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Three fraternity brothers stand at a counter in a trophy shop, discussing which recognition award to purchase for a new house sponsor.  After a store employee helps the three young men select a particular crystal award, he shows them a handbook that is opened to a page presenting layouts and messages specifically for crystal recognition awards.

Within a few minutes the young men decide that they particularly like a message and layout shown in the handbook.  With little difficulty, the employee substitutes the recipient's name, the date, the fraternity name, etc, for the information displayed in the handbook.  In less time than they expected, the young men selected a gift with a message that they know the recipient will appreciate.

In this example, a gift message handbook helped both the customers and the employee. EDCO Awards & Specialties offers an "idea book" called the Inscription Guide.  We created this guide to help our customers develop great sounding messages to be engraved on our awards, as well as our sales representatives who always strive to create great looking and sounding awards!

While checking out our Inscription Guide, be sure to explore our brand new selection of Employee Recognition Awards.  Recognition awards show appreciation and can help develop positive feelings about the company also improving employee morale and performance at the office.  Start building your awards program today by checking out our beautiful awards selection.  Motivate your staff with our featured awards;  Featured awards are our brand new designs just released for June 2013 and include the Together Recognition Award, Teamwork Art Glass, the Dedication Award and the Teamwork Recognition Award.  All awards are produced from optical crystal and deep engraved with precision craftsmanship.  Your congratulatory message will look amazingly beautiful on any of these high end designs. We ship to the entire U.S. and all awards include a premium quality presentation box.

If you have any questions please call one of our friendly Recognition Specialists today at 800-377-8646.

Glass Awards receive 5-Star Recognition

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. – Several glass awards were recently recognized in EDCO Awards & Specialties inaugural recognition of the best quality and design for its corporate awards.

The glass awards receiving the 5-STAR rating demonstrated the best of class in precision craftsmanship.  Awards were closely examined for glass clarity, thickness, edge finish, depth of engraving and accuracy in detail reproduction.  Other elements used for consideration were overall design and the ability to combine media such as wood, steel and colored glass.

Glass awards recognized with this year’s 5-START RATING are:

• Liberty Diamond Jade Glass Award:  From EDCO’s Jade Glass collection, this sleek design attracts the best light with its series of angles and opposing bevels. This corporate award is available in three heights (9, 11 and 13 inches) at a starting price of $69.95 for a single award.
• Flame of Excellence:  Available in two sizes to recognize different levels of achievement, this striking award is constructed of glass, wood and metal.  Low-volume pricing for this award is $79.95.
• Executive Glass Award:  This tall, 12-inch award combines stainless steel, jet black crystal and jade glass.  A single award is available for $159.00. 
• Glass Peak Duet Award:  This 9.5-inch award combines blue and clear optical glass elevated on a brushed silver base.   Single-award pricing is $98.95.
• Ribbon of Success:   New to EDCO’s Jade Glass Collection, this corporate award features a beautiful metal ribbon die-struck with a star pattern that wraps around the length of the jade glass.   Low-volume price is $189.00.
• Expression Art Glass Award:  This 15-inch art glass award features a creative glass rainbow flame.  A single award is available for $149.95.

Each of EDCO’s corporate awards is thoroughly inspected during the quality control process and comes packaged in a premium-quality gift box.   EDCO specializes in delivering high-quality customer service and fast turnaround times, EDCO can provide trophies typically within one week of order and faster for urgent orders.  In addition to Glass and Crystal awards, EDCO Awards & Specialties also specializes in laser engraved acrylic trophies including custom cut and custom printed awards.  The 40 person staff at EDCO is ready and eager to help!  The next time you need a trophy or an award choose EDCO Awards & Specialties and you will be glad you did.

For assistance with your corporate awards order, call EDCO at 800-377-8646.

Fostering Teamwork through Recognition Awards

The ideal employee would show up to work every day, right on time, do all of his or her work (and then some), and never need anything as an incentive to work extra hard.  It would just be in their very nature.  Although this may sound appealing, we don’t live in a perfect world, and we have to make do with the best of the imperfect world that we are given. Providing a little extra something such as performance recognition awards to motivate your employees to work harder may sound unnecessary to the employer, but it has been proven time and time again to be an incredibly effective way to get a little bit more productivity out of your employees and to even create better teamwork in collective projects.  Teamwork can either strengthen organizational goals or it can cripple it.  Teamwork has to be a part of the culture and it has to be rewarded when it is done properly.

