AWARDS FOR EMPLOYEES: Best Fun Tips, Service & Recognition Ideas

awards for employee
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Most times we see needs to be appreciated in various phases of life, and work is certainly not excluded. In the same way, employees study, train, and strive to gain the professional experience they can share with their employers, they need to know that their efforts are valued. Unfortunately, many employers are still working to understand how vital employee recognition is. Consequentially employers who don’t tackle this issue are at risk of losing employees. Thus, well-designed and implemented recognition awards let employees know that their service is appreciated each day. Stay tuned to learn varieties of the best fun awards for employees to choose from.

Overview

An employee award is a prize or a token of appreciation given to an employee for achieving something exceptional, like doing incredible work or contributing to a specific field. Therefore, awarding employees inspires them and brings a sense of satisfaction, and brings about a sense of achievement and acknowledgment for the hard work employees put in. This is because awards are usually given whenever an achievement is complete or a milestone is crossed. In addition, encouraging employees to complete tasks brings greater productivity and ensures that duties and responsibilities are handled promptly.

Best Awards for Employees

The best award for Employees is an intentional, mindful, and organized act of taking time to identify and recognize essential factors such as employees’ efforts, productivity, cooperation, teamwork, skills learned, experience acquired, and breakthrough.

Best Awards for Employees: Effective Tips

Best fun employee awards are an effective and simple way of making employees feel happy, relaxed, and appreciated. Surprisingly, if done in the right way, they can elevate employees’ confidence and trust in the company.

#1. Don’t Forget Your Company Culture

It is a good idea to keep your company’s culture in mind. Every company has unique culture and values. so make sure that employee awards reflect them. You can also base your awards on the nature of your business. For instance, if you are in healthcare, you can name your awards like Diagnosis: Farsightedness or Diagnosis: Awesome

#2. Be Thoughtful and Attentive

While it is good to add humor, you have to ensure that non of the employee awards are offensive. Therefore, use funny awards to entertain employees but at no point should the employees feel embarrassed. Be mindful that no award should make fun of an employee’s race, gender, age, sex, ethnicity, or religion.

#3. Encourage Employee Participation

While conceiving fun ideas for employee awards involve your employees too. Employees are better aware of their peers and colleagues and can take you by surprise with their funny suggestions. Once your list of funny employee awards is ready, pass them around the office, ask for additional award categories suggestions, and encourage everyone to nominate and vote.

#4. Host an Award Ceremony

Host a fun, interesting, and lively award ceremony. Your event can be as grand or as small as you want it to be. You can either roll out a red carpet outside the meeting room and make the event a black-tie affair or just order snacks and drinks to host an award ceremony inside the office only. The aim is to make sure that employees have fun attending and organizing too.

#5. Give Prizes and Trophies

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to hand out expensive gift cards or trophies made out of gold. Just make a quick run to a dollar store and pick low-cost props related to the awards. For example, a torch can be a great gift for employees who lights up everyone’s path with their guidance.

Best Awards for Employees: Examples

Check out these examples of the best employee award ideas and thoroughly consider the impact that each award will have on your team members, now and in the future. Keep in mind that your employee awards say a lot about the values you prioritize as a company.

  •  Recognition Master award
  •  Most recognized employee award
  • Exceptional listener award
  • Excellent feedback award
  • Company values awards
  • Always growing award
  • Team player award
  • Employee of the Year Awards
  • Work Anniversary Awards
  • Years of Service Awards
  • Employee Achievement Awards
  • Employee Leadership Awards
  • Sales Awards / Sales Achievement Awards
  • Behavior and Value Awards
  • Performance Awards
  • Employee of the Month Awards

Fun Awards for Employees

Employee awards are a vital part of the workplace. But, there are times you may want to add a little humor to the workplace and recognize employees for the unique things they do. In essence, Humor is a great way to create bonds among teams and lighten the load. If you are having a hard time coming up with an award for someone who just doesn’t see the humor in things, then consider giving them an award for one of their interests or hobbies.

As much as awards have a chance of embarrassing an employee, always speak to them first about it. That will allow them to put a stop to it if they are too embarrassed, or to come up with a speech for the moment. Hence, it won’t take away from the humor in the office and can keep you from actually embarrassing an employee.

Fun Awards for Employees: Examples

Here is a list of fun employee awards that you can use next time as part of your employee appreciation program,

  • The Early Bird: A show of appreciation for employees who are always the first few to show up in the morning. Supplement the award with a nice gift such as an alarm clock.
  • The Private Concert: You’ll always find this person with their headphones on just vibing in their bubble. Because they love hearing music, gift them a Spotify subscription or some amazing headphones.
  • Can You Hear Me?: This award goes to those with an almost dead internet connection. They’re constantly trying to reconnect, without any success most of the time.
  • The Office Clown: This person deserves appreciation for pulling off funny pranks, cracking jokes, and making everyone laugh with their sense of humor.
  • Mission Impossible: This is a shoutout to those who go above and beyond to achieve the impossible. In this case, a day off can make a great gift.

What should I write in an Employee Award?

Write, 

  • For your extraordinary dedication and service.
  • In recognition of your exceptional performance.
  • In honor of your passion and commitment to achieving excellence.
  • In special recognition of your superior dedication and performance this year.

