How to Decide Who to Recognize in Non-Profit and Corporate Award Ceremonies
In businesses and non-profit organizations across the country award ceremonies are an important part of the calendar. Whether it be an annual award extravaganza or a monthly award, employees everywhere are watching closely to see who will be recognized. "Awards have to be honest, sincere and real," said Peter Handal president, CEO and chairman of Dale Carnegie Training. At Twin City Awards & Recognition we understand the importance of these events and have ideas and products to help you hold successful ceremonies and achieve your goals of having motivated, satisfied employees.
Strategic Decisions
Some organizations prefer to have the award selection process handled solely by upper management. Other businesses prefer to create a temporary team of individuals who are responsible for selecting all the award recipients. Many businesses tie their awards to specific targets attained. These can be related to sales targets, production goals, cost-cutting goals or other targets reached. Leigh Buchanan says "If several employees have had bang-up years, honor them all." and further quotes Bob Nelson as saying "Why put a quota on excellence? It can also be a good idea to allow employees to have a say in the matter by asking them to participate in a nomination process. If this method is chosen then the award criteria should be clear and easily understood by the staff. Each of these strategies have their benefits and drawbacks and you will have to decide which strategy works best for your organization.
Employee Morale
Award presentations, if handled well, can be an excellent way to strengthen teams and build morale. Particularly in difficult economic times, awards can help to increase employee productivity, and raise spirits. If it has been a difficult year financially for the organization there may only be a few individuals, if any, who are eligible for sales and productivity awards. It is important then, to choose your awards and recipients wisely in times of austerity. Where individual and team efforts have been above and beyond the call of duty they too, should be recognized even if corporate goals may not have been reached.
Don't Forget the Telecommuters and Volunteers
Michelle Goodman relates that according to a study by IDC as many as 1 billion people around the globe are now telecommuting for some, or all of their workweek and also need an award system that matches their particular situation. The valuable contributions of volunteers should not be overlooked. In fact, many organizations, particularly not for profits, could not function without their volunteers. Don't assume that because individuals don't expect to get paid they don't expect to be recognized. For example, if your non-profit runs community programs that are staffed entirely by volunteers, some form of thank you is appropriate.
Be Fair
Employees will be watching carefully to ensure that all co-workers are treated fairly. It should go without saying that favouritism, cronyism and nepotism should be avoided at all costs. Susan M. Heathfield states "This type of process will be viewed forever as favoritism." It follows then, that whatever strategy you use to choose your award recipients it should be based on meritocracy.
Types of Awards
Rewards should match the degree of accomplishment. A greater degree of excellence should be rewarded with a more significant award. Appropriate ideas for awards can include trophies, plaques, bowls, ribbons, cups, certificates and badges. No matter how you decide to choose your award recipients, at Twin City Awards & Recognition we can assist you make appropriate selections from our wide variety of awards.
Take the Video Tour of our showroom to get an idea of what is available in the big world of awards!
Sources:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/make-employee-awards-work/story?id=12992119
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201107/rethinking-employee-awards.html
http://www.washington.edu/admin/hr/roles/mgr/ee-recognition/award-ideas.html
http://humanresources.about.com/od/rewardrecognition/a/recognition_tip.htm