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Show your staff they matter with these creative employee recognition ideas. Improve morale and create a thriving work culture!
Do you remember how you felt the last time you received a commendation for doing a great job at a particular task? Employee recognition is too important to leave to chance. It is crucial to recognize employees who do great work frequently. If not, you risk losing them.
Every time you recognize an employee for a job, you tell them their contributions are integral to the company's success. That’s often motivation enough for employees to do more. There are various forms of employee recognition. So, you need to think outside the box to achieve an effective employee recognition program.
In this article, we'll share 15 awesome employee recognition ideas to show your employees how much they mean to your company.
Is employee recognition at work actually worth it? The short answer is yes!
Employee recognition increases staff performance and spurs them to work harder at their jobs. They are motivated to go an extra step because they know that the management will acknowledge their efforts.
Employee recognition programs also help attract new talent by communicating the company's values to potential employees. It increases retention rates because they see their value to the company. In a survey, over 91% of HR professionals believe that recognition and rewards make employees more likely to stay.
The bottom line for you as an employer is that you'll have successfully created a work environment filled with happy staff. This leads to:
Give recognition immediately after it is due. With an employee recognition template, you can create scheduled times when the company recognizes people who have done exceptionally well.
When an employee goes out of their way to complete a task, it’s essential to recognize them as soon as possible.
Examples of when to give recognition include:
Assembly focuses on creating a space for recognition to be explored. Check out how to begin below:
Employee appreciation and recognition are often used interchangeably, but there’s a slight difference.
Employee recognition is about the work done specifically, while appreciation is about the person, not necessarily a task they accomplished. Both of them express gratitude to the employee, but about different things.
An employer says, "Good job on this task!" with employee recognition. For example: If your design team comes up with a brand design. Your client loves it and approves immediately. When you show gratitude for a job well done, that's recognition.
On the other hand, employee appreciation shows gratitude to the person behind the task. Using the same example above, saying, "I'm grateful for the time, commitment, and creativity you put into designing this." shows appreciation.It's easy to confuse them, but they are different and equally important.
Examples of employee appreciation gifts include: Buying employees lunch or coffee, sending them appreciation cards, giving them gift cards, etc.
Recognition is more than giving a pat on the back. It's about acknowledging and celebrating your team members' dedication and success.The best way to ensure your employees feel valued? Make sure they know the company is noticing what they're doing right!
Here are 15 unique employee recognition ideas that your staff will love:
Something as simple as saying, "That was a job well done!" can go a long way in making your employee feel seen. To make it more effective, let them know what part of the job you're pleased with the most and what you liked about it.
Sending an email or acknowledging their work in your office is good, but doing it publicly is better. Sending a shoutout to a team member in the presence of their colleagues is a great way to build a culture where good work doesn't go unnoticed. Assembly is dedicated to building a culture of employee recognition. With its impressive flows and templates, there’s something for every moment.
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Did you know that every first Friday in March is Employee Appreciation Day? This is a great day to plan fun activities for your employees. Some fun activities to include are;
If you have a younger audience that is social media savvy, they'll appreciate this. Put up a picture of them and a message recognizing something they've done. You can take things up a notch by writing them a fine recommendation on LinkedIn. It will help their career, and they'll feel appreciated by the company.
Employee recognition events where you give deserved awards are a professional and fun way of letting your staff know you appreciate their contributions.
Asides from the usual awards like employee of the year, most improved employee, etc., you can give out quirky awards. Examples of funny awards for employees include:
After recognition events like employee of the month, you can put up a picture of the recipient on a designated wall. It boosts their morale to work harder to 'go up on the wall.'
Celebrating your employees' birthdays is a great way to show that you value them.
A little office party with cake, drinks and some fun activities will give everyone something to look forward to. Colleagues can say nice things about them and why they like working with them.
Working in a company that offers opportunities for both career and personal growth increases satisfaction on that job. The organization can pay for staff to take courses or certifications. It could also be a training session by external professionals.
For personal development, someone can teach staff how to mix drinks, do pottery, dance salsa, make a special meal, etc.
All these little things make employees feel more satisfied as individuals, which will reflect how they show up at work.
Word of mouth is excellent, but it boosts morale even better when a gift is attached. Employees will be more motivated to work when they know that the employee of the month stands to win something.
Examples of gifts attached to the reward system include:
Asides from the bonuses stipulated in their contract, giving special bonuses to employees is a great way to show recognition. For example, if a team hits their monthly or quarterly targets and even exceeds them, you could give them a bonus to acknowledge their work.
Setting up bonuses at the end of every significant milestone attained works at pushing employees to do better.
