In this month’s Recognition TV webisode, we talked about Service Anniversaries. This is the one recognition program that you can find at all organizations! Recognizing years of service can affect employee morale, retention, and motivation, so make it count! Here are five tips you can follow in your organization that employees will fondly remember for years.

1. Recognize on the actual day of the anniversary.
Some anniversary programs have years of service gifts sent directly to the employees’ home, or they may choose the gift on their anniversary and receive it on a later date. Even if your anniversary program requires you to do nothing to deliver the gift, make it a priority to deliver your personal congratulations on the day of your employee’s anniversary. Acknowledge the employee’s anniversary with a tangible gift – even if the company has already taken care of it. It doesn’t have to be expensive, like a greeting card with your personal note, a certificate, or even a high five. If it’s given sincerely, the recipient will love it.

2. Make it personal to your company and the recipient.
Your culture should be reflected in the way you celebrate service anniversaries. At Baudville, our first year anniversary gift is a fleece jacket with our logo embroidered on the pocket. These are a favorite among employees and have become a signature piece throughout the company. We love our fleeces because it serves as a symbol of our achievement. Plus, we get to choose the color of the jacket and embroidery, so it’s always just the way we like it! This gift is a great fit for our culture because employees get to express their personal creativity, and it’s fun and practical.

3. Do something every year.
The biggest mistake companies make today is holding off on recognizing anniversaries until employees have their five year anniversary. How many people leave your company before they even get close to five years of service!? If your organization values dedication and tenure (most do!), start recognizing it right away. It doesn’t have to cost a lot! With the cost of turnover – and the fight for talent – you can’t afford not to recognize those early years of service.

• For $10, you can take the employee out to lunch for some valuable one-on-one time.
• For $5, you can purchase an anniversary lapel pin for every member of your team with their specific years of service.
• For $2, present an award certificate on the complete certificate with paper, folder, seal, and ribbon. It will make a grand impression for a small dent in your wallet! 

4. Make it a group mission.
Managers are an important part of service award recognition, but they shouldn’t fly solo when celebrating years of service. Make it a group event! When you recognize a behavior, like years of service, publically, it sends a message to your entire team. This is powerful communication about what your organization values and what an outstanding employee or contribution looks like. Don’t underestimate the power of public recognition! A well planned and executed award ceremony can provide long lasting motivation.

5. Don’t underestimate the power of free.
There’s a lot you can do to honor a service anniversary that doesn’t have to cost you anything! When your teammates have an anniversary, shout it from the rooftop! Make a big deal about it if you want employees to take their time at your organization seriously. This is also a great way to publically recognize individuals who don’t like to be the center of attention. By using these different media, you can be sure to express your appreciation without making them uncomfortable.

• Once a month, list all service anniversaries on your blog.
• Post a congratulations status update on Facebook on your company page.
• Send a tweet on Twitter.
• Send an ePraise card using the free system on Baudville.com. We have cards created especially for service anniversaries. All you have to do it add a short personal note and click send.
• Add a special column to your company newsletter that only lists anniversaries.
• Talk to your IT department about an anniversary spotlight on the intranet.

How does your organization celebrate service anniversaries?

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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 holidays are here! It seems like all the major retail areas are already bustling with holiday shoppers looking for the best gifts for everyone on their list. Have you thought about appreciation for your team yet?

The holidays and end of the year are an important time to reflect upon the contributions, accomplishments, and successes of your team. At Baudville, we celebrate with our Year End Party which includes awards, employee gifts, and lots of fun! Our employees always look forward to our event, so I’ve put together three areas of tips and ideas to help you make your own year end efforts successful. You can also get all these tips in our Recognition TV video.

1. Event Themes
Your year event or award ceremony should have a theme! It can be simple or as creative as you can imagine. Some of our past themes for the Baudville Year End Party have been game show, roaring twenties, and casino. Regardless of the theme you choose, you should always make it about the guests of honor: your team.

Your theme gets applied to all the communication about your event including the invitation, presentation slides, menu, directional signs, table cards, ID cards, even your follow up newsletter article. ID cards are an important element of our year end party. Every employee receives a card (we make them with the IDville ID Maker system) when we arrive at the party. The ID card reveals table assignments and makes employees and guests more comfortable because they don’t have to remember everyone’s name! 

2. Awards
The end of the year is a popular time for the presentation of awards. Most organizations have some form of an award program. Award programs are an important part of your culture because it expresses what’s important at your organization and gives real life examples of your values. When it comes to presenting awards, your speech and prepared remarks are extremely important. Download our Award Presentation Guide for help writing an excellent award presentation.

