Employee Reward Term: Recognition

Recognition: n. appreciation of the value of an achievement or acknowledgment of the existence or validity of something –Encarta Dictionary

Whether you are showing your appreciation for a team member who either demonstrates gracious behavior through their volunteer services, shows flexibility, illustrates teamwork or helps save your department money by being resourceful, you are rewarding in order to give the individual due credit. Awards and recognition are like giving a personal thumbs-up, which is a great means of motivating employees, setting performance standards, and increasing productivity.

Employee of the Year Rewarding

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The 2008 year will be coming to a close soon so it’s time for you to think of your employee of the year choice (if you haven’t already). The title of “employee of the year” holds a lot of weigh so think of your selection meticulously. What are your “employee of the year” criteria? You can think about how this one employee has exemplified corporate creeds or how he/she has added value to your corporation’s worth. Perhaps this top performer has shown excellence within his/her responsibilities and beyond or has shown exemplary leadership skills. How has this person shown fairness and respect to employees?

When your choice of employee of the year has been made, what do you get in order to embody such a momentous achievement? A laser etched crystal or glass award is a strong means of communicating your gratitude. Or you can give an award that has a personal touch and relates to the person’s hobbies and likes (i.e. a custom gift basket with the recipient’s favorite kind of munchies).

Give a priceless reward for your most valuable employee!

Enticing Employees to Attend Meetings

How do you get your employees to attend a voluntary training or safety programs? There are many ways to use incentives in order to help attract people to special training sessions. You can increase the attendance rate by giving your employees some motivation like serving lunch and distributing mini goodie bags with giveaways related to the session. For example, if there is a program about becoming eco-friendly at the workplace, you can give out an environmentally friendly product that is both practical and attractive like a Mini Staple-less Stapler or a Bamboo Pen Cup / Clock (depending on your budget and how many prospective attendees there are).

Or give away an incentive AFTER the program as opposed to during or before so you can get an accurate count of who attended and spend you budget more efficiently on an even better gift for attendees. How about having an online meeting or informational session then quizzing attendees and giving out great redeemable gift cards for perfect scorers!



Unfortunately if meetings are not mandatory employees are less inclined to attend therefore you have to make the idea of attending worthwhile.

Quick Tip: Sick Leave Award Incentive

Rewarding for exemplary attendance is a great way to increase productivity and to motivate your employees to attend work. Sick Leave Award Incentive in combination of promoting personal care and wellness at the workplace is a great way to promote work consistency.

Employee Reward Term: Customization

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Customization in regards to rewarding means altering the reward in order to make it fit your employees’ lifestyle or requirements better. Customized rewarding is employee centric reward giving that can be tailored to the employees’ needs. For example, someone who is allergic to chocolate won’t be getting the gourmet chocolate gift set! There is clustered customization where employees are put into clusters perhaps segmented by department or managerial level in order to determine the appropriate reward for the group or individual (different divisions have different variables, standards and benchmarks). Pure customization of a reward is a reward designed from scratch in order to fully fit the tastes of each individual employee; this method works best with REALLY small businesses.

How do you want to recognize your employees?

End the Monotony! Surprise Your Top Employees

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So some of your employees hit an important professional milestone and you have no idea how to show your gratitude? Using the element of surprise is an awesome way of giving thanks and creating a very special and memorable experience for these employees. Combining a surprise party with custom awards is a great way to personalize the endeavor!

Make the honoree(s) the center of attention! Have your department gather in the dining area for the surprise party honoring your top employees! Do you venture to happy hour with your staff? Incorporate celebrating employee milestones at your next happy hour event; ask to have a private section of the bar or lounge to surprise your top employee(s)!

Shhhhh! Make sure you keep this party a surprise! The honorees will be astonished on how much effort you went through just to say thank you and to keep them motivated.

Unique Employee Incentive: Recreational Incentives

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Want to get your employees motivated but you don’t want them concentrate solely and intensely on the metrics usually associated with employee incentives? Implement a plan that feeds the physical and psychological dynamic of your employees.

An active incentive plan: Incentive plans that promote recreation can motivate and stimulate your employee before AND after accomplishing the goal. Designing your incentive program that highlights a certain activity or destination is great for motivation especially after you get the opinions of your employees for which recreational or entertaining activity (i.e. camping trip for team building, basketball game, trip to the theatre, trip to the local spa) would stimulate them.

Depending on how big or small your staff is, unique employee incentives that are recreation related can also be a great bonding experience for your employee which can strengthen the relationship of your entire team.

Financial Versus Non-Financial Incentives

Should your incentives or rewards be financial or non-financial? Both options make an action seem more purposeful but how do you choose the incentive option that is ideal for you. Rewards inspire an employee to continue the good work, a means of reinforcing a desired behavior, while incentives are a way to motivate someone to pursue an action.

Reward/Incentive Tip #1: Giving a swift gift like money may or may not be as appreciated as a gift that is personalized or customized for the individual recipients’ needs. Although financial rewards quantify the level of achievement (advanced level would be rewarded more money), a non financial reward can make the accolades more tangible and personal.

Reward/Incentive Tip #2: Remember that the ultimate goal is to inspire and motivate your employees through your incentive or reward so your program should definitely have achievement tiers (if applicable) in order to make accomplishments more measurable and visual for yourself and your employees. Make sure you create a program that ensures your employees don't concentrate TOO much on the metrics.

Reward/Incentive Tip #3: Giving incentives are calculated and should be part of a structured incentive plan. Depending on your budget, not every achievement can be rewarded so follow corporate core values and standards and create benchmarks for your reward program.

Quick Tip: Lap Top Sleeve or Computer Bag

An easy way to give your employee a quick professional boost and to show your appreciation is with gifting them an employee reward piece that embodies both fashion and functionality. The computer related gift can be as simple as a sleek protective lap top sleeve to a deluxe computer bag. A corporate gift that houses a work item that is used everyday like a lap top is a great reminder for your top employees of your gratitude!

The Dish on Crystal/Glass Awards

Recognition is a great gift for the holidays! In the mist of the holiday season, a custom crystal or glass award that doubles as a decorative piece would be a great reward for your top employees. A unique and personalized art glass award or a crystal dish is an awesome means of showing your company’s most influential employees that you recognize their excellence. Art glass or attractive crystal dish awards are not only elegant as sleek décor pieces but your top employees can proudly showcase their achievements.