Love at the office? Under normal circumstances, this is probably not recommended. But the kind of love I’m talking about is mutual respect, admiration, and appreciation for the people we work with—and I’ve sure seen a lot of it around the ‘ville lately!

Like when I walk past our lunchroom and see the tables filled with people from all departments breaking bread together. Or pause at the Shout Out Wall to read all the sincere accolades Baudvillians are giving their peers. Or when I see people get truly enthusiastic when they give thanks and compliments to their co-workers.
 
There’s a heck of a lot of love here at Baudville, and it makes me really happy to know that we’ve built a family here that, well, feels like a family.
 
Does this sound like the kind of workplace you’d like to have?
 
If you want a little more love and happiness flowing through your hallways, look into our free tools to help you spread it around. Visit our Recognition Resource Center today and find free ePraise, Print & Posts, downloads, & more!
 
Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

How do you promote appeciation, respect, and unity in your organization? 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 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!

As our newest marketing Baudvillian, Kendra, mentioned in her last post, we are currently in the throes of a 10-week fitness challenge. You might be wondering what this health & wellness challenge is about and how you can you initiate one at your workplace? Here are some tips to get you started:

Decide what you want to focus on. The main focus of our challenge is activity – getting people moving and energized. We earn one point for every minute of exercise; plus, we get bonus points for other activities, like: drinking adequate water daily, giving back to the community, attending health-related learning sessions, entering a sports event or marathon, and quitting a bad habit. A well-rounded program that incorporates exercise, healthy eating, and stress management will be the most successful.

Invite and survey participants. We held informational meetings to explain the program and encourage participation, and we also handed out a survey that asked participants to list their wellness goals and rate their current health, activity, and motivation levels. On the surveys we also asked for team captain volunteers.   

Choose captains and build teams. We used the surveys to create equitable teams, doing our best to find a mix of participants without any team having an obvious advantage. We also assembled the teams with participants from different departments. People who day-to-day have very little reason to communicate are now chatting in the hallways. What a great way to build company-wide camaraderie!

And, finally, for the captains, we tried to pick energetic people who would be able to keep their teams strong and on target.   

Get your game on. To get everyone excited about the challenge, we had t-shirts printed with fun sayings.

We wear them here at the ‘ville on casual days and whenever we take part in local fitness events, like the 5/3 River Bank Run.

We also energize the participants with updates on the teams’ point totals. A little healthy competition is great for driving team members to do what it takes to be in that number one slot.

Motivate, motivate, motivate. While 10 weeks is a reasonable time frame – enough time to see results, without dragging it out too long – there is a lot of potential to lose steam. Truth is, I could use a kick in the pants myself right now. Somehow, this past week I accrued zero activity points. Like the tree sloths of South America, I may have actually grown moss on my back!

Losing momentum can happen; but a little rallying with my team will be all I need to get back on track!     

Keep it up. We have about two weeks left in our challenge; but what happens after that? The purpose of the challenge is to try to raise awareness about ongoing healthy behavior and create the framework for lasting lifestyle changes.

We’ve had some major success stories already, and that progress alone can be enough to maintain our determination and give others the encouragement they need to step it up and keep it up. I’m really excited about the achievements I’ve seen so far and I hope in the coming weeks to be able to share their stories!

Have you had a health & wellness challenge at your workplace? We'd love for you to tell us about it 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!  
 

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.

At Baudville, we encourage all of our customers to celebrate Employee Appreciation Day. Annually acknowledged on the first Friday in March (March 4 this year), Employee Appreciation Day reminds managers, bosses, and employers to appreciate the individuals who keep the company running.

Celebrating Employee Appreciation Day can be a simple celebration when you get the entire team involved. Peer recognition will make everyone feel appreciated on Employee Appreciation Day, and it can be continued long after the day has passed.

Ben over at UpstartHR is one of our friends in the HR industry (I told you about his ebook yesterday) who recently tried out Shout Outs at one of his facilities. Even before the program was officially launched, employees were using the notes to thank and encourage their teammates. He wrote his own blog entry about the program here.

Shout Outs in use.

To use a peer recognition program on Employee Appreciation Day:

 First thing in the morning on Employee Appreciation Day, clearly communicate how the program works.
 Make the tools accessible to everyone.
 Utilize the power of public recognition. Post the notes in a public location so everyone can read them.
 Talk about the recognition at the end of the day. Pull the team together and read some of the outstanding notes.
 To make your Employee Appreciation Day peer recognition activity even more exciting, create small awards and present them at the end of the day. For example, you could honor the most eloquently written shout out, best haiku shout out, and the individual who received the most accolades.

Read more about peer recognition in these blog posts:
Everything You Wanted to Know About Peer-to-Peer Recognition Programs
How to Boost your Recognition Program with Peer Shout Outs
Peer Recognition is Coming to your ‘Ville

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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.

Retirement and healthcare benefits have dominated the discussion on total rewards lately as public employee benefits have been scrutinized. But benefits aren’t the only component of a total rewards program that is significantly impacting the workforce right now.

Employee engagement surveys have revealed that employees don’t feel appreciated in their current roles. In fact, as many as two thirds of employees are actively looking for a new position right now, and one of the primary contributors to the discontent is a lack of appreciation. More than half of respondents in an Aon Hewitt survey said being appreciated would motivate them to stay at their organization.

We all know that recognition can improve employee engagement, yet many organizations and managers fail to implement more appreciation into their routines. And it’s so easy to do! Here are five strategies that every manager, supervisor - even employees - can practice to improve employee engagement.

 Feedback
Employees desire feedback about their work. You can implement weekly one-on-one or team meetings to add regular feedback to your schedule. These are great opportunities to review work, projects, or goals and give advice. Be open to receive feedback, too. Your employees are very familiar with your work, and listening to their feedback will likely make you a better manager.

  Thank Yous
This is the easiest way to improve employee engagement, and it should be a natural part of any management strategy. Say thank you! Every day! Common courtesies like saying thank you can have a huge impact on employee engagement and make employees feel more appreciated.

To make your thank yous more memorable, write it down. Handwritten thank you notes are often saved, displayed, and reread. Some people even make their thank you note collections official by naming them, such as Bravo File or Feel Good File.  

 Fun
Don’t be afraid to have fun at work. We spend a lot of time at work, but it doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy ourselves! Having more fun at work can be as simple as celebrating birthdays, incorporating team games, or having a team mascot. Peer recognition programs can also add fun to an organization and increase team member interaction. We’ve had some pretty creative peer recognition notes passed between team mates! When employees enjoy their work environment, they’ll be more committed to staying.

 Time
Show employees you truly appreciate their efforts by rewarding them with the gift of time. Give hardworking employees a pass to leave early or extra paid time off to make up for long hours. Our employees even love receiving casual days during busy times because they don’t have to spend as much time worrying about what to wear to work. When you respect employees’ time, they’ll reward you with increased effort (and engagement) during work hours.

 Gift
When you recognize employees, give them something to remember the recognition. Non-cash recognition continues to out-perform cash recognition in performance and recall indicators. Check out our non-cash recognition white paper for more stats to back this up. If you want your appreciation to stick and engagement to increase, give a gift with your recognition!  

Employee engagement has a significant impact on any business, but thankfully it can be impacted with simple strategies and sincere appreciation. What are you waiting for? Start retaining your high performers today!

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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.