Start an Employee Award and Recognition Program

Businesses are constantly looking for ways to improve their day-to-day and boost productivity. If you don't already have an employee award and recognition program, it's time to start one. By simply investing in employee recognition, you can save money by retaining more productive and talented employees while reducing expensive turnover rates. Learn more about these benefits of an employee award and recognition program, as well as some ideas on ways to start one.

What Is Employee Recognition?

Almost everyone likes receiving praise from their boss, organization, or peers. Employee recognition acknowledges and rewards employees' hard work, encouraging them to perform the same behaviors for continual success. There are three types of employee recognition:

• Formal: This type involves a defined employee recognition program, where employees set personal goals to achieve. Employee recognition programs include receiving privileges or rewards for taking minimal sick days or completing an education program.
• Informal: When your employee does something extraordinary, like perform particularly well on an assignment, praise them with informal recognition. Find a personalized, meaningful, and simple way to say "thank you." Consider offerings like a trophy, plaques, desktop accessories, apparel, and other tokens of appreciation.
• Peer-to-peer: This form of recognition is less common because it can be tricky to encourage employees to recognize one another. Inspire employees to distribute peer-to-peer recognition by using employee recognition software, "thank you" walls, or Post-it praise.

The Benefits of Having an Employee Recognition Program

Some of the most significant benefits of offering corporate awards include:

1. Increased Employee Engagement

When employees are recognized for their achievements, studies show they're 82% happier at work. And 32% believe it improves their interactions with colleagues. When employees are happy at work, they're more likely to be engaged — that is, they're more likely to be passionate, committed, and productive when performing tasks. 

Businesses with high engagement rates are more likely to outperform their competitors at almost double the rate. Engaged employees take more responsibility for their projects, collaborate with others more effectively, and better express their creativity when problem-solving. 

2. Higher Profitability

Productivity is a ratio between output and input. The more input your employees produce, the higher output you'll receive — the more productive your employees are, the more money your business will make. As your employees feel happier at work through your employee recognition and reward program, those benefits will most likely translate into high profitability.

3. Lower Turnover Rate

A majority — 63% — of employees who receive consistent recognition are very unlikely to look for a new job in the next three to six months. Comparatively, 89% of employees who are rarely recognized are more likely to switch jobs, with the lack of recognition being their top reason. In another survey, 69% of respondents said an employee award and recognition program would encourage them to stay.

A study from the Work Institute suggests that replacing an employee can cost 33% of their annual salary — on average, that equals tens of thousands of dollars per employee. By keeping your turnover rate low, you can potentially save many thousands of dollars every year, even hundreds of thousands depending on how many employees you manage.

Great Ideas for Corporate Achievement and Recognition Awards in 2021

Your employee gifts should make a lasting impression. You don't want to just give your employee a gold sticker as it's short-term and anticlimactic. Rather, consider this list of company award ideas your employees will actually enjoy and cherish:

• Plaques and trophies: Reliable options for formal recognition are business awards like trophies and plaques. Establish an employee recognition program and create a group of plaques and trophies that congratulate employees for their hard work. Recognized employees can proudly display their success in their work area.
• Emblems, pins, and medals: For something more casual — like for informal or peer-to-peer recognition — consider emblems, pins, and medals. They're similar to plaques and trophies but are more versatile for many reward types. They're also budget-friendly, so you can distribute more of them readily.
• Vases: Vases are like a functional alternative to trophies as they're purposeful and feature branded engravings that recognize an employee's achievement or associated organization. Select vase awards to give your employees a unique token of your appreciation.
• Paperweights: A professional employee award that's functional in day-to-day routines is a paperweight. You can customize paperweights to represent your brand and your employee's award, suitable for formal and informal recognition.
• Apparel: A must-have informal award is apparel. It's a good idea to have branded apparel featuring your brand's slogan or logo and distribute these items as informal or peer-to-peer recognition.
• Bags: Another must-have for informal awards are bags. Every employee can benefit from bags like backpacks, briefcases, fanny packs, lunch bags, and totes. You can customize each bag to represent your brand or special event.
• Desk items: Functional gifts to improve your employee's daily routine are desk items. Desk items include pens, pencils, binders, calculators, frames, magnets, and other practical products, best for informal or peer-to-peer recognition awards.
• Executive gifts: For something more formal than desk items, consider executive gifts. Executive gifts include tokens of appreciation like umbrellas, phone chargers, leather journals, tumblers, and totes.
• Household items: Something more personal you could potentially distribute to your employees are household items like appliances, candles, frames, kitchen items, and pet products.

SourcePromo Makes Finding Your Corporate Recognition Awards Easy

SourcePromo is a full-service campaign management company, and we can help you find the perfect corporate achievement awards that your employee — and your budget — will love. We have over 400,000 products you can choose from, including corporate event awards like:

• Backpacks
• Kitchen accessories
• Sweatshirts
• Tumblers
• Business card holders
• Electronics
• Pens
• Golf items

Our products come from manufacturers that use high-quality, environmentally friendly materials. When you choose our award program gifts, you can be sure you're benefiting your company without sacrificing quality or the environment.

Working with us is easy. We offer graphic design services to help you perfect your award. Our graphic designers will guide you through the concept, color rendition, and mock-up until we reach a final design you're happy with. All you have to do is give us your design preference and logo, and we'll give you the final result.

Rest assured that your products will arrive exactly as, or better than, you expected. We understand you have a business to run, and we'll do everything we can to ensure your products arrive to you accurately and on time. For more complex designs, SourcePromo will provide you with free samples to make sure we get everything right.

Visit our product page and browse our awards and trophies, as well as our other suitable gift options. And, if you have any questions, please reach out to us using our online contact form, and one of our representatives will promptly get back to you.

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