Many people would argue that teamwork is the cornerstone of a successful business. Even the most productive and useful of employees wouldn’t be able to get much done if everyone was only working independently.  With globalization occurring in most firms and increased use of teleconferences and working from home, employees are working with others that they may have never even met before. Awarding teamwork and accomplishments is an ideal way to further strengthen the team’s commitment to the mission of the company; especially in these situations.  Collaboration on work assignments and projects is normally strongly advised because of how quickly things can get accomplished, and in a lot of cases it is actually necessary to get done what you’re trying to do.

Teamwork Often Enhances Individual Group Members Efforts

With that said, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise to say that you should want to foster a sense of teamwork whenever and however possible; it’s critical to organizational success. Not only would it make your business operations run much smoother and more efficiently, but it also would give your employees appreciation, goal setting and greater work relationships with both coworkers and management.  A lot of these areas are almost completely absent when working separately and not being able to share ideas or approach management.

Using prizes and awards as an incentive for working together is an excellent way to build both a sense of teamwork and community, as well as streamlining the operations of your business.  Good inter-company competition when handled properly can also stimulate the efforts of each project. If you’re envisioning some large award that will just take up office space, this doesn’t have to be the case either; awards and trophies come in all shapes and sizes.

Recognizing team efforts in the corporate setting with a personalized award is in many cases, more than enough to show that you are grateful for them working as a team and providing more output than individually. It’s often time consuming to schedule out presentations and sit each and every team member down to provide feedback on a regular basis other than say, annually.  With an award you are accomplishing the physical connection of ownership as well as subconsciously instilling the words of praise and encouragement without ever having to say them.

Awards and Friendly In-House Competition

Employers will frequently try to get more performance out of their employees by creating some sort of competition. This approach can have several drawbacks however if it is not managed properly.  Firstly, not everyone is a particularly competitive person, which means it may not be effective on them. Secondly, since there is a winner of a competition, you will inevitably have a loser too, and those that have lost the competition may begin resenting your way of creating more productivity.  How the competition is setup, what will be awarded and how it is managed is very important.

This is the beauty of using an award to foster a sense of teamwork for your employee however - nobody feels as though they have been cheated out of anything and those that didn’t get an award will feel inspired and motivated to work harder so that their efforts are noticed too.  If they don’t they are either a low performing employee, or there is not enough value tied to the incentives being offered.  You can also pair a nonmonetary gift (e.g. acrylic awards) with a monetary gift as well such as a gift certificate.

Another benefit of using awards over any other type of incentive for teamwork is the amount of money you’ll invest in it, or rather, the lack of it. Buying acrylic awards in jade, clear or black for example, will be a very low investment and has the potential to create better teamwork and performance than a monetary award by itself can.  Teamwork is a foundation of almost every organization today, collaborative efforts are needed and the relationships and productivity of these groups depends on how well it is managed and rewarded.  The fact that an award can be personalized shows more effort is being placed in the recognition and feedback versus just handing a gift card to an employee that is quickly forgotten about after being used.  There is more value and meaning behind an award, even if it costs less, as the price threshold of appreciation on a gift card is much higher.

EDCO expands custom acrylic awards lineup

EDCO has expanded its lineup of custom acrylic awards with five new designs that incorporate customers’ own designs or corporate logos.

• The Perpetual Recognition Trophy, standing 18 inches tall, features up to 24 individual laser-engraved, brushed silver plates, enabling companies to recognize the achievements of top employees for up to 24 years.
• The Grand Custom Acrylic Cut Trophy combines a company’s logo or award design with an ebony base.
• The new Mina Line Custom Acrylic Award, built with the customer’s design and assembled with a piano-finish base in rosewood or black, can be decorated with full color printing or laser etching.
• The Laser Smith Acrylic Award, custom-produced to your exact specifications, uses EDCO’s premium .5" thick acrylic for profiling the top of the award. The base is produced from .75" thick material and offers a wide slanted front which lends itself really well to personalizing each award.
• The Outer Lines Logo-Cut Acrylic Award offers a clean all-acrylic look without breaking the bank. Combining materials such as a .375" thick acrylic top and a .5" thick base, it will bring the WOW! factor and some heft when being presented.

We have a lot of customers who want to design their own awards or have input in the design.   They bring us their design or logo and our skilled designers create a virtual sample before we start production on the actual award. 

With full in-house capabilities, from award design to laser cutting, edging, beveling, engraving and color printing, EDCO can turn around orders in short order, often in as little as three days.

Delivering high-quality, memorable custom awards is where we really excel.

View our complete lineup of acrylic awards.   Most of our standard acrylic awards can be ordered online.  For custom awards or for assistance with your award, call 800-377-8646 to speak with one of our product advisers.

