When coming up with recognition award gifts, the idea of what packaging to place it in either comes up late in the game or gets little or no discussion at all. Companies spend countless hours and dollars on packaging their own products in the best way possible, but don’t consider the importance of the recognition gift they are giving their very own employees.
“There are two things people want more than sex and money – recognition and praise.” – Mary Kay Ash
Another often forgotten aspect of employee award recognition is the presentation of the award. Some managers give out awards at review meetings, and some companies just drop ship the item to the employee’s home.
“People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and rewards.” – Dale Carnegie
Employee recognition is a BIG DEAL – whether it is commemorating the number of years an employee has served the company, celebrating meeting a sales goal, or recognizing excellence in quality, customer service, etc. Recognizing your employees significantly increases their engagement and engaged employees outperform their peers, positively represent your brand and act as recruiting ambassadors. Don’t miss this key opportunity to sincerely show how much these most important resources of your company mean to you.
As mentioned above, packaging and presentation are two ways to make recognition special and unique. Some packaging ideas include:
- Consider including a personal signed letter from the company President that the award recipient can keep and cherish well after the presentation.
- If possible include the company name/logo on the award packaging.
- Make the packaging special enough that the employee will want to use it to display the award (ex. an engraved wooden box to display an award ring, or a unique box that looks like the packaging used for the company’s own products such as a logoed cake box).
Some presentation ideas include:
- At minimum, make sure you recognize the person in front of an audience – whether it is the department or the whole company. Recognition should not be done behind closed doors!
- Consider incorporating it into your quarterly or annual meetings – so there is a bigger audience to share the celebration with.
- Make a bigger splash by setting up a special event just for awarding recognition – an annual awards banquet, a cocktail and awards gala at a swanky hotel, etc.
No matter what you decide to offer for awards, the real reason for the recognition is to acknowledge a job well done and to make sure the recipient knows they are appreciated. Don’t miss out on making this opportunity the very best it can be.