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There are many kinds of employee recognition, from on-the-spot verbal praise to employee of the month programs. But employee recognition awards for your top performers are a special category.

It’s no secret that competition for talent is increasing in many industries, from the ever-ambitious tech sector to finance and banking, and even to marketing and advertising. You want the best and brightest, and in today’s world, that doesn’t just mean high pay and health insurance.

Employee recognition awards are generally awards, trophies, and plaques, given to employees who have achieved a goal, performed well, exhibited a behavior that is worth awarding. They are often given out at company events, conferences, holiday parties, etc.

It’s the year of virtual events. With trade shows, conferences and thought leadership summits being postponed or canceled across the globe, many organizations are left wondering how to provide value and stay relevant in the changing landscape.

People love to debate the positives and negatives of social media, but there is one area in which it’s definitely had a positive impact: employee recognition. Here are six ways it’s changed the game – and how you can use it to your advantage.

“Company culture” is more than a buzzword. It’s an essential part of any successful business’s growth strategy. Learning how to improve company culture can increase employee engagement, morale and retention. But before you can improve your culture, you need to identify it.

Workers at age 65 or more have been at their current job about 10.3 years – that’s a very long time by today’s standards! When those workers retire, they deserve to be recognized with personalized trophies to thank them for their service.

Your employee recognition program should incorporate peer-to-peer appreciation, corporate event awards and the feedback of all levels of the company. Most of all, have fun with it! There are tons of creative ways to recognize your employees and reap all the benefits that come with boosting morale and building a positive workplace culture.

Sometimes recognizing top employees should be more than just a pat-on-the-back. Show your employees how much you truly value their work with employee recognition awards.

Do you have an outstanding employee that you'd like to gift an engraved award? Make sure you have it personally engraved — here's Edco's reasons why.

Sometimes employee recognition programs become routine, stale, and dry. We share 50 years of experience and some tips on reviving and rebooting your program.

Rewarding outstanding team players is the perfect way of promoting strong values within your company. We share the most popular collaboration awards.

Employee appreciation day is right around the corner. We share our 50 years of experience to make choosing the right award or gift easy and meaningful.

Personalization always makes any gift or award more meaningful. We share how to customize details to truly make a difference with your employees.

Recognizing your employees is about recognizing their achievement and value. Learn how to best communicate your appreciation to your team.

We make choosing the perfect retirement gift easy. With 50 years of experience, we share the most popular plaques and awards for retirees.

Your employees are the beating heart of your company. Learn how to implement the perfect employee recognition program to honor and celebrate their achievement.

How important is employee recognition in your company? How do you motivate your team to focus on the big picture? These are important questions to ask when running a business or being in charge of a small team.

Employee recognition makes a huge difference when it comes to having workers that just get by in their daily tasks or having ones that go above and beyond. When it comes to performance, awards are an opportunity for leaders to reinforce the purpose of the company, which makes employees want to work harder.

 

Here are four reasons to recognize high-performers at your company with awards:

1. Empower Your Employees

These days, it is hard to find people who have a commitment to solving big problems. When facing challenges, some workers may feel confused by problems, overwhelmed, and stressed.

Rewards can give your workers the confidence required to look for solutions, controlling the situation.

As an exercise, challenge your team members with high-performer objectives. They are opportunities to work for results and add value to the company, which can turn into future compensation in the form of a salary raise or another reward.

You can motivate your workers if you show them that they can achieve anything with their dedication, which allows them to think proactively to solve problems.

2. Rewards Can Make Your Team More Competent And Committed

Social value is one of the most critical factors when motivating people to do anything. How well optimized is the working environment?

When everybody in your team is working, it is much harder for an employee to lack the motivation to perform at the same level. Naturally, the worker will want to outwork other people in his space to get that social recognition.

Of course, competitiveness depends on company culture and values. If your rewards program encourages people to solve problems and work for results, people will focus on those factors.

Whenever you give a reward an employee in public, you will increase that sense of competition that every employee has inside. If you want to get the most out of recognition events, consider setting attainable but challenging goals to keep people engaged.

3. Working Long-Term

When an employee receives a reward, especially if it is an award, they will want to work harder for the company because they are looking to the big picture.

