Check out these 50 helpful suggestions from the Office of Great Workplace Development in Lansing, MI for empowering and motivating your employees through simple recognition.
- Ask her to be a mentor to a new hire.
- Have a monthly breakfast meeting in an outside location. Invite your team, share ideas and recognize at least one person.
- Put up a bulletin board in your department and post letters of thanks from customers (internal and external).
- Deliver candy or other snacks to your troops on a certain day every week. Take the opportunity to learn what your people are working on and recognize their good behavior.
- Interview your people and capture their wisdom.
- Compile the quotes and stories in a booklet and hand it out to new hires.
- Create a homemade funny trophy that is appropriate to what is being recognized.
- Allow a person to work at home for a day (or even half a day).
- Give the person an extra-long lunch break, either immediately or in voucher form.
- Flowers sent to work or home.
- A special message to say thank you or recognize an accomplishment-it can be a letter, poem, rebus, song.
- Have a picnic, either indoors or out in honor of the person.
- Create a banner strung across the work area to publicize a contribution or accomplishment (can be for an individual or a group).
- Send a letter of praise to her spouse/family (this is probably the most powerful, untapped recognition we’ve seen.
- A large calendar can be posted. Call it the celebration calendar and use Post-Its and written notes of recognition tacked onto specific dates to honor contributions made by team members.
- Honor employee subgroups in your department with their own day or week (e.g., Student Worker Week, Custodian Week) and present them with flowers, candy, breakfast, etc. during that time.
- Recognize highly-skilled employees with increased responsibility that will develop new skills that may be helpful for advancement.
- Celebrate a promotion with an item that will be useful to an employee in a new position; for example, a new supervisor might like a new day planner.
- Announce employees’ achievements in team or staff meetings, group email, departmental bulletin boards, or other public venues.
- Greet employees every morning, reinforcing the message “I’m glad you’re here.”
- Pass around an office trophy to the employee of the week.
- Give the person the choice of the next project/ assignment to work on.
- Say, “Thank you.”
- Volunteer to do his least favorite task.
- Submit information about your employee’s achievement to the editor of your department newsletter.
- Remember their special Days (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) and write a message in a card.
- Gather co-workers to sing a lighthearted rendition of a song such as, “You Light Up My Life,” “We Are the Champions,” etc.
- Have a department break in honor of her.
- Give him a standing ovation from the entire team.
- Wash her car.
- Give her tickets to a ball game.
- Give him a book from his favorite author.
- Let her park in your parking space for a week.
- Give out traveling awards like a rubber chicken or other fun item.
- Organize a departmentwide water-gun fight in the parking lot in her honor (on a casual day).
- Bring him a cup of coffee or favorite morning beverage.
- Buy lunch for her and three or four coworkers of her choice.
- Give him golf lessons.
- Give him movie tickets.
- Give her the latest book that relates to her career.
- Give him a box of his favorite chocolate bars or other candy.
- Provide “Lunch on me” coupons.
- Recognize the importance of a new employee with a large Welcome! poster.
- Send a handwritten note of praise (not a “thanks for all you do” letter, but a note with specific praise.)
- Give him a subscription to his favorite magazine (not just business-related).
- Have a recognition box in your office. When someone does something outstanding, let him choose a reward out of the box-everything from a free lunch to an oil change.
- Create a yearbook for your team with pictures and stories of accomplishments during the year.
- Put together a scrapbook of memories for an employee who is celebrating a milestone anniversary. Give each person on the team a blank page to fill out with stories or pictures of their experiences with that employee. Then, after the public recognition moment, the individual has not only a treasured award from the company but something from her coworkers that captures their feelings.
- Copy senior management on your thank you note to the employee, to advise them of an employee’s efforts/accomplishments.
- Present a Life Saver Award (packs of Life Saver candies and a gift certificate) to an employee who pitched in during an emergency or staff shortage.
Source: Office of Great Workplace Development – Lansing, MI