Blog posts tagged with 'employee appreciation events'

Employee recognition awards and employee recognition programs do a lot to create and cultivate an encouraging workplace environment for the people on the ground floor and in entry level positions. It shows them that the company truly cares about every one of their employees, no matter what their position is, how many hours they work a week, or how new they are. It also reinforces ideals of meritocracy and work ethic, allowing company culture to become more engaging, competitive, and enjoyable.

Most employee recognition programs tend to put most, if not all, of their focus on these and neglect to recognize the work of those in managerial positions. This shouldn’t be the case. While managers have been in a sense “rewarded” and “recognized” for their hard work with a higher position in the company, they still deserve to be recognized for their hard work, leadership, innovation, and more. So, how do you cultivate an encouraging environment among managers?

Awards for Managers to Motivate Your Teams

The first step towards cultivating an encouraging environment amongst managers is to have dedicated awards for them. In addition to assigning an employee of the month or innovator of the month award to employees, consider adding a “manager of the month” or “leader of the month” award to your employee recognition program. This will not only show managers that you appreciate them but also encourage them to fulfill their position to the best of their ability.

Managers may compete among themselves to see whose team can rack up the most sales, complete the most client work, or produce the most quality work in a month. This friendly competition can increase the productivity of all the employees they manage, thus making the entire company more productive. The only limit to what kinds of awards you want to bestow upon your managers is your imagination!

Improve Collaboration with Manager One-on-One Meetings & Events

Another way to cultivate an encouraging environment among managers is to conduct regular check-ins or schedule one-on-one meetings to see how they’re doing. Managers will often have these types of meetings with the employees they oversee, thus taking on the stress and concerns of multiple other people all the time. This is a lot to put on one person, and managers need an outlet to vent their own frustrations and go over their own concerns as well.

Giving managers the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings where they can do so with a department head, or their direct supervisor will go a long way in making them feel encouraged and supported at work. You may also want to implement manager-only meetings where managers can discuss their frustrations and concerns with others in their position. This not only gives them an opportunity to confide in others like them but also learn from them and discover or share new solutions to common problems they all face.

Because managers deal with a lot on a daily basis, creating events just for them to get away from it all and relieve whatever stress they may have is another great way to create an encouraging environment. Perhaps plan a monthly event for managers like a dinner paid for by the company or a trip to a place like Dave and Busters where managers can unwind and develop bonds outside of work. At the very least, a yearly event for managers should be a priority for any company. Get out of the office and create an unforgettable experience for your managerial team.

Help Managers Level Up Their Skills

Lastly, you should facilitate ways for managers to learn and grow their skills and support them in doing so. This takes a more literal approach to creating an encouraging environment but creating learning opportunities will do more than that. Managers, and all other employees, will thrive and you’ll see performance increases when your company becomes an organization that encourages and prioritizes personal growth and development.

Awards for Business Managers

If you’ve been inspired to add awards for managers into your employee recognition program, there’s no better place than EDCO to find them. With everything from crystal and acrylic awards to plaques and clocks, we’re you’re one stop shop for all things recognition. 

Recognizing your team’s achievements throughout the year is important to maintaining a productive, engaging, and competitive work environment.  A good employee recognition program helps create a workspace that your employees look forward to coming into day after day, but what about year after year? At the end of the year, you have the opportunity to make a lasting impression on your employees and enter into the next year with a renewed sense of energy and passion that’ll help you accomplish all your goals. While you should hype up your team for all that they’ll achieve next year, you should also reflect on the great things they did this year, and there’s no better way to celebrate another year of great work than by recognizing those responsible!

So, how do you wrap up your year with employee recognition? Most companies will have some sort of end of the year holiday party already, but if not, you should really consider one. At an event like this, your staff can talk with each other about anything they like and really enjoy each other’s company without the stress of work or project deadlines looming over them. It’s a great way to improve internal relations and strengthen bonds between co-workers, so your team works even better together in the coming year. It’ll end the year on a high note and leave your employees feeling more like friends than co-workers. The event can be considered employee recognition in itself since you’ve (hopefully) put a lot of time and effort into planning something they’d enjoy. The event doesn’t have to be expensive or grandiose – as long as it’s meaningful, authentic, and sincere, your employees will appreciate it and know they’re valued.

