What Is a Recognition Award?
Recognition awards are tangible symbols of appreciation used to acknowledge an individual's contributions or achievements. Employee awards come in many forms, including plaques, certificates, and trophies. They can be tailored to celebrate a wide range of milestones, from daily efforts to career achievements.
Crystal trophies, for instance, are among the most refined options in awards and recognition. Prized for their clarity and brilliance, these high-end awards are perfect for showcasing prestige and gratitude in your employee recognition programs.
Why Recognize Employees?
Your employees work hard, and they deserve to feel valued. Employee awards and recognition are crucial for businesses that want to keep staff members happy and motivated. Implementing an awards recognition program for employees not only highlights individual achievements but also solidifies the value of each team member to build a thriving workplace culture.
From big annual awards ceremonies to monthly or weekly employee recognition meetings, acknowledging the effort your employees put into their work can:
- Strengthen teams by highlighting individual contributions.
- Inspire higher performance across the board.
- Maintain momentum by acknowledging consistent excellence.
- Build trust and loyalty between employees and leadership.
- Reduce absenteeism and turnover with increased employee engagement
- Enhance corporate culture through celebration and shared success.
The best part? A well-designed award program fits any budget and delivers measurable ROI, boosting morale, job satisfaction, and overall performance. Win-win!
The bottom line is that awards and recognition are one of the most effective ways to make employees feel valued and appreciated for their efforts. So, take a page from the playbook followed by the top thought-leaders in business: enhance your company culture with employee appreciation awards and gifts for the hard workers putting in the time at the office, day in and day out.
Employee Recognition Award Ideas
Setting up an employee awards recognition program with Successories employee awards and trophies is simple, but requires some thought. Recognizing excellence involves carefully selecting award options that align with your team's achievements and your company's culture. Successful recognition programs could be little more than a monthly plaque on a wall of honor.
At Successories, we offer a large selection of award and recognition gifts that go beyond a simple "thank you." Our curated selection is designed to inspire and celebrate your team's contributions and continued excellence. With our recognition gifts for employees, you will see the transformative impact of genuine appreciation.
Trophy Awards
Our collection of corporate trophy awards includes a wide range of options to suit every budget and occasion. Choose from stylish, heavyweight glass awards that offer impressive presentation value at an affordable price, exclusive high-end crystal trophies available in a variety of shapes and sizes, and dozens of acrylic trophies perfect for any budget.
Tokens of Appreciation
Can't wait to give out your award? Instantly recognize your team with meaningful, yet cost-effective employee recognition gifts. Honor years of service, teamwork, and dedication with lapel pin awards, or discover the impact of budget-friendly medallions & challenge coins.
Award Plaques
From traditional engraved walnut plaques to modern full-color printed designs, you’ll find the perfect recognition plaques to honor any achievement. Choose from full color, brass finishes, motivational imagery, iconic graphics, and an array of wood tones.
Your Recognition Program, Made Simple
Our experienced team of experienced and trained experts is available by phone and email to help you create your corporate recognition awards program. Whether you’re a retailer recognizing top-performing retail staff, honoring employees' years of service or thanking clients with a trophy, we’ll help you design a corporate recognition program tailored to your goals, timeline, and budget. Simply select your preferred style, customize it, and we'll handle the rest.
Types of Employee Awards
While evaluating types of employee awards, avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, choose meaningful recognition awards that reflect the unique contributions of each team member. Thoughtfully chosen awards show that you see and value their individual efforts.
Here is a quick run-down of our collection of company recognition awards:
- Acrylic Awards: Choose from dozens of unique award designs in a variety of shapes, including glaciers, peaks, stars, diamonds, rounds, towers, cornerstones, cascades, domes, hearts, gems, apples, summits, and more. Available in assorted colors like gold, silver, and blue to represent First, Second, and Third-Place winners
- Crystal Awards: High-end awards whose appearance and weight add to the precieved valued of the recognition. Explore over 90 types of awards made from crystal in a wide array of colors, shapes, sizes, and prices.
- Glass Awards: A budget friendly alternative to crystal, our selection of unique glass awards includes clocks, vases, abstracts, geometrics, globes, pendants, and plates.
- Certificate Awards: Perfect for mass recognition, Successories offers 50 exclusive designs to suit any and every type of certificate for your business. Choose motivational images on high-quality certificate paper, special folders and frames, as well as seals and foils.
Buying Employee Awards Online
A well-crafted and creative awards needs an equally thoughtful award-buying process. The goal is to purchase something that is:
- Within your budget
- Appropriate for the occasion or program
- Valued by your employees
- Delivered and presented on schedule
Achieving all of this is simple when you follow our step-by-step guide.
1. Decide How Many Awards You Need
Think about what would be most appropriate for the occasion. Will you reward the top three employees? Do you want to recognize positive attitudes? Are you looking to generally increase employee motivation and productivity? Knowing your recognition goals helps determine the right quantity of awards.
2. Set a Budget
For larger yearly or quarterly award ceremonies, decide on a budget that reflects the importance of the event. Keep in mind, you will likely be offering more than one trophy or plaque, which is why it’s important to set a budget beforehand.
- First prize top performers award: $250 ea.
- Second prize top performers award: $150 ea.
- Third prize top performers award: $100 ea.
