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In today’s uncertain landscape, many employees are working remotely and some events are being canceled or postponed. Businesses are now asking themselves how to give awards to employees who only interact virtually. What might this new employee recognition program look like? Do they really need to cancel award ceremonies and events? For answers, they can look not only to companies who have long operated with remote workforces, but also to trophy experts like EDCO.

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.

“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.

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.

What is employee recognition all about? It goes deeper than a simple gift, and is more meaningful than a gift card or a trinket. It’s about making your employees feel respected and valued, and to do that you need the right appreciation award wording.

Jack Kerouac said, “One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.” This perfectly sums up what you must do to create thoughtful, effective awards. The right words are the words that communicate not only the what, but the why: why do you appreciate this person so much? And the words must be simple enough to say what you mean in a limited amount of space.

Don’t have a way with words like Kerouac? You don’t need to be a novelist to create amazing appreciation award wording. You just need these pro tips.

 

Learn the Language of Appreciation

Employee appreciation isn’t just about awards ceremonies and events. It’s about making recognition part of your company culture and living it every day. When you learn the right language to use on a day-to-day basis, coming up with appreciation award wording will be even easier.

Make employee appreciation a part of your company culture by acknowledging at least one worker every day, either verbally or in writing. Start with an “I” or “you” phrase, then fill in the accomplishment or contribution. Don’t forget to add an appropriate adjective as a personal compliment.

 

“I” or “You” Phrases	Personal Compliments
I really appreciate…	problem solver
I value your…	team player
I admire your…	out-of-the-box thinker
You demonstrated…	energetic, enthusiastic
You helped me…	inspiring leader

 

When you show appreciation daily, you’ll improve communication on your team, boost employee morale and encourage productivity. Practice makes perfect – eventually, this type of wording will come naturally to you.

 

Appreciation Award Wording Basics

Now you’re ready to consider appreciation award wording specifically. Do you remember English class, when you learned the “5 Ws”? They’re who, what, where, when and why, and they sum up everything you need to have on your award.

 

Who	Name of recipient and title
What	Reason for award
Where	Name of your company or event
When	Date when award is being given
Why	Detailed description of reason for the award

 

What if all that doesn’t fit on your award? It’s most important to include the who, what and where. You can remove the title of the recipient and try using your company logo in place of the company name to save some space. You can also shorten the reason for the award or give the award a title that sums up the reason. 

However, especially for employee appreciation award wording, we recommend choosing a surface that can fit all 5 Ws, like a plaque or a crystal award. It’s essential to personalize this type of award for maximum impact, and you’ll need the space to do that.

 

Our Favorite Ideas for Appreciation Award Wording

While your appreciation award wording should always include the 5 Ws, the exact message will depend on the occasion. The order that you put the Ws in can also change depending on what you want to emphasize. As an example, for sales awards and promotion recognition, we recommend putting the name of the award or accomplishment first for ultimate bragging rights. Check out the examples below for inspiration, then make them your own.

 

Length of Service Award

Presented to

[Employee Name]

Thank you for 5 years

of outstanding contributions

to [Company Name]

[Month, Day, Year]

 

Retirement Award

In recognition of your retirement

[Employee Name]

[Title and Company Name]

[Date range of employment]

Your dedication and loyalty

made a difference

 

Promotion Recognition

Congratulations on your promotion

[Employee Name]

[Company Name and New Employee Title]

[Month, Day, Year]

Your passion and drive inspire us all

  

Sales Award

Salesperson of the Year

[Employee Name]

[Company Name]

[Year]

For demonstrating integrity while

accomplishing great things

 

Teamwork Award

[Company Name]

Team Player Award

Presented to

[Employee Name]

A key contributor to the

most effective team of

[Year]

 

Leadership Award

Presented to

[Employee Name]

With deep appreciation for

your visionary leadership

at [Company Name]

[Month, Day, Year]

 

Beyond Appreciation Award Wording: The Ceremony

But you don’t need appreciation award wording only for the trophy or plaque you’re presenting. You need to say the right thing at the ceremony, too. Write down the following for each recipient:

•        Name, hire date and presentation date
•        Current job title and responsibilities
•        Original job title
•        Specific contributions to your company
•        A few humorous stories about the recipient
•        Hobbies while away from work
•        Family information
•        Information about the award
•        Why the recipient deserves the award

You can draw on this information to create your award presentation speech. You don’t have to use every category for every recipient; choose the categories that are most interesting or engaging for that person. Someone might have an interesting hobby, for example, while someone else might have a funny story that’s become part of office lore. Just like your appreciation award wording, your presentation speech should be personalized and thoughtful. 

The right appreciation award wording will maximize the impact of your awards and make an impression that lasts forever in the minds of the recipients. With just a little effort, you can find your inner writer and create inspiring messages for any occasion. Get out your notebook and get started!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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