Employee Retention Through Recognition Awards

One of the most basic human needs is a deep-seated need to be recognized in our actions. This is universally true; those that have put in significant effort enjoy getting recognition for their hard work.  Take an especially talented basketball player; many times he or she will tell you that the best part of sinking a shot is hearing the crowd go wild immediately afterwards.  The need to feel recognition is one that affects us all in ways that a lot of us might not realize, and this form of feedback is often absent or scarce in the corporate world.  Greater use of corporate awards can enhance organizational success and its mission.

All too often employees feel that they are nothing more than an anonymous cog in a giant machine, and that their unique set of skills and talent goes without being appreciated by those that are in charge of the workplace. We know that this couldn’t be further from the truth, but even the slightest feeling of being unappreciated has a tendency to plague even the most competent of all employees and it can also become contagious, affecting workplace culture, the image of the company and even its performance levels.

Showing Appreciation with Corporate Awards

What can be done about employees who are feeling unappreciated? Sitting down and letting them know how much they mean to the company sounds nice, but it’s often unrealistic considering the amount of time and effort that would be invested doing so, especially in large organizations. An effective way to go about rewarding the loyal employees would be honoring certain behaviors or milestones with an award.  Recognizing extra effort through employee awards via employee of month awards in one example.It’s a perfect solution for a number of reasons. First, it is a great way to show your employees that they are a critical and important component in the company, and secondly, personalized acrylic awards for example proves to the employee that they are in fact appreciated and that is evidenced in the presentation of the award and its underlying meaning and possession.

There are, however, real benefits that can be enjoyed when it comes to giving employees beautiful glass and crystal awards for their hard work and loyalty; other than just making them feel good about themselves. From a business viewpoint, it makes a lot of sense to maintain your workforce at its full potential at all times. Retention of needed talent is a growing concern for many companies, especially those in certain industries making it even more important to implement retention efforts. If one of your employees leaves the company, you will have to spend precious time and resources to make sure that their vacancy is filled.  And while you’re looking for replacements, your company is only operating at a fraction of its potential, something that most everyone in a management role is going to want to avoid.

Presenting Awards for Years of Service

A simple award (clear, jade or economy) is something that can not only help make someone feel better about their contribution to the company, but also it can have serious benefits to the company as well.  Although you could give awards and trophies for just about anything (exceeding sales quotas, attendance, enhancing efficiency), frequently employers prefer to reward their employees with an award when they hit a milestone with the company, and that can be done too. Some people liken their relationship with their company to that of a marriage. When you hit a milestone (say 5, 10 or 20 years), then you certainly have a case for a celebration and the right to be recognized for service.

Those that have worked at your company for 10 years or more prove to be an enormously valuable asset that cannot simply be replaced by someone else if they were to quit.  This is evident in most baby boomers which hold valuable knowledge and information that will likely cause a lot of “brain drain” when they begin retiring in large numbers.  They have extensive knowledge of the inner-workings of your company and it is almost always in your best interest to keep them onboard whenever and for as long as possible.  Their ability to train and transition their knowledge to fresh new employees is crucial to future success. 

Awards Help Organizational Culture and Retention Efforts

This is also important for those who are in the middle of their careers and may begin wondering what else is out there.  Although there are other ways of enticing them to stay with the company (specifically financial rewards), giving them a personalized award can still be an incredibly effective way to keep them working at your company and not moving to another place that could potentially offer higher pay rates. Not all employee satisfaction is derived from money; the culture of the company can override that, especially if it focuses on reinforcement and feedback which is often absent.

Employers often write off the effects of giving an employee a medal or award that could potentially have such a profound effect on the business. Employee loyalty is extremely important to those in management and HR positions, and if you want to get the most out of your workforce, then perhaps it is time to look into some awards to showcase your appreciation for your hard-working employees. You’ll recoup the ROI quickly as employee motivation and performance often increase extremely quickly with the right recognition plan and awards.

EDCO Awards & Specialties has unveiled 15 new corporate award designs in its Metal and Glass Awards and Art Glass Awards categories.

The traditional thinking in our industry is that customers will buy whatever you are showing.  We challenge that thinking by continuing to expand the product lineup by filling out our corporate awards categories with more creative choices.

The new corporate award designs combine materials like brass with glass, crystal and new shapes and color combinations, some using hand-blown glass.

