Today, dedicated days offer the opportunity to recognize dedicated employees. Thanksgiving Day, a relative newcomer to the calendar, runs on the first Friday of March. Administrative Professional day is celebrated on Wednesday of the last full week of April. But why wait? Keep your best employees by recognizing them throughout the year.

Regardless of whether you manage a team or run a business, you can stimulate participation without distracting your budget from the cliff. The key is to honor productive employees in a substantive and personal way. Some companies make the mistake of handing out rare delicacies, such as holiday turkeys. These universal solutions are felt by all but own.

Here are suggestions for rewarding employees in more meaningful ways:

• Make it personal and leave a lasting impression. Bringing a doughnut box to a staff meeting in honor of Anne or John’s achievements adds up to 60 seconds. After that, you still have crumbs and go to the next agenda item. Instead, when the result justifies itself, think about personal prizes ranging from awarding to trophy awards.
• Schedule a corporate reward show. Better yet, get your employees involved in planning. This is much more than just delegating tasks. Your employees are more likely to take the award ceremony seriously if they have contributed to your creation. Set reasonable options and recommendations, but as much as possible, let your employees run the program. Continue to show interest as event plans take shape.
• Set meaningful categories for recognition. Personal rewards should be consistent with the mission, goals and values ​​of your company. There should also be enough categories to ensure that prizes will not be redirected to one or two departments. For example, in a car dealership, you can give a reward to an employee who sells most cars for a certain period; just do not forget the employee of the service center, whose effectiveness led to faster response time, an increase in the number of positive customer reviews and a noticeable increase in the name of referrals. In other words, make sure that your badges and custom awards reflect the organizational structure of your company and how each department influences the bottom line.

• The honor of the team, not just individuals. If collaboration is critical to your business, this is your chance to promote more. This has the added benefit of enhancing the efforts of the most influential team members while encouraging the more active participation of the least trusted team members. To emphasize both the team and individual aspects of achievement, consider a bi-directional approach: have a crystal team award that you can show at the workplace for all to see. Then present their own acrylic commemorative awards on office supplies.