notes pinned up on cubicle walls – each representing a proud moment for the person displaying it. The power of pride can go viral and that's the kind of contagiousness, as a business leader, we want spreading around our offices. We designed our new Collect Your Flair Kits as a way for you to build a little friendly competition surrounded with pride in everyday achievements. So go ahead, spread the love and watch spirits soar!"

Each Kit includes 120 pieces of Flair Wear(TM), and you choose whether you'd like your team to collect and display their flair on lanyards or desktop frames.

The power is in the execution – define the behaviors you're going to reward, communicate with your team, and keep your eyes peeled for moments of greatness. Give flair, get results, and watch your team's success blossom!

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As a team member since 2005, Falon has worn just about every hat the ‘ville has to offer. She’s seen both sides of working life — as an employee and as a manager — so if it sounds like she knows what she’s talking about, we’re pretty sure that’s why. When she’s not juggling between the IDville and Baudville brands, she’s been known to whip up a mean diorama - just like that!

Don’t have the budget to host a summer picnic for your employees? You don’t have to! You can boost employee morale and engagement with low cost activities right in your office.

At Baudville, our favorite employee celebrations include an activity every day of the week, like during Customer Service Week. You can put on a week-long celebration for your team – just because! – with a summer camp theme. We’ve come up with all the activities for you, so the hard work is already done!

Day One – Welcome employees to “camp” with a Sweet Treat on their desk and materials to decorate their camp name badges using paper ID badge stock. Display the new name tags in badge holders and lanyards. Encourage campers to wear their new IDs by giving on-the-spot prizes to campers sporting their badges.


Day Two – What camp is complete without arts and crafts!? Plan a craft like building photo frames out of popsicle sticks or making friendship bracelets. Set up an arts and crafts station in a central location, and encourage campers to visit it all week to work on their creations. Then, display your crafts in the office!

Day Three – Test your campers’ aim with your own archery field. Draw a target on a white board in a meeting room and mark the shooting line with a piece of masking tape. You can arm your campers with either a toy bow and arrow or rubber bands. Present certificates to the campers with the highest score.

Day Four – Host a camp potluck lunch. Ask your team to bring their favorite picnic dish to share and a copy of the recipe. Create a cookbook out of the recipes and give it to every camper at the end of the week.

Day Five – Divide your campers into two teams, and begin a game of capture the flag in your office! The objective of capture the flag is to discover the opposing team’s flag and return it safely to your home territory. For a work-friendly version, hide several flags around the office. The team to find the most flags by the end of the day wins!



Day Six – End the week with a campfire. Gather your team in a meeting room or outside gathering area to share a treat together. If you’ve taken pictures of the different activities throughout the week, show them in a slide show set to camp songs. Present each camper a certificate of completion to celebrate their successful week at “camp!”

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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.

Back in 2009, Baudville decided it was time to re-invent itself. We hired a consulting firm who redesigned our logo, our color scheme, the look and feel of our marketing materials, and the tone of our messaging. As I write this, I feel like I’m revealing the man behind the curtain; but, hey, we’re all business people here and we know that this is what happens in the corporate world. Meijer did it. JCPenney did it. We did it.

This was an incredibly exciting time for everyone in the creative group, including me, a very recent hire. Our big reveal was going to be at the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) Annual Conference and Expo in July of that year, and between January and that date, huge amounts of time and energy and resources went into making it the shindig of all shindigs.

That was the year that our now-famous Baudville T-Shirts made the scene as well, and, like everything else we did, it was a team effort to write the witty sayings that emblazoned each shirt back.

Fast forward to 2012 and we’re on our fourth iteration of our team’s tees. Being the copywriter, I'm the one who is supposed to responsible for them these days; but I have to tell you: after fishing from the same pond for several years, all I’ve managed to catch from my own brain are an old tire, a rusty hanger, and something that looks like it was once a toy truck.

I knew I was going to need some help, so I enlisted a group of some of the most talented people I know: the Baudvillians! But the thing about Baudvillians is that they like to compete and they’re in it to win it. So, I couldn’t just schedule a brainstorming meeting; I had to challenge them with a contest and, of course, the opportunity to win prizes.

For about a week, I accepted ideas from everyone: on paper, via email, shouted at me from across the lunch room… and I ended up with more than 100 individual sayings by the end of the day Friday.

I worked with my immediate team to narrow them down, and was happy to announce winners from almost every department in our company. How cool is that?

Here are our contest winners:

In addition to other glamorous prizes, they got to choose a favorite shirt from the winning mix. As you can see, some were really popular! 

Their shirt ideas are being sported RIGHT NOW by our team at SHRM in Atlanta, Georgia! You can follow all the hoopla happening there on Facebook and Twitter now through June 27!

Do you have a favorite shirt from this year? Or a favorite way to engage your team in company activities? Tell us about it here!

