Character Pins are one of our staple recognition products at Baudville, and they’re popular because they can be used in a variety of recognition situations. As a continuation of our How-To Recognition blog series, I share ten situations where Character Pins are a great recognition gift.

1. Office Birthdays. Give a Happy Birthday Character Pin to acknowledge an employee’s birthday. It’s both a gift and greeting card.

2. Anniversaries. Present a Happy Anniversary Character Pin to recognize an employee’s years of service. You can customize the pin with the number of years you’re celebrating.

3. Team Recognition. Recognize a team for the completion of a project by selecting a different Character Pin for each team member. For an extra personal touch, read the stories when you present the Character Pins for an award presentation the team won’t forget.

4. Holiday Recognition. Thank your employees at the end of the year with a holiday Character Pin that expresses your gratitude for all their hard work and optimism for the new year.

5. Volunteer Appreciation. Retain volunteers by recognizing their contributions and expressing your appreciation for all they do. I recommend a Thanks or Appreciation Character Pin.

6. Customer Service Week. Give front line employees something to display with a service themed Character Pin. We just released two new Customer Service Character Pins for this year's Customer Service Week celebrations. Be sure to check them both out!

7. Student Award. Want to make a child’s day? Present a Character Pin as a student of the month award.

8. Celebrate an Accomplishment. Make a big deal about a co-worker’s promotion, graduation or certificate with a Character Pin that recognizes her success.

9. Just to Say Thank You. It doesn’t have to be a special occasion for it to be the right time to tell someone, thank you. To make it memorable, write a personal note on the back of a Thanks For All You Do Character Pin.

10. Everyday Awards. Have a variety of Character Pins available, and present them to employees on a regular basis to say Great Job.

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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.

We all know recognition is important in a work environment, but how do you continue to give recognition that’s sincere and meaningful? This is a topic that various writers and employee recognition experts have tackled in the Authentic Recognition series on the Ready to Feedback blog managed by Sonia Di Maulo.

Today, I had the privilege of contributing a post on the series, “Regular Recognition Says It Best.” Check it out!

Then let me know how you give authentic recognition. How do you define authentic recognition? What does authentic recognition look like in your organization? How do you help your managers give recognition that is authentic and effective?

Leave your response as a comment on this post, and we'll continue the discussion of authentic recognition that Sonia started right here on the Baudville blog!

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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.

I’m not going to tell you that it’s all fun & games up here in creative-ville, but every once in awhile, we do get to have a laugh. We certainly did when we were working on the new Positive Praise recognition theme. The Goofy Guy Squeezable Praise became everyone’s favorite new projectile and the Goofy Guy Pens were the perfect remedy whenever things started to get a little too tense.

Having fun at work not only lowers stress and improves morale, it can also increase productivity. I’ve see it first hand in our department, but this WorldatWork article does a great job of backing me up as well.  

If you need to have more fun in your office, our Positive Praise theme is an excellent place to start. Maybe you took the quiz in that link I just posted. If so, let’s see how you scored.

If you answered mostly no, I’m afraid your situation is pretty grave. You’re going to need to take serious measures to increase employee morale. For this, I prescribe:

Totally Wacky

   

In your next meeting, toss the Goofy Guy to someone who has a great idea or suggestion. It will lighten the mood, plus the “woo-hoo” sentiment on the back is perfect on-the-spot praise. The talking and bobble-head pens are another way to lift spirits. It’s pretty hard to scowl with one of these grinning back at you.

If you were about 50-50, then you need:

A Little Bit of Silly

   

These notepads come with a smiley-face pen for a lighthearted yet useful reward. The Appreciation Gift Sets feature a sweet treat for your team members to enjoy now, plus a fun keychain they can use every day. 

If you answered mostly yes, then you’re in good shape. You just need some:

Everyday Fun

  

Both the Pocket Praise and Cheers Kit in this fun theme have brightly-colored notes and great sentiments for day-to-day recognition. They’re just what you need to keep up the momentum!

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Allison is Baudville’s one (and only) Copywriter. She’s been writing for a variety of media for more than nine years, so if she tells you she has been there and done that, she probably has. Before embarking on a career in writing, Allison worked as a department manager where she used Baudville products to motivate her team. She’s what we call a true believer!