Employee Recognition Awards At the End of the Year

This end-of-year event can be considered a reward in itself, but there’s more you can do to really wrap up the year with employee recognition and show your employees just how much you’ve appreciated their hard work over the year. In fact, it’s the perfect time and place to hand out some special employee recognition awards.

You likely already know the benefits of employee recognition awards and how they contribute to a great work environment and culture, but if not, here’s a quick rundown. Employee recognition awards can increase employee productivity, engagement, and satisfaction, boost morale, improve customer service, and decrease employee turnover. There are a wide variety of different employee awards one can give out throughout the year, and while the kinds of awards you bestow upon your employees are ultimately up to you, there are a few we’d recommend you make staples at an end of the year company event to wrap up the year with employee appreciation.

Employee Recognition Award Types

Employee of the Year: Most companies will give out an employee of the month award, so it only makes sense to name an employee of the year. Not only will this communicate your appreciation, but it’ll provide an incentive for your employees to be productive and engaged all year long. Think about including some other prize – maybe a gift card, gift basket, or PTO – to go along with this award.

Team of the Year: Just like the employee of the year award, this award will show a team how much you value their work, and it will provide an incentive to all the teams in your company to put in great work day after day. While the ultimate decision is up to you, we recommend giving it to the team that overcame the most difficulties, took on a lot of big projects, or went above and beyond all expectations and were super productive. In addition to the award, think about including a team dinner or some other reward with it.

Innovator of the Year: Every year, you probably have a number of employees who think up creative solutions to the problems your company faces, or totally reinvents the wheel and finds an easier alternative to a process you’ve had in place for years. By honoring the year’s best innovator in your company, you’ll be showing other employees how much you value their ability to think outside the box.

Blunder of the Year: It’s important to be able to laugh at yourself, and we all make mistakes from time to time. You can’t expect your employees to be perfect all year long – nobody is – so why not find the humor in a situation and ask employees to nominate some of their biggest “oopsies” of the year. In addition to the award, you can use it as a teaching moment and recognize that your staff learned from their mistake.

Don’t let the end of the year creep up on you – get the employee appreciation trophies you need today from EDCO! Shop our wide selection of crystal awards, glass awards, acrylic awards, plaques, and more to find the perfect ones for your employee recognition program.

Want to Boost Employee Morale? Don't Miss These 5 Steps to Energize with Events!

Have you noticed something isn’t quite right in the office? Perhaps morale is down or your employees feel unmotivated by the tasks at hand. Perhaps when you talk to your employees, you hear dissatisfaction, and that is spreading among your teams.

You want to curb employee dissatisfaction and frustration as soon as you can, but it's not always easy to do if you have ignored the problem for too long. That's when it's time to plan an incredible employee appreciation event for your workforce!

If you want to boost productivity and energy all while showing your appreciation for the hard work your employees do every day, then it’s time to intervene and change things up.

What better way to boost employee morale than to plan an unforgettable work event that highlights both your appreciation and the accomplishments of your staff that make your company a success?

Best of all, executing an encouraging, energizing employee event doesn’t take a lot of time or effort, but the pay-off can be huge. Read on to get our top five tips for planning a work event to encourage and celebrate your workforce.

Step 1: Choose an Event Type and Theme

The first step in planning your employee appreciate event is to answer this question: Are there common activities my employees enjoy doing that put them on common ground? Naturally, eating and socializing are two activities that are equalizers, and, in our experience, these ideas are popular because there is a low barrier to entry and they are fun. Who doesn't want to eat free food and build stronger relationships?

In addition, you might think about additional attributes of your workforce. Are they competitive? If so, they might enjoy a Trivia Night, for example.

Here are other options for selecting a unique event type and theme:

• Employee Appreciation Breakfast – Cater a morning meal for your crew.
• Back Porch BBQ – As the boss, fire up the grill at the office and grill employee favorites for lunch.
• Happy Hour – The tab is on the company with this after-work celebration at a favorite local bar.
• Ice Cream Social – Create an ice cream bar with a variety of ice creams and toppings. Invite employees to take a break to socialize and eat a sundae.

The key is to select an event type that will bring your employees together and celebrate them via a kind and thoughtful gesture.

Step 2: Define the Purpose of Your Event

At the end of the party, what are you hoping to get out of it? What do you want your employees to do? How do you want them to feel? This will help determine what you actually do at the event.

