Employee service awards have become a staple recognition offering. With almost 90% of organizations presenting rewards to employees on their work anniversaries, these rewards are often a cornerstone of any employee recognition program. Showing special appreciation for employees during these milestones helps boost employee engagement, productivity, and profits.
However, some companies can fall into a trap when it comes to service awards meaning they offer bland certificates addressed to valued employee or gift catalogs comprised solely of collectible vases and golf clubs. Also, there are the sorrowful sojourning tales of waiting for five years between anniversary celebrations something along the lines of I worked at this company for twenty years and all I got was a pen.
Service awards should be an added benefit of a highly engaging and strategic workforce recognition program. Here are four suggestions to get the most out of your service awards program:
Recognition should be personal. Modern workers expect an honest effort on behalf of their employer to make them feel appreciated. Companies cant get away with valued employee, or any other sort of impersonal communications anymore. Employers must make the effort to care about each and every employee as an individual, and not just on their work anniversary.
Gifts need to be desirable. No gift selection looks good next to Amazon, so a lot more thought has to go into what rewards are offered to employees. This means taking into account the collective workforce make-up, e.g., generational preferences. Luckily, service awards have evolved with the times, and the days of limited paper catalogs are long gone. If organizations dont base their rewards on what employees want and whats popular, the program will never be what they want, let alone popular.
Offer more than service awards. Making employees wait for five years in between rewards is ineffective, as the current average job tenure is only around 4.5 years. The standing guideline for offering recognition is this: Provide it to employees early and often so they dont forget the value that they bring to the company. Celebrate birthdays and new babies. Throw parties after meeting important goals. Make it a part of the culture, with service awards as the keystone.
Put your heart into it. Recognition fails when it becomes a transaction. Its not about trading rewards for performance. Its a 50/50 balance between employer and employee that must be constantly maintained, and the work is never over. Employees can always tell when companies are phoning it in, so putting heart into every interaction, and showing true appreciation for efforts goes far beyond the gifts.
Employee recognition operates according to the Golden Rule. Managers within organizations should treat employees how they would like to be treated. If employees dont have a valuable experience at their milestone anniversaries on top of the rewards, the rewards stop mattering.
Cord Himelstein is vice president of marketing and communications with the Michael C. Fina group.