Next in our How-To Recognition series is a focus on our new Happy Birthday recognition theme. Everyone has a birthday therefore every employer struggles with whether or not to celebrate employee birthdays in the office. I shared best practices on celebrating birthdays in the office in our Recognition TV Webisode today, and you can watch the recorded version on Baudville.com or Baudville’s Facebook page. Most of my tips, ideas and best practices are below.

Celebrate!
The official Baudville stance on birthdays is: celebrate! Birthdays are a great opportunity to let employees know that they matter, you value them, and to foster a sense of belonging and camaraderie. On the other hand, ignoring birthdays can be hurtful to employees. Ignoring a birthday sends a message to employees that the company doesn’t value what’s happening in their life outside of work. Acknowledging employee birthdays, in small but sincere ways, can improve employee engagement and loyalty to the company.

Be Consistent
For your birthday celebrations to be effective, they must be consistent! That means all employees receive similar treatment on their birthdays regardless of their position, department or manager. At Baudville, every employee receives a birthday card that is signed by the entire team on their birthday. This simple gesture means a lot, and employees look forward to reading all the well wishes from their co-workers.

Be Sincere
The number one rule with any form of recognition is to make it personal to the recipient. Before you create a company-wide birthday program, like our birthday card program, ask employees for their ideas. You’ll receive a wide variety of responses and some great ideas that you can use.

Keep it simple!
Since everyone in the organization will receive the same treatment on their birthday, you want to budget accordingly. Don’t spend a lot on elaborate parties or gifts, or create a program that requires a lot of your time. While a birthday celebration can be meaningful to employees, it shouldn’t be your top work priority.

Ideas for Birthdays!
Here’s what you really want, ideas for celebrating birthdays! I want to hear your ideas and current practices, too. Post a comment on this blog post sharing your best practice, and I’ll send you a set of birthday cards, free!

• Communicate birthdays by posting a sign on a public bulletin board, putting it on the intranet, in a company newsletter, the company blog or even corporate Facebook page.
• Decorate employees’ desks with balloons, banners and crepe paper before they get to work on their birthday. You can get all these decorations at the dollar store!
• Have the entire team sign a birthday card or certificate.
• Write a note inside our new Happy Birthday Character Pin and give a memento with your birthday wishes.
• Have everyone write a Happy Birthday Pocket Praise for the co-worker. It will be a lot of fun to open all those cards!
• Give the employee a Happy Birthday lapel pin so everyone knows she’s celebrating. To make it extra special, give her a casual day on her birthday, too.
• For a small gift everyone will like, stock up on Sweet Treats or Treat Bags. These Happy Birthday themed gifts are small enough you can give them to everyone and big enough to satisfy a sweet tooth.
• Bring in a cake or dessert to share with the entire team.
• Celebrate birthdays once a month by hosting a reception with refreshments in honor of the employees who just had birthdays. Everyone can join in on the camaraderie and dessert.

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On the surface, Kurt is Baudville’s mild-mannered Director of Sales, but when it comes to recognition, he quickly turns into the dashing Director of Positive Mojo. Using his powers as a Certified Recognition Professional, Kurt infuses his team with recognition knowledge and experience, while encouraging them to practice daily recognition with his energetic and creative flair. We’re pretty sure there’s a cape hanging from the back of his door.

Yesterday, I read a press release announcing that the Best Western River North Hotel in Chicago is using social media to recognize one of its star employees, Wallace. Wallace has recently been nominated for the Illinois Hotel & Lodging Association’s Star of the Industry Award, and a Facebook page was created to support Wallace (and maybe influence the judging!).

If having a Facebook page dedicated to him wasn’t a big enough compliment, customers quickly filled up the wall with their favorite Wallace stories. Some of the stories were from hotel stays two years ago! Other repeat customers confessed that they stay at the hotel because they want to use Wallace’s extensive knowledge of the city and ability to get the best deals.

I wasn’t even aware of this hotel before, but the stories of the exemplary service and great city knowledge made me want to plan a visit to Chicago!

Since many organizations are still becoming familiar with social media as a communication tool, the Best Western River North Hotel is certainly a leader in the employee recognition arena. Other than the standard “happy anniversary” or “happy birthday” tweets on Twitter, employee recognition hasn’t made it on many social media platforms - yet.

Wallace is a great example of the impact you could have when you praise your employees on social media.  Combining social media and employee recognition has three powerful effects:

1. It makes the super star feel super proud….and committed.
The Facebook page is a great way to give Wallace public recognition that reaches beyond the walls of the hotel. Not only is Wallace being recognized in front of his co-workers, but customers, friends and family can all be a part of his accomplishment. Do you think an employee who’s treated this grandly is going to think about leaving? No way!

