It’s Employee Appreciation Day, and instead of whooping it up with my team, I’m in Seattle preparing to wow attendees of the NAIS Annual Conference with our favorite IDville products. As I get set up, I can’t help but think about the whole Baudville office abuzz with energy.

If you’re a follower of the goings on here at Baudville, then you know that we always have a theme for Employee Appreciation Day. This year we’re harnessing the essence of the Summer Olympics, and with the help of our Spirit Team, it promises to be a memorable day filled with team building, medal-achieving activities for everyone.

While the theme may change from year to year, there is always one constant: a handwritten appreciation note waiting at each employee’s desk from their manager. It’s a great way to kick off the day, and gives the recipient a lasting reminder of their value to the company.

While I head off to limber up for my big day, I encourage you to take a moment to write a personal thank you note to every member of your team. After all, it’s your day to show some appreciation!

Do you want to host your own Office Olympics? Read our guide to Office Olympics in the Recognition Resource Center.

How are you celebrating Employee Appreciation Day? Tell us here! 

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Brad Darooge is President and CEO of Baudville and a positive mojo aficionado. He brings the positive mojo to work every day along with his bike. In addition to leading Baudville, Brad is also an amateur triathlete.

With Baudville being its own little universe, a veritable Mulligan Stew of unique personalities and talents, it’s always been my fantasy to have more team members contribute to this blog. This week I got my wish with a guest star from our stellar Customer Service Team. I am geek-tacularly excited!
 
Why from our Customer Service Team? Because it’s Customer Service Week, of course!
 
Meet Ruth, who shares what she loves about the Customer Service Week celebrations we’ve had at Baudville:

It is another busy work day. The phones are ringing, the faxes humming, and emails are whizzing in and out. Your department is alive with activity, and your employees and co-workers are busy doing all of things that make you want to recognize them during Customer Service Week. The thought of pulling people from their routines to participate in some Customer Service Week fun might seem unthinkable. When business peaks and stress levels rise, being able to take a moment away from the typical rush of the work day for recognition is the perfect way to tell employees that you appreciate everything that they do to keep business running.

Some of my favorite moments from Customer Service Week, both present and past, have included being given the gift of time. Whether it was a whole lunch with my entire department or 10 minutes to participate in an activity like a paper airplane throwing contest, the time away is a moment in an otherwise busy day for my brain to stop and say “ahhhhh!”  While the occasional thought of emails piling up in my queue does pop into my head, it’s important to keep in perspective what a short time frame this is and to remember that I have been given this time away as a valuable gift from my managers.

Try giving your employees a little break during your next recognition event. Depending on the needs of your business, it can be longer like a lunch break or a small 10 minute mini-break. To make it extra special, you can accompany it with a small treat like desserts or a scheduled activity like a trivia contest. Your employees will appreciate that you value them enough to give them a gift as important as time.

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Ruth is a customer service pro who has been answering to Baudville’s customers since 2005. She currently spends the majority her time setting up and keeping an eye on custom art requests, so if you have an order with a logo, she’s one of your go-to gals. Outside of the ‘ville, Ruth rocks it in the rink as one of the Grand Raggidy Roller Girls. Look out, this girl’s ruthless!

I wrote in my last post about my past life as a department supervisor. At that time, I was working at a mortgage company that had a massive customer service call center operating out of our building. While this team was on the phones lines, my department was working behind the scenes reviewing mortgage documents and initiating the correction process if mistakes were found. As the perpetual bearers of bad news, we were not very popular folks.

We had a company-wide program called “WOW”, which was our way of recognizing exceptional customer service. While, philosophically-speaking, our organization subscribed to the concept that everyone is a customer, whether external or internal, the only employees who ever won a “WOW” were our call center reps who had received great customer feedback. There’s nothing wrong with that; except… I had a department of 27 hardworking people who had never shaken the hand of our CEO and they were starting to get hostile.

Facing the potential of an angry mob, my team leaders and I leapt to action and created our own program. We used it only within our group to nominate each other for a monthly excellence award. The winner took possession of our travelling trophy – one that we ordered, incidentally, from Baudville:

The trophy passed through the hands of several proud team members before I left to frolic in more literate pastures. Hmmm, I wonder where it is today…

Jumping back to the present, I’m thinking about how the same recognition disparity could happen at Baudville. Except that it doesn’t. Every morning, we read in our comment cards how a customer had a great order experience with Andrea, or Ryan, or Justin, or Mary Jo. Hats off to them for sure for making our customers so dang happy.

