As Cindy mentioned last week, we had our Year End employee party last week. This event has major cultural significance for our organization, and the 90% participation rate can prove it! It’s an employee-only event that encourages team building and camaraderie among the entire company. Employees look forward to spending the evening together eating, being entertained, winning prizes and receiving recognition from our President and Senior Vice President.

Baudville has some special recognition traditions that happen at the end of the year. We actively promote and practice day-to-day recognition throughout the year, but our experience has also taught us that having formal awards is an important part of a recognition strategy. Employees strive all year to receive such honored recognition.

Our Perfect Attendance Award is a great example. This award happens only once a year (obviously) and rewards an exclusive group of employees. Each employee receives a personal award of $100, and Baudville makes a donation of $125 to the charity of their choice. Employees are presented with an award certificate and letter from our charitable fund, Baudville’s Helping Hand, as their memento. Long after the party ends, you can still spot these certificates displayed around the building (I still have mine up from last year!).

Our annual party also gives every department their time in the spotlight. Each department is called to the front of the room where they are presented with an engraved ornament. While the ornaments are personally distributed, our President shares some of the department’s successes from the year with the entire company. It is always amazing to hear what our company has accomplished!

The recognition part of our event ends with our INSPIRE Award. The INSPIRE Award is our manager-nominated formal award and is only awarded once a year to a select few employees. Our President announces the winners by reading the qualifications and accomplishments of the award recipient. This year, one of the winners took me completely by surprise.

It was me.

Receiving our INSPIRE Award meant a lot personally, and also gave me great insight into formal recognition. I had my Sally Field moment a (“you like me, you really like me!”) receiving the award that reinforced my role on the team. It has also raised the bar for my work. Going forward, I will be asking myself, “Is this INSPIRE-worthy work?” In everything I do, I want my peers know that I value the award given to me and will continue to work and produce results in a way that is consistent with the award.

So after two years of writing about formal recognition and its role in a recognition strategy, I can tell you first hand that giving formal recognition to your employees works. It instills a great sense of personal pride and accomplishment, and at the same time motivates the individual for greater achievements. Implementing a respected and honored formal recognition program does take time, but the cultural and motivational impact makes it well worth it!

This year there were two INSPIRE Award winners. We're pictured here with our President and SVP at our Year End Party.

The holidays are an important time of year to express appreciation for friends, family and especially employees. It’s not too late to order thoughtful holiday employee recognition gifts for your entire team. And with employee morale, engagement and loyalty nearing rock bottom, managers can’t afford not to recognize employees this holiday season.

I’ve put together a small selection of holiday employee recognition gifts that have been so popular this year, customers are already submitting positive feedback on our website. You can view all holiday recognition gifts here, or visit their individual product pages.

Don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to get your gifts. We have same-day shipping to ensure your recognition can happen in a timely manner!

Spinner Ornament – Customers like the personalization options on the ornament; you can add recipients’ names or a logo. It also arrives in a gift box, so it’s ready to give.

Character Pins – The Character Pin is a popular holiday employee recognition gift because of the themed message and collectable lapel pin. Managers can read the story out loud to the group and avoid the struggle for the right motivational words.

Travel Mug – Employees love to receive gifts that they can use everyday. A handy travel mug will serve as a daily reminder of your appreciation for everything they do.

Holiday Parties Important for Employee Recognition, But You Can Celebrate in Smaller Ways

Each year, Baudville throws a holiday party to celebrate our team’s efforts and accomplishments. It’s the most anticipated event of the entire year and has earned quite the reputation! The party is known for its secret venues (revealed only a couple weeks ahead), surprising entertainment, delicious food and memorable employee recognition. The event takes several months of planning and is championed by our dedicated SPIRIT team (learn more about the team in my previous post) who strives to make each year more fun and memorable than the last.

The party is an important event for our company’s culture, which is why this year we chose to throw a more modest party rather than no party at all. For many organizations, the holiday employee party is the only time of the year employees are encouraged to socialize outside of work. It’s also one of the primary venues for formal employee recognition, an important part of an employee recognition strategy. Cancelling this event can have a demoralizing and discouraging effect on our staff.

62% of organizations, a record low, are hosting holiday parties for the employees this year, compared to 77% in 2008. But cutting back doesn’t have to mean cutting out holiday celebrations altogether. If your organization has decided not to have a holiday party for employees, you should consider having a smaller team celebration. Here are a few ideas:

- Organize a potluck lunch
- Send a greeting card with a handwritten note to their homes
- Take the team bowling for an afternoon
- Have appetizers and drinks at someone’s house
- Cater lunch at the office to avoid venue fees
- Give employees a gift they can use in the office

The holiday employee party is important to employees because it lets them know you value their work and contributions from the year. Be sure to express sincere appreciation during the holidays for their efforts. If you can’t think of the right words to say, you can let us say it for you. We’ve designed exclusive Character Pins for the 2009 holidays that say it all: appreciation, motivation, sincerity. Pick the message that best fits your team and situation and present pins to individuals at your team get-together. Our holiday Character Pins are currently 25% off, so you get even more appreciation for your buck – a welcome message this year!