2. It motivates others.
Didn’t those stories about Wallace make you feel good? Wouldn’t it be nice if someone wrote those nice things about you? I’m sure the employees at Best Western River North Hotel are already inspired by Wallace’s performances, but I think they’ll have a little extra spring in their step after they see the Facebook page.

3. It makes your company look good.
Visitors to Wallace’s page will look around, read a few customer stories, and decide where they’ll stay on their next Chicago trip. Not only does the company treat its employees well, but those employees create a fantastic experience for the customers.

While many companies aren’t using social media to proclaim their employees’ good works yet, I predict we’ll start to see much more of it in the coming months, thanks to Wallace.

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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.

Celebrating birthdays at work can be tricky. Some people love a big production, and others prefer to be more private about their big day. Some managers go all out with for their employees’ birthdays and others aren’t even aware birthdays exist.

Something as simple as birthday celebration inequities within your organization can hurt employee morale, loyalty and camaraderie. Creating a company-wide birthday program can level the playing field and make all employees feel appreciated and valued on their birthday.

I’ve prepared a 15 minute video webisode all about celebrating birthdays in the office. I’ll share best practices to guide the creation of your birthday program and lots of ideas that you can use. My ideas are easy to implement and show that you can celebrate employee birthdays without spending a lot of time or money.

To register for the Birthday Best Practices Recognition TV webisode, visit Baudville.com. I’ll see you next Thursday, August 12 at 11:30am EST!

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On the surface, Kurt is Baudville’s mild-mannered Director of Sales, but when it comes to recognition, he quickly turns into the dashing Director of Positive Mojo. Using his powers as a Certified Recognition Professional, Kurt infuses his team with recognition knowledge and experience, while encouraging them to practice daily recognition with his energetic and creative flair. We’re pretty sure there’s a cape hanging from the back of his door.

I found this great article in my reader last week by Career Matters titled, “Are you getting the recognition you deserve at work?” The article got some attention on Twitter after I tweeted the link, so I decided it would be valuable to expand on the topic and deliver it to our Baudville blog readers. You can read the original article here.

It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine at work and lose sight of the importance of appreciation. This has been especially true over the last year/year and a half when workloads increased as a result of the decrease in the workforce.  We tend to get so focused on our goals, our projects, our results that we forget to say thank you to the people who help make the results happen.

High performers who consistently do a good job are often the ones who get the short end of the stick because managers more often give feedback and pay more attention to low performers. As a result, high performers can feel ignored and unappreciated. This leads your top talent to look for new jobs where they will be appreciated.

While some managers adopt a “no news is good news” management strategy, it doesn’t motivate and inspire high performers. If you need more encouragement to be successful and engaged in your position, try these four suggestions to get more recognition at work.

Encourage Recognition. Be direct with your boss or manager about your feelings. Translate it into business-talk, too. Let your manager know you’ll be more engaged, motivated and productive if you receive feedback and recognition for your work, which means better results for the team and the company. Help your manager improve by offering some helpful suggestions, such recommending your boss give you feedback after a major project.

Make it Easy for your Manager. Once you’ve been direct with your manager, make it easy for him! When your manager stops by your desk to chat or you have your one-on-one meeting, sing a few of your praises. Your manager may not be aware of all the great things you do everyday, so tell him! It will make it easier for him to give recognition when he knows what should be recognized. Give your manager a list of your recognition preferences (you can use our free Tell Us About You form) so he knows how to best recognize you.

Recognize Your Co-Workers. You can create a grassroots employee recognition program at your organization by giving recognition yourself. Recognition is contagious, and you will be able to watch it spread throughout your organization. Once you start recognizing co-workers or employees with handwritten notes, a Token of Appreciation or an ePraise, they will be so impacted by the gesture that they will start to give recognition, too.

Recognize your Manager. Middle managers also get slighted in the recognition department, so congratulate your manager when he has an outstanding performance or the team meets a goal. When your manager experiences the motivating power of recognition first hand, he’s more likely to reciprocate the feeling.

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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 part of our new How-To series, today’s post is all about easy-to-give notes and how darn easy they are to give. Read on!