Whenever your company is going through hard times, awards remind employees that they can get over any obstacles. The bigger the reward is, the stronger the motivation will be to repeat that in the future, which leads employees to be more committed to their future projects.

Because of recognition, people feel more inspired to over-deliver at work in both the short and long term.

4. Constant Improvement

The second best way to motivate anybody is to use daily goals where you can constantly measure your progress.

Daily goals and achievements are a reduced version of the employee awards. Luckily, these micro objectives generate enough motivation to make workers accomplish the next day goals. Successful leaders know how to create paths with small goals to lead employees to get a big win in business.

Bonding with coworkers can improve the culture and ultimately productivity in the workplace. It's important to find the right activities for different types of employees and work environments. The following are several great exercises that can help teammates bond.

Trust and Bonding Games

Learning to trust co-workers is an important part of working together. There are several activities that can be used to increase trust levels. The classic egg toss is a great way to get two individuals to trust one another as well as adapt to the other's personal style

A scavenger hunt can be used for larger teams. Divide teams into groups of four or more to find hidden objects in a room. The team to find the most hidden objects wins.

Another simple bonding activity includes randomly drawing names out of a hat and placing all employees into groups of two. Each pair has less than five minutes to come up with five things they have in common with who they have been paired with. They also need to come up with five differences.

 

Problem Solving Activities

An example of a problem-solving activity would start by dividing employees into teams. Choose a facilitator not on any team to build a structure with Legos or other types of building blocks. One person from each team looks at the structure for 30 seconds or less. This individual then goes back and instructs the team to rebuild the structure from memory. The team that builds the structure as accurately as possible in a designated time frame wins.

Other problem-solving games might include attending an escape room to work together to find your way out using clues. Either verbal clues can be given or written clues left throughout the room. Divide employees into small groups of two to four. The first team to find the key and escape wins.

Also, Having puzzle contests is a way to keep bonding activities simple. Buy several of the same puzzle and divide employees into small groups. The first group to put together the entire puzzle wins.

Make Sure to Give Awards

Few things motivate people more than knowing there are prizes after all the effort. Award, trophies, and plaques from EDCO are a great way to commemorate teamwork. These can have a positive effect and make employees feel as if they have achieved something positive

 

For most companies there will come a time when a dedicated employee will decide to retire. Most will never ask for it, but nothing makes a retiree feel more valued than a proper send-off. It may hurt initially to lose such a great worker, but showing respect and appreciation during their transition goes a long way. If you aren’t sure about how to properly thank them for all of their hard work, EDCO offers many different trophies, awards, and plaques to help recognize employee dedication.

1. Give them something to remember.

   A great way to make a retiree feel important is to give them some sort of physical reminder of your appreciation. A recognition award, trophy or plaque is a great way to show your appreciation. If you feel it is appropriate, you can even add a custom engraving to make it more personal. Include wording that indicates appreciation for the value they brought to the company. When you present the award, take a few quality photos. This can also be gifted later to remember their special moments. You never know what will end up on their mantle.

2. Find out their numbers.

   Most employees that are planning to retire have spent a number of years working for the company. It would be a great idea to find out the exact number of years they've been there (brownie points for knowing their start date). Recount any major milestones they contributed to or achieved on their own. Find out how many new employees they trained, how many sales they made, their production numbers, or that huge merger they were so crucial during. This information could be put on an award or mentioned in a speech to show them they matter.

3. Consider your company's culture.

   When thinking of how to send off a retiree, especially if you are considering a party, think of the culture within your company. A smaller company would probably enjoy a potluck during lunch. A bigger, more corporate company may do a small catered lunch. Maybe a more formal after-hours office event would be better. Would it be more fitting to take a moment from a bigger company event, like a picnic or holiday party, to commemorate them? Think about what would be appropriate within your office without seeming too over the top or like you did not care at all. This is also a great time to be able to present them with their engraved award in front of the whole company.

Showing appreciation for long-time employees is a wonderful practice. Not only does it show that you are a caring employer, but it boosts morale for other workers. It shows the retiring employee and current employees that their company cares for all their hard work.