Check back December 14th or sign up for our email subscription to catch my next blog with details and pictures from our party!

 

Don't miss out on the opportunity to recognize and motivate your staff during the holidays! Use one of Baudville's holiday themes to find just the right words.

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Cindy is the Human Resources Manager at Baudville and has over 14 years HR experience. In addition to her HR Generalist duties, she’s the center of positive mojo for the company and heads up many of our recognition initiatives, events and awards. In other words, she’s got it going on!

We’ve all received the traditional award certificate at some point in our life. Maybe you received one in elementary school for completing the Presidential Fitness Challenge. Or perhaps your certificate came in high school when you were given the honor of being Student of the Month. You may even have gotten one during your college years from participating in a fundraising walk one of the Greek organizations put on. 

Regardless of when you last received an award certificate , you probably have the same mental image of what that certificate should look like: gold foil lettering, embossed seal and the signature of a person of authority. Traditional award certificates remain a very popular form of recognition, but if you have Gen Y employees, you may want to make it a little more “hip” this holiday season.

Award certificates are popular because they’re affordable recognition you can give to a large group of people. This is especially important this year as a record low number of organizations are planning on throwing holiday parties. I can assume a similar trend is occurring with employee gifts and awards. Companies everywhere are trying to cut back even though employee morale is at an all time low.

This year, reward your entire team for their hard work and dedicated efforts with some spiced up award certificates. Here are three things you can do to make award certificates cool again:

1. Pick a trendy design. The traditional gold foil lettering certificates are still available, but there are some cool new designs available now, too. Why not give your employees an award certificate that can double as cubicle art?

Tip: Use a contemporary award certificate design to encourage your younger employees to post the award at their desk.

2. Have fun with award titles. Your award certificates don’t have to be formal to be effective. This year, make recognition personal and memorable by giving a special, individual award for each employee, and have fun coming up with award titles. Employees want to have fun at work, and they need some levity. Your humorous award certificates could be just the trick.
Some of our favorite award titles:
Rookie of the Year Award
Why Didn’t I Think of That Award
Samurai Seller
Unsung Hero

3. Make the presentation an event. Even if your organization has cancelled its holiday party this year, make your presentation of award certificates an event for the entire team. Reserve a conference room, bring in festive snacks, and set a festive mood by playing holiday music or – better yet – play “Gonna Fly Now,” the theme song from Rocky. Encourage employees to shake their hands over their heads in victory as they accept their award.

Now you’re a true award certificate champ!!

The holiday season is underway. All the usual signs are here: retail stores have put up the holiday displays, toy advertisements are in circulation, and that one annoying radio station has started playing Christmas music. At the same time, companies are beginning to consider the state of their holiday company celebrations. Typically, organizations take the end of the year as an opportunity to recognize the accomplishments of staff and the successes of the company. However, this year, it may seem like there are fewer reasons to celebrate…and less to celebrate with.

After a challenging 2009, many organizations are wondering if they can afford to have the traditional holiday party. Even if budgets are tight this year, we recommend not giving up on the holiday party altogether. This event is a primary employee morale booster and an important demonstration of good will for your employees. Instead, brainstorm ideas that will help cut back on the costs of the event without sacrificing the appreciation employees receive. This Associated Press article by Joyce M. Rosenberg has several ideas to pare back your company celebration costs.

Baudville’s also risen to the challenge to help organizations give their employees some much needed recognition this year. We’ve created three new holiday themes and coordinating employee gifts that help managers and company leaders give appreciation during the holidays. Most of the products in the collections are under $10 each, making recognition extremely affordable.

This year, when you select your employee holiday gifts and awards, you may find yourself recognizing different behaviors. Instead of broken sales records and exceeded revenue goals, accomplishments this year may be more subtle. Recognize the effort and hard work that helped you get through the year. And if you’re lucky enough to be able to recognize exceeded goals, make a big deal about it!

Don’t forget that for appreciation to be truly effective, it needs to happen more than once a year. An excerpt from Joyce Rosenberg’s article says it all:

“The boss needs to let employees know their work is appreciated no matter what time of year it is. And along with the positive feedback an owner needs to give, there should be periodic events to lighten the collective spirit…If you lay the groundwork throughout the year, it makes for a much richer environment, and people are much more willing to share."

Try “laying the groundwork” of recognition all year with day-to-day recognition practices, and extend employee cheer year-round.

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Cori is a Certified Recognition Professional at Baudville and a member of the Millennial generation.