The two most common reasons we hear for not giving employee recognition are “I’m too busy” and “We don’t have the budget.” Well, what if giving recognition took less time than a trip to the vending machine and cost (a lot) less than a Diet Coke? You could probably do that, right?

Ringing in at just 20¢ per note, our new 50 Daily Recognition Notes peel & stick to almost any surface and come in pads that fit easily in your pocket.

  

Keep them on hand and you’ll be:

Ready. How many times has one of your team members done something great and you made a mental note to recognize it, but by the time you got back to your desk, the whole incident just completely slipped your mind? Sure, you may wake up at 4:00 a.m. and remember, but it’s a little late then. Next time, don’t be caught empty handed. Instead, get:

Set. At the start of the day, tuck one of these note pads in your pocket, grab a pen, and keep your eyes and ears open. Awesomeness could strike at any moment. Now you’ll be prepared to:

Recognize. Did someone share a bright idea in a meeting, or stay late to finish a project, or make a customer really happy, or pitch in to help a coworker? Don’t just stand there; get out that note pad, pull the pen from behind your ear, and write down a note of thanks. Now, on your way to pick up that afternoon refreshment, make a quick detour to that person’s desk, peel off that note, and post it on whatever it will stick to.

That’s all there is to it!

(Just one thing: these pads were actually designed to sit on your desktop; but I’m a bit of a rebel. I like the fact that they’ll just as easily fold flat and fit in your back or shirt pocket, or tuck into your weekly planner. We don’t really care how you use them; just that you do!)    

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Allison is Baudville’s one (and only) Copywriter. She’s been writing for a variety of media for more than nine years, so if she tells you she has been there and done that, she probably has. Before embarking on a career in writing, Allison worked as a department manager where she used Baudville products to motivate her team. She’s what we call a true believer!

We know our customers are always looking for a good deal, – who isn’t these days? – so we’ve added a new special offer to Baudville.com: weekly deals!

Available each Monday, our weekly deal will feature one Baudville product at a discounted price – up to 50% off! You will want to act fast because the deal is only available for one week, and there is a limited quantity of product available.

Take advantage of our weekly deals to stock up on employee recognition gifts and get introduced to new recognition themes and products you otherwise may not have noticed. Our inaugural offer is the It Takes Teamwork Adhesive Note Cube 50% off for $4.95.

We have a great line up of weekly deals coming your way! Use these special sales to add some positive mojo to your employee recognition efforts. Check Baudville.com each Monday for the new deal!

Frequently Asked Questions about Baudville’s Weekly Deal

How long are these great deals available?
Each deal is available for one week only. Quantities are limited so when the item is gone you'll have to wait until the next weekly deal. Past offers are not available after the deal is over - if you have added a deal to your shopping cart but did not complete the order by Sunday at midnight (EST), the price will go back to it's original price and the deal item will be removed from your cart.

How many deals are available each week?
One great item will be featured each week. No changes or substitutions are allowed.

What time does the new weekly deal appear?
The weekly deal will change out on Sunday at Midnight (EST). So, every Monday there will be a new deal.

Can I get these great deals when I call and place an order?
Nah, that’d be too easy. Weekly Deal items are only available online.

How much does shipping cost?
Regular shipping rates apply based on your method selection.

Is there a limit on how many I can buy at these great prices?
No. Feel free to order how many you want, but quantities are limited.

What kinds of products get featured on Weekly Deals?
A wide range of employee recognition products can be featured. Check back each week so you don't miss out!

Can I return a Weekly Deals item?
Yes, it's easy to return a Baudville.com purchase. See our Returns Policy for complete details. Weekly deal items cannot be exchanged with other items for the weekly deal price. Original list price will be charged for exchanges to another product.

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Kimberly is the Baudville Website Manager and star of our online product videos. She applies her knowledge of the web to create the ultimate online experience for Baudville customers.

We just released over 250 new products at Baudville, which may leave you thinking: Cool products! But how do I use them at my organization?

I’m glad you asked.

Our new signature product, Tokens of Appreciation, has a lot of potential for creating an awesome employee recognition program, and I’m going to take 15 minutes next week to tell you some my ideas. Attending the webisode will be a great way to find out if the Tokens are a good fit for your organization.

Register on our Recognition TV page so you don’t miss any of my tips and ideas. Plus, there’s a chance there will be a special offer for attendees after the webisode. A very good chance. Wink wink.

See you next Thursday!

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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.