Using Employee Awards For Building A Strong Company Culture
We all need to be recognized.
Sure, collecting our paycheck is the basic need of going to work. To get money to pay our bills and support our families.
But we should get more than just the punch clock and cash in our bank.
As humans, we want others to recognize our hard work. And a bit of competitiveness and comparing of our performance to others in the company.
As a father, I have implemented some small awards in games for my kids. Remember their ABCs or get a flash card correct to get that candy you want.
Building up a motivated and happy corporate culture often uses similar strategies, and in today’s Regarding Work HR series we will go through some award ideas as well as how to issue and recognize people using the HR management software we have for you, now – let’s dive in!
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Pick Awards Ideas (Here’s a List)
Before you can issue awards, you need to first decide which types of awards you will issue to your staff. There is no rule on which kind of awards you can and cannot use – the floor is open!
Here are some common awards that you can consider:
* Employee of the Month – the most basic one, simply highlighting a team member each month for the most outstanding work. You often see these posters hung up at the wall in your favorite restaurants and businesses – highlighting an employee of the month will give that person some “warm and fuzzy” feeling inside.
* MVP (Most Valuable Player) – I would say similar to employee of the month, except it doesn’t have that “month” part in it (if you don’t want to have to pick an employee each month). This can be a yearly award, or simply one that is done on demand for seeing superior work in the company.
* Rising Star – Is a new staff going above and beyond? Want to give them an early boost of confidence and recognition? Highlighting top new recruits (rookies) will encourage them that they are on track and to continue their hard work.
* Work Anniversary – A good company will have team members who have been there for years on end. This builds loyalty, and also reduces the stress of needing to recruit and train new employees. Recognize those who have been with your firm for the long term with various lengths of time work anniversaries.
* Social Butterfly – Healthy company cultures need a good bunch of people who keep the positive work vibes. Someone who is encouraging others to work hard and keep on trying their best.
Don’t Get Too Complicated!
You can think of a ton of awards, but there is that saying if you make it too complicated you won’t do it and it will get out of control and simply forgotten about.
If you’re a smaller team, maybe pick one or two – employee of the month may be too much as if you have repeat the same people each month it will get a bit repetitive. If you’re a smaller team, maybe aim to issue these every quarter instead and not use “of the month” in the name to not set expectations of monthly.
What Can You Give With The Award?
Sure, who won’t take cash bonus with an award. But depending on your company culture and the environment – a gift or even just the recognition alone will be enough.
Some ideas of what you can give someone with an award:
* Money/ Cash added to their next payslip. With Regarding Work HR system, adding a one time bonus on their next payslip is fast and easy.
* Gift card (Amazon, restaurants) – You could bulk buy gift cards and get a bigger voucher amount than the cash bonus above. Yet some of your staff (if you hire remote) may not easily be able to redeem so make sure it is able to be redeemed where all your staff are based.
* Physical gift – flowers, candy, or have your company start to make their own promotional items like USB drives or other ideas.
* Paid day off – let them enjoy a certain paid day off. Maybe the exact day can be fixed and everyone in the company will know they got that day off due to the award (incentivize others to strive for excellence too).
* Organized recognition – have everyone at the company clap / thank / appreciate that person. Encourage everyone on the day the award is issued to spend an extra minutes to thank that person for being a positive light in the company.
* Dinner out on the company with the boss – take them out to dinner. Maybe invite their significant other or family as well.
Have your own ideas? We would love to hear it! I recommend making it less about cash money and more about the positive feeling and support the team member will get.
How To Issue The Award?
So you are as excited as I am about building your company culture up with awards? Great!
Using the Regarding Work HR management system, logged in as an HR admin go to: HR -> AWARDS.
In this screen you will see all the awards that have already been issued. The employee ID number, their name, the award name, the gift that was granted, the month it was issued for. From there you can edit or even delete them (use with caution!).
Today, we will issue a new award – so click the “add new award” button. You’ll go to a screen that will have award name, gift (what you are issuing), cash prize (optional), the employee name (from a drop down menu), the month, and year.
Then click submit!
What the Employee Will Get
Once you click submit, the staff member will get an email alert that they won an award.
They can then login to their Regarding Work HR system and see it listed. It is right on their dashboard and will be a way they can remember their award each and every day 🙂
Any Cash Bonus Will Be Automatically Added to the next Payslip
Now, the cool part of using Regarding Work is this is all tracked in the system. By issuing the award, the staff is notified, and if you are putting money on it, that is also added automatically to the next payroll you generate.
This way, no HR issues come up where you say you will give a bonus but don’t (often just admin issue, not intentional). We want to help the management ensure they are doing what they say – as from our research many small business owners want to give awards and bonuses – and try – but simply lose things in the paperwork and the daily fires in the company they are fighting.
Using software to ensure you are issuing awards, bonuses, and then ensuring you follow through (Critical!) is essential in building a strong company culture. Issuing an award but not delivering the actual award is more damaging than not having it in the first place.
Others Will Also See The Awards
Of course, in life – we want others to see our awards and achievements. Therefore here, when one team members wins the award, others will also see it.
That is what makes it so satisfying, right?
It encourages others to also strive to win the next company award. Also it will show the team who is doing work the way the company aims to get it done (thus the product name here “Regarding Work”).
Starting Strengthening Your HR and Company Culture Today!
We hope you can see the value in creating an award system in your company. Also the value in using a software solution that manages it all for you in one place and creates transparency and ensures follow through!
If you enjoyed this guide and are looking for that software solution – we hope you can give our Regarding Work HR management system a shot. It covers these awards – plus a whole lot more! Free to start and pretty generous with the free version, get started today!