Earlier this week, I wrote a post about popular year end awards. You can get all the details in my Popular Year End Awards Motivate Performance article. These awards are great for public recognition at a company-wide year end event.  However, not every organization gathers together at the end of the year.

Even if your organization doesn’t throw a holiday bash, you should celebrate and recognize your team! I recommend using award certificates because they’re an inexpensive option and can be personalized for the recipient. My tip for recognizing a small team is to create a unique award title for each recipient. We have some sample recognition award titles you can download from our Recognition Resource Center. Bring your team together to enjoy some holiday treats and call each member up to the front to receive their certificate. The camaraderie and public recognition may make this your employees’ favorite holiday event!

3. Gifts
Finally, the holidays wouldn’t be complete without gifts! What’s your plan for recognizing your team? When you give your team a gift at the holidays, it expresses your appreciation for their presence, contributions, and loyalty. In our last Recognition TV webisode, our product manager shared a few of her favorite gifts. Watch her video and read her suggestions on the Baudville blog. Here are a few more tips to help you with your team gift shopping:

Make it personal. Recognition that’s sincere and personal is the most effective. When your gift is personal for the recipient, it shows that you know them and value their preferences. Of course, you’re faced with the challenge of selecting something personal for every member of your team. To streamline your gift giving, you can get variations of the same item. Our gift books are perfect. They focus on a variety of different topics, like teamwork, making a difference, or thank you. Select a different book for each member of your team and write a note on the inside cover. Sign your name and date it, so the recipient will always remember where it came from.

Make it last. You also want your gift to last - not be tossed out in the post-holiday rush. Choose a gift that your team can use in the office. Take a look at ourdesktop gift collection. You can engrave the character story of your choice on several of the items, so your gift is personal and lasting. Some of my favorites are the journals and folios. We've found this kind of gift to be very effective. For example, for her first holiday at Baudville one of my coworkers received a folio from her manager. Her manager had written a personal note on the inside of the folio expressing how excited he was to have her on the team. That’s memorable!

Make it meaningful. Your recognition during the end of the year is purposeful: you want to reinforce desired behaviors and make your team feel appreciated. But your team won’t know what you’re recognizing if you don’t tell them. When you present your awards, be sure to give specific examples of the award recipient’s successes and accomplishments from the year. At Baudville, the accomplishments and contributions of our Inspire Award winners are listed before their names are revealed! It’s very effective and fun for everyone in attendance.

How do you recognize your team during the holidays? What are your best practices?

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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.

Encouraging teamwork and camaraderie among your team is important whether you’re an official manager or an informal team leader. You need to keep your team motivated, engaged, and encouraged in order to meet your goals and produce results for your organization. I’ve put together 15 team building ideas that will help you!

I recently shared these ideas in an episode of Recognition TV, our series of 15 minute live video broadcasts. You can watch the entire episode (it’s less than 20 minutes!) in our Recognition Resource Center.

For all the ideas shared in today’s webisode, you should also visit our Recognition Resource Center. I’ve included links to the three different types of ideas below to make it easy for you to find the tips you’re looking for.

Team Building Ideas to Motivate
Keeping a team motivated and focused is a constant challenge for leaders. When your team is motivated, they’ll produce better results and have better attitudes at work. Read my five team building ideas to motivate your team.

Team Building Ideas to Engage
Employee engagement is key to a successful team and a successful organization. An engaged team will be more dedicated to the organization, more willing to go above and beyond, and more likely to be innovative. Read my five team building ideas to help keep your team engaged.

Team Building Ideas to Encourage
Recognition is an important part of a team building strategy. By empowering teammates to recognize one another, they feel more committed to the team and their teammates. Read my  five team building ideas to encourage your team.

I asked attendees to share their favorite, tried and true team building ideas during the webisode today, too, and we’ll be sharing those ideas in a later post! What about you? How do you keep your team motivated, engaged, and encouraged? Share your insight in the comments!

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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.

Your culture plays an important role in attracting talent, retaining valuable employees, and succeeding as an organization. So what do you do if your culture is described as negative, employees are fighting, and turnover rate is double the industry average? We recently worked with a Michigan organization with these symptoms and helped them implement a strategic employee recognition program. After the program had been in place for merely 30 days, the organization experienced dramatic improvements.

Our most recent episode of Recognition TV shared the story of Grace Haven, the organization described above, and how they transformed their culture with recognition.  You can read the entire Grace Haven employee recognition success story on our website and watch the Recognition TV episode in our Recognition Resource Center.

After working with Grace Haven, we created a Prescription for Success that you can use in your organization to create a more positive and successful work culture. There are only seven steps outlined below that are simple and low-cost.

