SERVICE AWARDS

sonny

We are considering re-vamping our service awards program. I did a search here and OC Tanner was mentioned. Anyone use them? Also, I have heard of gift books that are given to ee. Ten years you get a catalog and you can pick anything in it, for example. Can anyone give the name of a company who sells this type of reward? Thanks in advance.

POTATO

OC Tanner is in Salt Lake City - they designed the medals for 2002 winter olympics. They are an awesome company with BEAUTIFUL things but beware - they are a little pricey!! I would LOVE to get a service award from them!!!

stilldazed

We have used OC Tanner and discontinued our relationship with them about 2 years ago--not because of anything they necessarily did 'wrong.' The departure had more to do with insufficient employee demand--we were and still do offer EE savings bonds--our employees seem to like them better.

OC Tanner offers high quality items. They are pricey. The plan we had included 2 items--a commemorative pin designating years of service and a gift item in a certain price range. Catalogs were developed by OC Tanner for distribution to celebrating employees, and employees were given a period of time to order.

From an employee perspective, I would have liked the arrangement. From an administrator's standpoint, it was labor intensive for my department. Catalogs had to be printed in bulk with a different catalog for each milestone (i.e., 5 yrs, 10 yrs, etc). Catalogs were custom tailored to the employee because of an OC Tanner order/tracking number (catalogs could not be reused for a different employee). Pins were considered by OC Tanner to be 'custom' orders (even though the pattern was the same over and over), which meant OC Tanner required 3 months' lead time to create the pins. There were zero opportunity for returns of the pins or gift items, because each was a 'custom' creation. As we reached the end of the relationship, I began to run low on 5-year catalogs. OC Tanner reps were nice to talk to but unwilling to produce catalogs in single-item issues.

A few of our employees balked at the idea of giving up the choice factor of OC Tanner, but our data reflected that it was used minimally. And in the business of HR, I decided the experience was one where I just couldn't please everyone.

Good luck, though I don't really believe in luck.

sonny

Thanks for the informtion!

System

Our company is still small enough that HR picks out the gifts. Brad Forrister got luggage (a hint to leave town?), another manager got crystal wine glasses (her job would drive anyone to drink), and I got a nice pocket knife x}> .

I've never worked for a big company long enough to do the catalog-gift thing.

James Sokolowski
HRhero.com

NaeNae55

Gee. You make my $75 check after 5 years of service seem cheap. Of course, I did get a framed certificate congratulating me on 5 years of service. ;;)

Nae

HRinGA

We use Tharpe. Similar to OC Tanner. They are based in North Carolina. Same concept as others. We give a custom plaque at 5yrs. 10+ gets a certificate embedded in clear acrylic plus a catalog. The longer they are here, the nicer the gifts. Employees seem to like it. However, our program before this was pathetic, so anything would have been an improvement! I have around 400 employees and this program works nicely.

sonny

do you have any of the same issues as stilldazed in terms of administrations? Thanks.

HRinGA

no. Each year I order the 5 year plaques. They are printed with each employee's names. I order 10+ plaques in Jan and then again in June. Each plaque comes with a catalog, but they are not customized to each employee, only years of service, so it doesn't matter which one you pull out of the stack. I order them twice a year since they are a little more expensive. That cuts down on plaques for folks who leave during the year.