But even when our customers have never spoken to us and can’t mention us by name, when I read that a trophy arrived flawlessly engraved, I know that we have Lindsay or another member of our custom team to thank. Or when that same order arrived so quickly that our customer nearly fainted, Marilyn probably helped make that happen. When I read that our web site is easy to use and shopping was a breeze, I know Nik probably worked late to ensure that. Jeff made sure we had enough products in stock to fulfill a massive order without delay. April designed a theme that everyone is raving about. Laura handled a tricky issue with a customer’s invoice.

I sound like I’m tooting our horn a little too loudly, I know. But, really, I’m blaring out the praises of all of the individual Baudvillians who make this place work. Just as we are all customer service, so are all of the members of your staff. How about saying thank you this year during Customer Service Week? It’s right around the corner: October 3-7.

In the spirit of everything I’ve just written, I’m recommending gifts from our TEAM theme:

Its design will appeal to everyone on your team and the message drives home that every person brings value to your organization.

Did this post inspire you to plan a company-wide Customer Service Week celebration? Tell us about it!    

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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!

As the business day approaches its end, hushed whispers bounce around from cubicle to cubicle. “Do you think we’ll get one?” “I heard that we were going to have one.”  4:30 comes and goes… no word, 4:45… nothing. The realization sets in as Baudvillians shuffle papers, finishing their final projects of the day, sighing from the unfulfilled rumors. 4:50, out of the corner of my eye, an email pops up on the computer screen. Casual Day Tomorrow!!!

No email brings greater enjoyment then one proclaiming a Casual Day. Casual Days are cherished events here at Baudville. Rejoicing rushes through the entire building. “Yes! We get to wear jeans tomorrow.”  Being a college student I am personally all for casual dress, so I can’t help but look forward to a Casual Day. For me, Casual Days mean pushing the snooze button 1 extra time.

There are a number of reasons as to why your company can offer Casual Days. Your employees could have achieved a goal of theirs, they might have gone above and beyond by working late, or the company could have had a good sales day. This week several of our teammates were out of the office representing Baudville and Idville at the annual SHRM conference, back at the office, our CEO enticed us with a few Casual Days.

But there was a catch; to obtain our Casual Days we had to wear an “I’m Casual Today” sticker with a creative reason stating why we deserved to be casual. These reasons ranged from I am casual today because: I dominated a project, to I can recite the Jabberwocky passage in Alice in Wonderland. Allowing for lots of conversation and laughter throughout the day, as we read everyone’s I’m casual today stickers.

Casual Days for us are not a day to slack off in our jeans. It is a day when we are appreciated for doing a great job. To keep our morale going, we receive casual days to reiterate the fact that we have been working hard and to keep up the hard work.

As I finish up this blog post its 4:30, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed tomorrow will be day 3 of Casual Days!

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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.

Whew, six weeks into my internship and I am just getting into the Baudville groove! I got my name plate on my cubicle and can finally clear a paper jam in the printer. But I am constantly experiencing new things about Baudville every day. For example do you know how we actually recognize our employees and co-workers?

Last week was a busy week of recognition for the whole company. We had baby showers, birthdays (mine!), casual days, and an entire company meeting. I‘ve never experienced so much celebrating with my co-workers before and who knew it would be such a blast!

I attended my first entire company meeting last week. I know what you are thinking right now, a “dull” meeting cannot include recognition. Absolutely it can and the best part, the meeting becomes exciting! Everyone gathered in a huge room located in our distribution center. Our CEO, Brad Darooge, gave us some encouragement for the upcoming six months and recognized us for achieving goals in the first half of the year.

Next, Cindy, the Human Resources Manager talked about how our Health and Fitness challenge is going thus far. (For those who don’t know, currently we have undergone a “friendly,” 10 week, Health and Fitness competition here at Baudville). On the first day of the competition we all received t-shirts displaying our work out pride. We received new water bottles to stay hydrated. Finally, she opened the floor for employees to share personal Health and Fitness goals. It was a great way for the whole company to encourage and praise people for a job well done.  

Since the whole company got together, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a mini competition. We were given plastic bags, scotch tape, string, and tissue paper. With these random elements we had to cushion an egg so that when it dropped it didn’t splatter everywhere. Whoever kept the yolk in their egg won points for their Health and Fitness challenge team. The absurd concoctions caused a lot of laughter and conversation in the days after.

I also found out this week that birthdays are a huge deal at Baudville. At the beginning of the month, birthday cards get passed from cubicle to cubicle and are filled with special notes or drawings. Then on your birthday, you receive your card with a little present inside. Lastly, you have to choose where your birthday lunch is going to be so co-workers can take you out to celebrate.

These are just some ways we have been recognizing co-workers lately and having fun here at Baudville. Other companies have been doing a great job recognizing as well. Tell me about some big or little ways you’ve recognized your employees or co-workers lately!

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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.