1. Form a team.
When we worked with Grace Haven, two recognition specialists dedicated their time to working on the project. You may be too busy to dedicate all your time to the recognition program, so recruit some help. Build a small team with a mix of employees and managers from several different departments. They will serve as your champions in their respective teams and serve as recognition liaisons for the organization.

2. Get employee feedback.
Gather employee feedback and measure employee engagement by administering an employee survey, holding focus groups, and conducting interviews with employees. You can download a copy of the Grace Haven employee engagement survey. Conduct the survey before the program start and at 30 day intervals after its implemented to create a baseline and measure your progress. Whenever you receive feedback on your work culture, it’s important to be open to listening to criticism. It will be the hardest part, but also the most helpful in turning around your culture.

3. Determine recognition program goals.
The data collection process provides valuable input into what areas of improvement you should focus on with your recognition program, and involving employees early on will make them feel like part of the process.  Some example goals include:
 Areas that need improvement
 Ways to improve those areas
 What behaviors do you want to reinforce
 Any culture issues

 4. Create programs that align with goals.
Your strategic recognition programs should be tied to your goals and objectives. At Grace Haven, we connected the programs to our goals of increasing morale, teamwork, and improving attendance. At this step in the process, determine what tools you want to include in your program. At Grace Haven, we used Shout Outs, the Pintastic Manager, and Tokens of Appreciation. Use your survey results and input from your team for reward ideas.

5. Communicate with your team.
Communication is key to a recognition program! You will want to keep employees updated on your progress and make information readily available. At Grace Haven, we attended multiple meetings and held a kick off the day the programs launched. Take the time to explain how the programs work, and how employees can participate. You’ll also need to do some basic training.

6. Implement your recognition program.
Now, use the program!  Your team needs to take the lead and be the champions by practicing recognition regularly and answering any questions from staff.

7. Encourage change.
Your recognition program is never complete, so regularly seek feedback from employees. Tweak things as necessary to keep the program enticing to employees. For example, a Grace Haven employee suggested that the rewards change periodically to remain a strong incentive for employees. Your constant attention to the program and willingness to make changes will maintain momentum in the long run and ensure long term success of your program.

Download the complete Grace Haven employee recognition success story.

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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.

Teachers and nurses are hardworking, dedicated, and compassion professionals whose efforts make a difference in the lives of students, patients, and their families. Unfortunately, this group of people rarely receives the recognition they deserve.

Our latest episode of Recognition TV focused on recognizing these professionals during Teacher Appreciation Week and National Nurses Week, both take place annually in May. You can watch the entire webisode on Baudville.com or the Baudville Facebook page.

In the webisode, I discussed appreciation ideas for Teacher Appreciation Week and National Nurses Week, and I also shared ideas for regular, year-round recognition for these professionals. This blog post will share some of my ideas. For the full transcript from the webisode, visit our Recognition Resource Center.

Teacher Appreciation Week and National Nurses Week Ideas

1. Do something small every day
For a memorable and fun weeklong celebration, plan something small each day of the week. This is especially important to include everyone in your appreciation celebration, and especially relevant for nurses who have varying schedules.

2. Give a gift
Budgets are tight, and it can be tough to get everyone a gift during Teacher Appreciation Week and National Nurses Week. Include just one gift in your plans to save money. You can shop by price on Baudville.com, and check out our quantity discounts for great deals. We have new teacher gifts and nurse gifts that everyone will love.
 
New Teacher Appreciation Gifts and Nurse Appreciation Gifts

3. Say thank you
The most important thing you can do during Teacher Appreciation Week and National Nurses Weekis say thank you. A handwritten thank you note remains one of the most desired forms of recognition for employees of all industries, so make sure your thank you is heard loud and clear!

For fun and free thank yous, visit Baudville.com. We have created brand new Print and Posts for Teacher Appreciation Week and National Nurses Week 2011, and I can guarantee your recipients will have oodles of fun with them. We also have new ePraise cards specifically for Teacher Appreciation Week and National Nurses Week. ePraise is an easy, free, and fast way to say thank you to teachers and nurses. Post a link on your website encouraging staff, parents, students, and patients to send an ePraise in the next few weeks! You can put this code right on your website:

For Teachers:
<a href="http://www.baudville.com/epraise/epgrp/1" target="_new" title="Teacher Appreciation"> Send a free thank you ecard during Teacher Appreciation Week!</a>

For Nurses:
<a href="http://www.baudville.com/epraise/epgrp/1" target="_new" title="Nurse Appreciation"> Send a free thank you ecard during National Nurses Week!</a>

Read the full transcript from our Teacher and Nurse Appreciation Ideas webisode in the 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.