Surprise your employees by ordering pizza, burgers or bringing a food truck to the office. After a particularly productive meeting, food treats can go a long way to show appreciation. It might seem negligible, but don't underestimate the power of food!
Investing in your employees' physical and mental well-being shows that you value them as individuals, not just staff. Organize wellness events by taking workers out for a massage, spa, etc. Or you could bring in a yoga expert, someone to teach dance workouts, or someone to check their blood pressure and other essential vitals, etc.
If it’s affordable, the company can make an event out of it and bring experts in.
You can give company-branded gifts that your employee will be proud to use. However, it’s important to buy durable items. There are exciting options to explore, such as:
Phone cases, tote bags, laptop bags, thermal flasks, personalized mugs, earbuds, etc.
This activity is another way of investing in something that matters to them. When an employee has done something that warrants recognition, you can ask them to pick a charity they'll like to donate to. And the company can donate on their behalf.
Don't let the years go unrecognized. A little gift and a note from the employer will go a long way. What better way to acknowledge the number of years workers have given to the company than by celebrating their work anniversary?
Build better work culture by integrating employee recognition into the day-to-day of your company.
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Employee recognition shouldn’t be an afterthought in your company culture. There are ways to make employee recognition programs fun and straightforward. No matter how little, employee rewards will boost workplace morale and motivate staff to work smarter. If you take care of your staff, they'll take care of your business.
Get the foundational knowledge on creating an employee recognition program that boosts employee engagement and helps them feel valued.
Explore Guide
Yes, at Assembly, security is a top priority. Each quarter, we have ongoing security work that is everyone’s responsibility. While we maintain a strong security posture, it was important for us to prove to our customers that we do everything we claim to do. This led us to pursue a SOC 2 Type II report that would provide evidence of our compliance with industry gold-standard security practice.
There is study after study showing that employee recognition leads to increased engagement. This in return creates an environment where employees are happier and more motivated which increase productivity and reduces voluntary turnover significantly. In order to filled critical roles, companies tend to spend nearly twice the value of an annual salary. Assembly is an investment in your employees that supports your bottom line.
Yes, we will offer contracts for companies with longer-term agreements to help larger customers have more certainty around future costs.
The minimum agreement term is a 12-month subscription.
We do and for FREE! Any new customer needing further support to get started with Assembly to ensure you're set up for success can request custom onboarding support. Improving your employee experience is about much more than just using our amazing software; it’s about transforming your business to create a workplace that people love. That’s much easier to do with the personal support and advice from our passionate people experts.
At the time of redemption (when your employees exchange their points for a paid reward) you'll pay face value. If a reward is a $10 Amazon gift card, your cost will be $10. All paid rewards are billed for on a monthly basis.
The good news is that you don't have to pay for rewards upfront because we only charge you when points are redeemed, not when they're earned.
We offer discounts or educational or charitable organizations. In order to secure a discount, you'll first need to book a demo with a customer support specialist.
For all other organizations, we are willing to consider longer-term agreements in exchange for discounts. To set up annual plans or longer, you will need to book a demo with a customer support specialist.
If you're on a month to month plan, you can go here and cancel anytime. If you're having concerns or need help setting up your account for success, you can always book a demo with a customer support specialist.
If you're on a longer-term custom plan, you'll need to reach out to your customer support specialist to cancel your account or email us at support@joinassembly.com.
Great question! You can customize your core values to match your organization's to boost and track alignment. You can change your currency from the 🏆 emoji (our default) to any emoji of your choice. You can swap our logo for your own. You can also set up company culture rewards such as, "Lunch with the CEO," "Buy a book on us," and so much more!
While we recommend a peer to peer set up where anyone in your organization can give or receive recognition, you can set up Assembly however you want. If you need to limit the people who can give or receive recognition, that's perfectly fine and can be done from your Admin, here.
Assembly connects to the tools your employees use every day to offer an easy, seamless experience with minimal change management.
Assembly has integrations with HCM/HRIS systems like ADP, Google, Office 365, and Slack. We also integrate with communication tools like Slack and Teams so you and your employees can access Assembly wherever they work now.
That depends on the company's permissions set up. That said, over 90% of the employees on Assembly's platform are recognized on a monthly basis. That means nearly every employee across all of our customers are receiving regular recognition from their peers, managers, or leadership. We're extremely proud of this.
They are not required. You can use Assembly without having rewards set up. However, we don't recommend it if you intend to have a high adoption and usage rate. You can always keep the costs down by offering internal culture rewards that are fulfilled by you internally.
No, you can remove allowances from anyone or everyone. It's up to you but we do recommend using points whether they're worth a real dollar value or not. Companies that use points have a much higher engagement rate even if those points don't exchange for real dollars.
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