Recognition Awards for Employees

There is more to reaching and maintaining higher levels of employee engagement than just giving your top salesperson a nice bonus, setting up small incentive programs, or providing the occasional team lunch for a job well done. The key to success is to recognize your employees for all the hard work they may do over a given period and let them know that everything they do at the office is invaluable to keeping the whole ship afloat. 

Thus, recognition awards are items given to employees as a way to show appreciation for their contributions, tenure, or achievements. Recognition awards can include things like; trophies, certificates, plaques, or awards chosen by the employee from a catalog of products and services.

Recognition Awards for Employees: Examples

There are many types of recognition strategies you can use to thank employees. Some are structured and planned rewards, while others are unstructured and spontaneous shows of appreciation. Here are a few employee recognition strategies to try:

#1. Years of Service Award

A Years of Service award celebrates employees who have worked for your organization for a significant amount of time. It is an award that acknowledges years of service thanks tenured employees for their dedication while also encouraging loyalty in new hires. Years of service awards can include paid days off, monetary compensation, or gifts that mark milestone years.

#2. Customer Service Award

You can show appreciation for employees in customer service roles by rewarding them for meeting sales goals, demonstrating leadership skills, receiving positive customer feedback, or providing exceptional customer service. Rewarding customer service employees with praise, a bonus, or flexible scheduling is a great way to help them stay motivated.

#3. Social Recognition

Social recognition is an irregular way to support positive work behaviors and can take forms such as a casual thanks in a meeting or a personalized message from a workplace leader. Regular social recognition can help your employees feel more supported, connected, and proud of their work. It could also make team members more likely to recognize their peers.

#4. Employee Appreciation Events

Praising employees for their good work with employee appreciation events can help boost self-esteem and make workers feel valued, which can lead to increased motivation. When other employees see a colleague being recognized, they may feel inspired to work harder to achieve similar recognition.

#5. Employee Recognition Wall

Consider setting up a board or dedicating a wall where everyone shares messages of appreciation toward their peers. Not only will this inspire employees who have been recognized to maintain their good work, but it can also boost a supportive workplace culture where team members help each other perform and succeed

Service Awards for Employees

Your employees exchange their time for work that helps your organization succeed. This dedication deserves to be recognized on a regular, timely basis. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through implementing an employee years of service awards service program at your company. Service awards programs show recognition and appreciation for your employees’ commitment to your company as well as their performance. 

Therefore, celebrating work anniversaries is one of the most popular types of service awards programs, as are “Years of Service” awards, which are of a similar sentiment. Additionally, through heartfelt recognition shared on days of significant milestones, employees can feel valued and appreciated at their companies, which can then help them experience an increased sense of engagement and loyalty to your company.

Service Awards for Employees: Effective Ideas

Years of service awards can take many forms. To make things easier for you, here are five ideas that are relatively simple to implement. Of course, these ideas are not exclusive. Depending on your budget and the occasion, you could do them all,

#1. Reward Points

Rather than giving everyone the same gold watch, consider supplementing your service awards with a points-based reward system. Every month, employees can give and receive points for acts of kindness or jobs well done. When points hit a certain balance, employees can redeem them for rewards of their choice. You can offer additional points to recognize milestones and connect them to specific employee accomplishments, which helps individualize your awards.

#2.Ceremonies

Presenting a service award in a ceremony or during an all-hands meeting broadcasts service awards to everyone in the organization. This level of recognition gives weight to the award and makes other employees watching want to receive the same distinction one day. During the ceremony, be sure to highlight each recipient’s specific achievements and how they had an impact on the company. Having someone in a leadership position bestow the award and individually thank each awardee makes the presentation even more special.

#3. Handwritten Messages of Thanks

Have you ever saved a thank you card? Researchers found that 76% of people save handwritten thank-you notes. Sending a heartfelt, personalized message can move people to tears. Hence, show how much impact a person has had on your organization by including a letter of recognition with years of service award. Be sure to emphasize what has made employees an extraordinary asset instead of just recognizing their tenure.

Service Awards for Employees: Examples

Below are the various examples of service awards, 

  • Monetary rewards
  • Certificates
  • Trophies
  • Gift cards
  • Electronics
  • Trips
  • Time off
  • Paid family vacations
  • Gift boxes
  • Framed photos
  • Tickets
  • Paid subscriptions
  • Commemorative video
  • Stock options
  • Promotion
  • Office Upgrade
  • VIP office parking
  • Work anniversary party

What are the Different Kinds of Awards?

They are, 

  • Employee of the Month Award
  • Work Anniversary Awards.
  • Department MVP Awards
  • Teamwork Award
  • Most Improved Award
  • Employee Choice Award
  • Above & Beyond Award
  • Sales Awards

What is the Biggest Award in the USA?

Launched in 1963 by then-President John F. Kennedy, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is America’s highest civilian honor.

What are The Best Workplace Awards?

They are, 

  • The Inspiring Workplace Awards
  • Great Place to Work Certification
  • Glassdoor Awards
  • Fairygodboss Awards
  • Comparably Awards
  • Top Workplaces Awards
  • Fast Company Awards
  • Well, Workplace Awards

References

  1. PROJECT MILESTONES MANAGEMENT: Detailed Guide with Examples
  2. CASH FLOW MANAGEMENT: Best Ways to Manage Your Cash Flow Effectively
  3. 25+ Employee Recognition Ideas: Creative Ideas For Virtual & Monthly Recognition Awards
  4. Best Employee Recognition Ideas In 2023
  5. 26+ Unique Business Ideas for Kids in Nigeria 2023
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