Knowing that our customers love to see new designs and are always looking for fresh ways to give recognition, we’re continually developing new themes.

To welcome the New Year, we looked at the three top requests on our customers’ wish lists and responded with these:  

The Best Made Even Better.
Essential Piece® has always been one of Baudville’s #1 themes. How, then, do we improve on what seems to be perfection? How about a fresh new look? At its heart, it’s still the reliable standby with it’s signature message, but on the outside it’s cool, polished, and, I think, pretty hip! Check this out:

My favorite new product in this theme is this porcelain water bottle:

It’s sophisticated, functional, and by far the most interesting way to hydrate I’ve seen in a while!

Caution: Awesomeness Ahead.
One industry that needs a little more attention from the ‘ville is manufacturing. And one topic that’s on the minds of everyone in that industry is workplace safety. We created the Serious About Safety theme to help managers encourage and reward their employees when they adhere to safe practices. The theme features useful products, like earplugs and drinkware, as well as fun products, like Hard Hat Mints and Shout Outs™.

I love the reflective stickers probably the most because, knowing that there aren’t many desktops and cubicle walls on the production floor, they’re a great way to still show off achievements!

Have You Met Your Dream Team?
If you haven’t yet, you might want to give our new Teamwork Makes the Dream Work theme a try! We created this theme to appeal to a wide audience: newbies to long-timers, starched shirts to blue collars, guys to gals. Every member of your team will love the energizing design and the inspiring message.

Plus, this theme includes our all-new Event Kit:

It features everything you need to hold a bang-up meeting, kick off a new company initiative, or host a cohesive, professional-looking event.

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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 four years and has worked in a variety of business settings for more than 19 years. Before becoming a professional writer 12 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 was an active spectator of the London 2012 Olympics. I filled my DVR with events and competitions and watched nearly every evening of the games. Now, I feel a little lost. What do you mean there’s no competitive swimming or gymnastics on network TV? What am I supposed to do now!?

Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one who was full of the Olympic spirit. We had 26 entries for the Baudville Games. Teams submitted creative and crazy pictures for each of our Office Olympic events: Rubber Band Archery, Binder Clip Diving, Mental Gymnastics, and Office Soccer. If the pictures are any indication, the teams had a lot of fun participating in the events!

As we close the Baudville Games, I want to congratulate the winners one more time and share their award-winning pictures. Each team earned $200 Baudville credit for the winning pictures!

Rubber Band Archery: Great River Health Systems


Binder Clip Diving: Great River Health Systems


Mental Gymnastics: Red Hat


Office Soccer: Red Hat

 
Did you enjoy participating in the Baudville Games and want another event? Tell us what your event ideas in the comments below!

If you missed the Baudville Games, don’t worry! You can still host your own Office Olympics. Get all the game rules in our Office Games eBook  and free downloads for the events  in our Recognition Resource Center.

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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.

Congratulations to Red Hat for their victory in Mental Gymnastics last week! Their spirited picture captured over 100 likes on Facebook ! Red Hat wins $200 credit to use towards awards, lapel pins, recognition tools, and gifts. Congrats!

This week we turn our attention from Gymnastics to the exciting world of soccer, or football as it’s known in the international community. Last week, the U.S. women’s soccer team won gold after an exciting and sometimes nail biting tournament. The team had the opportunity of a rematch against the Japanese team, their 2011 World Cup opponents. Congratulations to the U.S. team on their victory!

Will you be victorious this week? In our fourth and final week of the Baudville Games, teams will compete in Office Soccer. It’s easy to play!

How to Play Office Soccer:
1. Grab the nearest inter-department memo on office slacking –or grab our free download - and crumple it into ball.
2. Select your first two players and have them sit at opposite ends of a long table, about six feet apart.
3. Players will take turns shooting the ball at the opponent’s goal (created by touching thumbs together and pressing index fingers to the table to form a window).
4. The player with the most points after five rounds is the winner. 

We’re excited to see your team’s picture! Send it to us at contest@baudville.com. We’ll upload it to our Facebook page where you and all your teammates can “like” it. The picture to receive the most likes by Friday wins the $200 Baudville credit!

Good luck!

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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.

The gymnastics events are one of the most popular competitions in the Olympics, and they’ve always been one of my favorite events. When I’m watching the Olympians compete, I find myself in awe of the grace, athleticism, and strength that they display in every movement.

And the events this year did not disappoint! It was amazing watching 16 year old Gabby Douglas fly through the air and the exceptional performance of the U.S. women’s team. They truly are a Fab Five!

When Baudville employees applied their skills to Mental Gymnastics in our Baudville Games competition, “graceful” wasn’t exactly the first word that came to mind. Ladies and gentlemen, the Baudville Terrific Three!

Will you put the Baudville team to shame? We’ll find out this week as teams compete in Mental Gymnastics!

How to Play Mental Gymnastics:
1. Download, print, and cut out our free charades cards.
2. Choose an actor and a mediator to present to your team.
3. The actor will perform the word on the card that the mediator shows him. The player who answers correctly first gets the point.
4. The player with the most points when the deck is done is the winner.

We’re excited to see your team’s pictures from Mental Gymnastics this week! After the event’s complete, submit your picture by emailing us at contest@baudville.com. We’ll upload it to our Facebook page where you and all your teammates can “like” it. The picture to receive the most likes by Monday wins the $200 Baudville credit!

The bar has certainly been raised for this week’s event. We had seven teams compete in Binder Clip Diving last week, and each team brought their A-Game. See all the competitors on Facebook. In the end, team Great River Health Systems was victorious for the second week in a row! They also took gold in Rubber Band Archery during the first week of competition. Congratulations Great River Health Systems!

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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.

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.