For example, here are a few defined outcomes for an employee appreciation party that you may want to consider:

• Employee Recognition – Who are the quiet leaders, the all-star team players, the sales giants, etc. that make your company run smoothly? With this event, make sure you find a way to include and recognize everyone, such as giving out framed certificates or plaques with official achievements and appreciations.
• Boosting Morale – Are your employees feeling overworked and undervalued? If so, you may want to solely throw a great party that reminds them that your company wants to give back to them in a special way.
• Company Achievement – Did your company recently hit a sales goal? Did your organization surpass a fundraising goal? This is your moment to throw an event that recognizes how each person made it possible to get there.

It's possible that your event will have a dual purpose, and you can incorporate this into the flow of your event. It's simply good, however, at the outset, to remind yourself of why you are organizing the event and what you hope to give to your employees or have them take away from it.

Step 3: Decide on the Details

Event details for consideration can be broken down into three categories:

• Budget
• Location
• Activities

First, you'll need to set a budget. The only way to know exactly what you can pull off is to know what you can afford to spend. The budget doesn't matter as much for the amount of money you can spend as it does giving you a limit for spending and planning. You don't want to plan a $100,000 event when all you have available is $1,000.

Be savvy and smart with your budget and you'll be happy and less frustrated with the end result because you don't have to scale back.

Secondly, think about your location. Choose a location that makes it easy for all of your employees to get to – such as an event space at your place of work or close by. This works especially well if your employees commute in to work from other cities. You want to increase the likelihood that your employees will participate in your event by making the location an ideal and convenient one for as many of them as possible.

Of course, be sure to go with a location that fits within – again – your budget. Check into at least three places to get estimates for event space rental and catering. Do a cost/value comparison before deciding.

At the end of the day, however, your office space may be the best spot because it is convenient and a money-saver for your company. You won't have to pay extra for space rental!

Thirdly, consider the kinds of activities that will take place during the event. For example, are you giving out awards at your event? Is your event a team building one in which there are more physical activities? Are you hosting a party where there will be a gift giveaway by your company? In the midst of your activities, how will employees eat and drink? Is there a seated dinner or a snack table? Make sure you are thinking of all of the pieces that need to come together in order to pull off your event.

Step 4: Go into Action

With your plans set and your questions answered, it's time to go into action. You'll need to:

• Name your event.
• Set a date for your event.
• Secure the event space and catering.
• Write, design and send invitations.
• Order flower arrangements
• Order special gifts, certificates or awards.
• Order special swag to give away or any other necessary assets to pull off your event theme.
• Set up a system for measuring success.

It's important to make a list of all the items you'll need to order and to price them ahead of time to make sure they still fit within your budget. Also, factor in enough time to have the items shipped to you. You can't give out awards at an employee recognition dinner if those awards don't come in on time!

Finally, craft a survey as a way to quantify and evaluate the success of your event. This works especially well if you survey your employees in the month leading up to the event. If employees feel more appreciation and job satisfaction after your party via the survey you send them post-event, then you've been successful in meeting your party goals!

Step 5: It's Time to Party

With everything set in place, it's time to show up at your event or party and just have fun with your employees. Everything you've planned culminates into this event -- and it's up to you to be the emcee that cultivates a message of appreciation and pride in your workforce.

It's truly amazing what a few kind words can do to boost employee morale. In fact, research shows that employees are by far more motivated by a boss’s "Great job!" than they are by more money or other incentives. Keep the spirit of this revelation in mind as you plan your employee event and craft the message you will share with them.

At the end of the day, everyone wants to feel valued, included and part of something significant for the greater good. When they don't feel that way, they begin to look elsewhere -- and if you want to keep your staff and reduce employee turnover -- then make sure appreciation, encouragement and public recognition are part of your employee satisfaction strategy for the future!

Now get ready for a great party!

Ready to Start Planning Your Next Workforce Event?

Now you're ready to plan your very own event for your employees. Keep in mind that your employee appreciation event can be as simple or as creative as you want. It really depends on your budget and your sense of what would motivate your employees.

The goal, regardless of what kind of employee event you choose, is to have your employees feeling what can be summed up by the acronym MAUI:

• Motivated to continue working for the company.
• Appreciated for their critical and important work.
• Uniquely celebrated among their peers. Everyone needs to be recognized in some significant way.
• Invested and interested in a future with your company.

Keep this MAUI acronym in mind as you think through your end goals, and keep this quick guide with you as you plan your next employee appreciation event in just five simple steps!