You can talk all you want to about creating a corporate culture and building employee engagement. But if you’re starting out with an environment of negativity, you need to banish that first…and fast! The signs of a negative workplace are pretty easy to spot, including low morale, poor teamwork and high turnover. If you’re an […]
When a company presents their employee with a cash award, the Internal Revenue Service requires that the cash amount must be treated as ordinary income by the employer. What are the implications of this? For the employee, ordinary income is subject to Federal and State payroll withholding taxes, and FICA Social Security and Medicare withholding. For […]
Give Your Employees The Best Recognition Many managers often find themselves in a position to give speeches to recognize their employees. These managers may not always be the most gifted, or talented, public speakers. If you are one of these managers, do not despair. I’ve written this article for you and the rest of those […]
ATTENTION ALL MANAGERS. March 4th is right around the corner, and you know what that means: it’s time to once again show your employees how much you love them. That’s right, next Friday, March 4th, is Employee Appreciation Day. Hopefully you’re already recognizing your workforce year-round, but if you feel like your people could use a […]
ST. CHARLES, IL (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 09, 2016 Recognizing that small businesses create two out of every three jobs in the U.S., and that 78 percent of consumers prefer to buy products made in the USA, Award Concepts steps up its support for the Made in America movement by including more American-made products in its employee […]
Looking for an easy, economical way to enhance your employee recognition program? The resources are right in front of you. They’re sitting in your cubicles and offices…greeting you in the hallway…maybe even pulling into your favorite parking space! That’s right, they’re your employees. Peer-to-peer recognition is gaining more attention among organizations of all types and […]
Once you’ve kicked off a peer-to-peer recognition program, your work is done, right? After all, you’ve delegated the task of acknowledging successes, so you can just step back and let it happen. Not so fast. While a great deal of the responsibility has been shifted, you still have to maintain and sustain the program. […]
What’s Christmas morning without packages to tear open? A birthday without cake and presents? Valentine’s Day without flowers and chocolates? Everybody loves to get gifts on special occasions – in fact, we expect them and can get pretty annoyed when someone forgets! On the other hand, we’ve probably all received “just because” gifts: expressions of […]
Now that everyone from K-12 to grad school is hitting the books (or iPads) again, it’s time to brush up on your employee recognition know-how. We all remember the dreaded “pop quiz”, but no worries – you won’t be graded on this one. 1. Which of the following is an appropriate occasion for recognition? a) […]
In a word, yes! Many of us remember our dads or grandfathers retiring from their companies after 35, 40 or 45 years…in many cases a lifetime of service. Employment trends have changed dramatically over the last generation, with workers today changing jobs on an average of 4.6 years, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. […]
If your years of service program is getting less and less traffic in the 20 years and up categories – what we like to call the “Everest Level” – you’re not alone. But if you do have employees who have stayed the course well into those double-digit years, here are some tips for rewarding them […]
Frequent employee recognition has a number of benefits, including increased employee engagement, higher productivity and lower turnover rates. However, there’s one drawback. When an employee makes a truly outstanding effort, you have to try a little harder to distinguish that accomplishment from others. Here are ten extra-special ways to recognize extra-special effort: Establish a “Gold” […]
We recently covered pet projects, or activities and goals pursued as personal favorites. For many of us, the ideal pet project would be about…you guessed it, our pets! Which brings us to the question of pets in the workplace. Paws up or paws down? Paws Up: The biggest benefit of allowing pets to cuddle up […]
Everybody loves a great employee benefit package. But if it’s not being used to its full advantage, how much is it really benefiting your employees…and your organization? One of the biggest reasons employees don’t maximize all their benefits is because they’re simply not aware of them. Sure, benefits come up during the hiring and onboarding […]
While you may have a rapidly shrinking pool of older workers with long tenures, you probably have plenty of millennials – age 18 to 34 – among your ranks. And where older employees are used to waiting for rewards, millennials aren’t content with those traditional 5-year increments in service awards. In fact, most of them […]
It might seem counterintuitive to reward an exemplary employee with more work. But if it’s the right kind of work, it might be just the ticket to boost engagement and keep that prize performer on your payroll. Pet projects are defined as activities and goals pursued as personal favorites. Many of us have pet projects […]
We’ve all got them: those “pet peeves” that drive us crazy the minute we step into the lobby. If we’re lucky, they don’t hit us until we’re settled at our desk. Just for fun, here are some of the leading office offenses…see how many you can identify with! Chatty co-workers. Not that you have anything […]
There are two reasons NOT to wait for a five-year milestone to recognize an employee. First, while corporate loyalty and longevity are certainly cause for celebration, are they really accomplishments? Second, as we’ve pointed out in many past articles, frequent recognition has a direct effect on employee satisfaction, engagement and retention…which takes us right back […]
Whether you’re thinking about a recognition program for your organization, trying to sell the idea to the folks in the corner office, or already have a program up and running, here are seven compelling reasons why you need one – or why you may want to revisit and revise what you’ve got! Recognition programs boost […]
It’s that time of year everyone in the office looks forward to…and kind of dreads at the same time. The weeks leading up to Christmas can be filled with fun or fraught with social peril (usually both). Parties, activities, gift giving – there’s an upside and a downside to everything. Here are some suggestions for […]