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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 three years and has worked in a variety of business settings for more than 18 years. Before becoming a professional writer 11 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!  
 

I don’t know about you, but I am terrible at sending written notes. I hear it is a problem with my generation, but I think every generation is losing their will to send out hand written notes. This is really too bad because people truly feel appreciated and cared about when you take a little extra time out of your day to write a special note. Luckily for us, we can start 2012 off right because January is National Thank You Month!

 

First let’s recap on how to write a thank you note. (For some of us it might have been awhile!)

1.    Start with a greeting and the Recipient's name.
           a.    Dear Baudville Blog Readers,
2.    Express your gratitude to them for something they have specifically done.
           a.    I really appreciate your dedication to reading our blog posts and your desire to change your employees’ experience in the workplace. I truly enjoy all your wonderful comments and ideas.
3.    Express your thanks once again and sign your name.
           a.    Thanks for being so awesome,
                  Kendra

Dear Baudville Blog Readers,
I really appreciate your dedication to reading our blog posts and your desire to change your employee’s experience in the workplace. I truly enjoy all your wonderful comments and ideas.
Thanks for being awesome,
Kendra 

WOW, it really is that easy to brighten up someone’s day! So why don’t we write thank yous more often?

Here to help are some of Baudville’s great products and themes that you can use to say thanks! 

 

 

Write a hand written note of thanks on our Thanks for All You Do! themed Shout Out,  then post the Shout Out. The nice thing about Shout Outs is that it gives you a little cheat sheet with ideas to recognize team members for. This is located right above the individual Shout Out sheets that you tear off to write a note.

 

Recognize a job well done with one of our fun and colorful Thank You themed pocket praise. Pocket Praises are small cards that are perfect for setting on a desktop or hanging on the wall of a cubicle.
        

 

Say thanks in a unique way. Our G-Thanks themed Birchwood note cards  are an eco-friendly way to express your gratitude.  Wooden note cards can be easily written on with a pen, pencil, or marker.

 

Leave a quick thank you sticky note at a team member’s desk. Our Thank You themed Sticky Note Booklet  comes with many sized sticky notes for you to choose from.

So, let’s take 5 minutes out of our weeks this month to write a team member a thank you note. That’s 5 thank you notes and 25 minutes out of the whole month of January. We can do it!

 

Share some of your hand written thank you note tips with me!

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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.

 

While working as a department supervisor, I had a team leader reporting to me who had a peculiar ritual: at the start of each day and again at 3:00 in the afternoon she and her team would stand up and sing together “Deep in the Heart of Texas,” complete with hand claps during the refrains. This was odd to me, for one because we were located in Michigan, and two because, well, I just didn’t get it. I thought it was annoying, disruptive, and total a waste of time. And, in the end, I actually told her she had to stop. This didn’t go over well, and I became even less popular than I already was.

Now that I’ve had many years to mature and reflect on my period of tyranny, I’ve come to see it all more clearly. What she knew that I didn’t at the time was that these breaks in the work day were critical to maintaining high morale, keeping her team energized, and building unity among everyone. And to think I destroyed all of that with one single no. :sigh:

Here at Baudville, I’ve participated in many different diversions during the workday that may seem absurd, or appear to be nothing more than straight-up goofing off; but I can assure you that the value they bring will buy back the time spent ten-fold.

For example, the creative team works in a deadline-driven environment that experiences drastic ebbs and flows in workload. Some days we’re shouting frantic updates over the cube walls and crashing in to one another running to and from the printer; others we are struggling to concentrate under the absence of any pressure.

When the heat is on, taking a brief intermission to play a game of ping pong relaxes the nerves, gets the blood pumping, and refuels an exhausted mind. All of us have found that when we work straight through without any breaks, we’ve completely lost steam by late afternoon – yet, somehow, we need to keep going. In contrast, it’s these short, non-working moments that give us the mental and emotional nourishment to push on.

When the heat is not on, pausing for a 10-minute round of Bananagrams can turn lethargy into levity – just like that! Creative activities like this get our brains churning, inspire conversations, and sometimes create hilarious moments that end up forming powerful bonds.

No matter what type of environment you’re in – faced-paced, slow & steady, or a little of both – your team will benefit from some spontaneous fun. Visit our brand new, totally revamped Recognition Resource Center to get all kinds of ideas. Read articles, download free print & posts, and even watch funny videos.

And, for goodness’ sake, take some advice from a former Scrooge: if you’ve ever looked on a form of workplace merry-making with contempt or disapproval, I encourage you to lighten up and take a fresh perspective – and maybe even join in. You’ll foster an atmosphere where people flourish and look forward to coming to work. Because being light-hearted really is serious business!

What kinds of activities do you do during the workday to energize and rejuvenate yourself and your team? Share your ideas here!

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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 three years and has worked in a variety of business settings for more than 18 years. Before becoming a professional writer 11 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!