 In the Metal and Glass Awards category, EDCO released five new corporate awards, including:

• Neo Classic Metal & Glass Award:  Measuring 8 inches high, this award combines an etched glass award with a silver-plated base that reflects light throughout the glass inlay;
• Guiding Star Award:  This limited edition sculpture features a unique metal star frame with a glass inlay;
• Glass Diamond with Brushed Metal Base:  Combines brushed aluminum with clear and blue glass for a designer look;
• Gemstone Brass and Glass Award:   Available in two sizes, this corporate award features a base  finished with brushed gold metal.  The glass inlay is beveled and deep engraved with your custom text and logo;
• Glass Circle with Brass Base:  This simple yet elegant award choice, features EDCO’s premium jade glass circle, slightly beveled and cradled on a brushed brass base elevated by a glass platform.

In the Art Glass Awards category, EDCO unveiled 10 new corporate awards, including:

• Teamwork Art Glass Award:  Measuring 13.5 inches high, this hand-blown color glass sculpture is elevated on a black base with a laser-etched plate;
• Years of Service Art Glass Award:  Measuring 15.25 inches high and artistically constructed from hand blown glass, this corporate award features a laser-etched plate on the base that can accommodate company logos or special art;
• Inspiration Art Glass Award:   This carefully selected art glass sculpture represents inspired success and will make a nice statement at your next awards presentation. Elevated on a black base with your custom inscription and logo laser etched onto a black brass plate;
• Celestial Art Glass Award:  Measuring an impressive 13 inches high, this corporate award is the perfect choice to make a really big splash!
• Vision Art Glass Award:   Standing 16.25 inches tall, this magical art glass sculpture is elevated on a handsome black base with a brass plate, laser etched with your custom inscription and company logo;
• Deco Glass Mosaic Peak:  This corporate award features a beautifully stained glass accent panel and a wide beveled edge.   The sculpture is set off by the black rod iron metal riser that cradles the glass award;
• Excellence Art Glass Award:  This 17-inch black glass sculpture with blue accents is elevated on a piano-finished base. This is the ideal choice for awarding the highest level of achievement;
• Blue Bubbles Art Glass Award:  This fury of rolling patterns is elevated on a glass finished base that features a custom printed plate for your company logo and personalized text;
• Intrigue Glass Award:  This 9.5-inch beautiful art glass sculpture features a black laser etched plate with your personalized congratulatory message;
• Glass Mythic Award:  This hand-blown art glass features rich blue hues suspended in clear glass. Clearly stunning, this recognition award is elevated on a black base that incorporates a black steel plate with laser engraved copy.

The art glass category has grown tremendously.  Three years ago, we didn’t offer any. Now we have 19.  The more unique the piece, the better the response has been by customers who like seeing a theme like “Teamwork” or “Progress” carried through the design.

EDCO offers more than 300 corporate award designs in five product segments:  crystal awards, glass awards, acrylic awards, custom awards and plaques.

View the full lineup of EDCO Awards’ glass awards.  For personalized assistance in selecting your corporate awards, contact the company at 800-377-8646.

EDCO Awards & Specialties has introduced 24 new crystal awards for 2013 as it continues to update and expand its line of corporate awards.

The new awards represent every price point, from $30 to $350, and feature dynamic designs and added color.  We’ve filled out our product lines with new crystal awards that feature interesting new shapes or movement as well several optic awards that combine optical glass, crystal, black glass and colored glass.

Here’s a lineup of the new awards now available among EDCO’s Contemporary Crystal, Optical Crystal, World Crystal Globe and Specialty Crystal Award lines:

New Contemporary Crystal Awards:

• Crystal Distinction Award:  All optic crystal with two colored crystals in blue and jade, and high-quality engraving using sand blasting – an amazing value.
• Atlantis Ellipse Crystal Award:  A geometrically simple yet a stunning combination of clear and blue crystal. Perfect for achievers from all walks of life.
• Ambient Clear and Red Crystal Award:  An original design that will engage your senses with soothing colors and sophisticated looks.  Also available in blue.
• Crystal Recognition Award:  This stylish corporate design engraved with your personalized message is sure to impress its achievers.
• Blocks of Success Crystal Award:  Light penetrating the colorful crystals will reflect beautifully on your engraved congratulatory message.
• Art Deco Crystal Award:  Inspired by the Historic Art Deco district in Miami.

New Optical Crystal Awards

• Rising Diamond Crystal Award:  Black obelisk stand cradles a clear diamond-shaped optic crystal.  The stand engraving is deeply etched and filled with a silver paint.
• Blue Diamond Crystal Award:  Produced from pure optic crystal.
• Crystal Triumph Award:  Handsome sculpture carved from flawless optical crystal.
• Nobility Clear and Black Crystal Award:  The fusion of clear and black crystals, pure in composition and optically perfect.
• Northern Lights Crystal Award:  Produced from optical crystal with sweeping curve lines and a series of crystal cubes embedded in the center of the award.

