Desgining Service Award Program

dlail

Looking for proven award program designs recognizing years of service. We are small company of 55-60 employees, low turnover, celebrating 50 years. Have not had a formal program. Would like to announce one coinciding w/ corporate anniversary. We're looking at nice corporate gifts, professional, something customers and ees can't buy (like regular logo apparel), something to aspire to; anticipate a quarterly service award day to recognise employees @ 5, 10, 15 & 20+ years.

FunHRBanker

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 04-17-08 AT 12:54PM (CST)[/font][br][br]We don't have a formal program, but do recognize employees every 5th anniversary (we have 75 employees). The first 2, we load a congratulatory memo on our intranet,
15th- Cut flowers $25 & note on intranet
20th- Potted plant $30& note on intranet
25th- Cut flowers $25 & full sheet cake & note on intranet
30th- Potted plant $40 & ad in paper & note on intranet
35th- Potted plant $40, ad in paper, full sheet cake, & note on intranet
40th- Cut flowers $40 & ad in paper & full sheet cake & note on intranet

For the men, we usually substitute a gift certificate for the flowers. Employees love it and they are individually recognized on their anniversary. We leave the cake in our lobby so customers can celebrate also. Because we're a small community, the customers often go congratulate or tease (depending on the annivesary!) the employee.

I have had one employee request not to have anything done because she had a break in service (we don't count her previous years for the celebration purposes) and she doesn't think that's right. There's always one, isn't there? We're happy to recognize continuous employment!

dlail

Thanks, we are nearly the same size, and the 5-year increment seems appropriate. We have 3 employees who had a break in service, and for the purposes of our anniversary day certificate had considered the previous employment time. In terms of gifts going forward, I expect we would exclude the prior time. I note that you recognize on the actual anniversary. Obviously, we need to solidify our program. Thanks for the great input.

System

Why do you give different gifts to the men than to the women?

FunHRBanker

I was just thinking about that because some of the women may prefer the gift certificate to the flowers...management's thinking is that men don't want flowers. Most of the women here really like the "fuss" that's made with the flowers.

Perhaps going forward I should ask the individual.

drehil

We celebrate staff anniversaries in two steps. The first way an anniversary is recognized is from Upper Management, each staff member receives a Anniversary Card in the mail. Enclosed in the card is a $50 certificate for the ee to purchase staff apparel. The second way is by presenting all staff on their 1st through 4th anniversary a Certificate, then starting at their 5th anniversary and then every 5 years thereafter the ee receives a plaque that is presented to them in a staff or branch meeting. When an employee reaches the 20 year mark we do a luncheon, put an ad in the paper and in our member newsletter.
We have looked into other forms of recognition, money, gifts, time off...but we always seem to stick with what we have.