New World Globe Awards

• Omni Globe Award:  One of the most magnificent awards in our entire collection and so heavy it requires both hands for lifting.  It features a solid crystal globe, with detailed etching, that spins freely in a antique finished metal axis.
• Grande Planet Crystal Award:  Mouth blown and cut by hand from crystal. The crystal globe is perched atop a round base with custom engraving.

Specialty Crystal Awards

• Crystal Maltese Cross Award:  Produced from flawless optical crystal and deep engraved. This is the perfect award to honor distinguished service and bravery of our firefighters!
• Crystal Book Award:  Perfect way to show appreciation to that special teacher.
• Red Crystal Apple on Base:  Perfect award for teachers who made a difference.
• Faceted Gavel on Black Crystal Base:  A fantastic choice for a retiring chairperson.
• Crystal 18 Wheeler Truck Award:  A great award for a truck driver or freight company.
• Beveled Crystal Cross Award:  A beautiful remembrance for service in Christian organizations, churches and private schools.
• Faceted Crystal Football:  Produced from optical crystal and custom engraved to your specifications.
• Large Faceted Crystal Football Trophy:  The ultimate football award.
• Crystal Sailboat:  Produced from pure optic crystal.
• Faceted Crystal Sailboat on Blue Base:  Features a multi-faceted finish as well as a beautiful blue crystal base.

For help choosing the right crystal award for your corporate awards program, call 800-377-8646.

EDCO Awards & Specialties has prepared a list of 7 tips to help any business develop a successful corporate recognition awards program:

1.        Look for quality:   Above all, it’s important to consider the quality of the product.   Pricing will give you a good idea when you’re comparing one vendor to another.   A $35 corporate award, while perfectly suitable in a lot of situations, will not be of the same quality as an award that costs $135.
2.        Buy like you’re shopping for a diamond:   Clarity, color, finish and weight all have meaning when shopping for your corporate awards.   The difference between a glass award and crystal award is the clarity of the material.   Glass awards will typically fall into a lower price range as a result.  The weight of the award is important as well.  You want a good quality glass or crystal, one-half to three-quarters inch thick so it’ll have good weight.
3.        Go for the sizzle:   You can buy a nice crystal award that is very traditional, but don’t do that till you’ve checked out the newer selections that combine colors and materials.  We have several new optic crystal awards that combine optical glass, crystal, black glass or colored glass.   EDCO’s line of Contemporary Crystal Awards features several new styles that offer traditional glass designs with vibrant colors like blue and red.
4.        Appreciate good engraving:  The impact of a nice award can fall flat if it’s not engraved in a way most suitable for the material.  Many local trophy shops will laser engrave crystal, which is inferior to the more state-of-the-art sandblasting process.  Sand engraving or carving uses aluminum oxide as the blasting medium, which is a very fine material that does a very good job on detailed artwork and which delivers a precise, deep etch.  Laser engraving doesn’t cut deep, so it doesn’t look as crisp and can really compromise the intricate details of a company logo.  Depending on the material, color and design, EDCO uses one of five different engraving methods:  sand carving, laser etching, UV printing, sublimation or deep edge and color fill.  (View video of sand carving process for crystal engraving. )     
5.        Ask for help:  It’s important to work with a trophy or awards vendor whose customer service department has in-depth knowledge of its product line.  Time is of the essence.  Most companies will order their awards 3-5 days before they need them, and we sometimes are asked about 24-hour turnaround.   As a result, you want to make sure the person you’re talking to understands how much time each step takes, what’s involved in the art design process and so forth, to meet their time schedule.
6.        Buy from a manufacturer:  Most local trophy shops lack expertise in the area of corporate awards.   Working directly with a manufacturer, like EDCO of Fort Lauderdale, enables companies to ensure they’re getting the highest quality product for their budget in a timely manner.  Knowing the time constraints, it’s important to work with an awards vendor that has the product in-stock, offers quick service and turnaround and can work with the customer on art design. 
7.        Talk to a person:  The Internet has made it easy for businesses to purchase most of their office and production supplies without ever having to talk to another person.  But, when it comes to your corporate awards program, the outcome is too important to rely on a faceless, cheap Internet site.  Economy sites don’t offer the quality craftsmanship, selection or customer service of a traditional manufacturer.  We’re able to do a lot more for our clients that make their corporate awards programs very meaningful.  Because we stock all our items and do our art design and engraving in-house, we can create custom pieces for our clients, meet short turnaround times and tight budget constraints.

For help with your corporate award program, call 800-377-8646.