- General recognition awards: $50 ea.
If you are awarding many employees who have reached the same level of achievement, establish an overall budget and divide it by the number of recipients.
Note: Use this approach for years of service awards (which are work anniversary gifts that celebrate milestones such as five, 10, or 25 years) or when sales associates exceed their goals. For example, any employees that are approaching the 10-year milestone should receive an award over $100 at your quarterly awards ceremony.
3. Look for the Most Appropriate Recognition Awards
Start by picking what type of award you would like to offer for each category. For example, top performers can receive a plaque, trophy, certificate, medallion, frame, or a different kind of personalized item. Decide whether the award will be on public display, like on an office wall, or whether it will be a personal keepsake for the recipient. Compare the materials and price ranges of these items to select something suitable.
An award can also demand a different price based on its level of elaboration and the materials used. For example: glass, acrylic and crystal awards may appear similar, but the materials vary in quality. Acrylic is typically more affordable and more durable. Glass is more fragile and more expensive. Crystal is usually at the top of the price spectrum, being the most brilliant in quality and requiring the most expertise to craft.
Since awards are tax deductible, there are hundreds of different gifts you can give to your employees, and you can stretch your dollar pretty far if you know what you're looking for. At Successories, rewarding employees is easy!
4. Personalize the Award
Making an award unique to your employees is a necessary step in the process. By adding a customized message and the recipient's name, you're directly recognizing their achievements and expressing your gratitude as well as the company's. Whether engraving their name or adding your company values, a little personalization goes a long way. You'll have to keep a few things in mind, however.
- Character Restrictions: Some awards have limited space, so choose a concise message or a larger award.
- Logo Requirements: A high-resolution vector file (.eps or .ai) ensures clean engraving. If needed, we can help convert your logo if you only have a .jpg.
- Time Commitment: Custom messages and logos go through a proofing process that typically takes approximately two days for setup and five days for production. Large orders may take longer to process, so please budget time accordingly.
- Organization is Critical: Design a spreadsheet that coordinates the specific award with the exact message and the particular employee's name to ensure accuracy and smooth ordering.
5. Always Follow a Timeline
Finally, timing is everything. It’s important to make sure your awards are produced and delivered on schedule so they’ll be ready in time for your ceremony.
Here's a rough outline of how your timeline should look to meet your event deadline:
- Two weeks before the ceremony: Finalize award winners and the appropriate personalizations. Send the logo file, message and your choice of awards to us.
- Personalization takes two days: You will be sent a proof immediately afterward. Review and approve your proof quickly (but accurately) or make suggestions so production may begin.
- Production can take up to five days: We will ship your order as soon as production is complete.
Here are additional suggestions to ensure a smooth process:
- Depending on your location, pick an acceptable form of shipment. Standard and expedited shipping orders are available if necessary.
- As a rule of thumb, say your event date is one day earlier to ensure your awards are received in advance.
- If shipping to an event location such as a hotel, be sure to have a contact at the event space who will receive and put your shipment in a safe location, so that the day of the event doesn't have the added stress of tracking down your awards.
Why Choose Recognition Awards From Successories?
When you shop for awards from Successories, you get more than just a product — you get peace of mind. Our unparalleled service and a hassle-free shopping experience are backed by a 30-day guarantee: love your order or get your money back.
With our Awards Advantage, you'll receive:
- Free engraving
- Free logo placement
- No setup or hidden fees
- Fast turnaround: custom awards ship within five days of artwork approval
- Expedited one-day shipping options
- Quantity discounts for larger orders
Recognition goes beyond words. When you want to honor someone's impact truly, recognition awards engraved with the recipient's name, your logo, and the award name are the perfect way to recognize their achievement.
- Employee recognition
- Sales milestones
- Retirement celebrations
- Leadership awards
- Academic honors
- Team achievements
- Client appreciation
- Volunteer service
- Industry ceremonies
- Personal milestones
We make it easy to celebrate top performers with awards that look professional, feel meaningful, and arrive ready to impress. Simply choose your glass trophy, personalize it, and place your order. We ship within 5 days and guarantee your complete satisfaction.
Step 1: Choose your Design
Browse our curated selection of classic and modern designs that are perfectly suited for display in the home or office until you find the perfect one.
Step 2: Personalize Your Engraving
Make every trophy personal with engraved names, messages, or logos. Personalization creates a treasured lifelong keepsake that recipients will love to show off.
Step 3: Review and Approve
We'll send you a digital proof so you can double-check the details before we create your award. That means you can rest easy knowing that what you receive will look perfect before it even arrives.
Step 4: Receive and Present
We'll carefully package and ship your custom glass awards after they've been personalized. That gives you more time to write and practice your speeches.
Need to Place a Bulk Order?
Whether you're recognizing an entire department, hosting a company-wide event, or running a quarterly awards program, Successories makes bulk ordering simple and stress-free. Our team will work closely with you to coordinate large-scale production, ensure consistency across all awards, and meet your delivery timeline without sacrificing quality. From 10 to 10,000 pieces, we're equipped to fulfill larger orders so your entire team feels seen, valued, and celebrated
As a trusted online provider of high-quality trophies and awards for recognition, Successories is your go-to partner for recognizing excellence. Your recipients will love what they receive. Shop awards and trophies today.
Employee recognition awards are about more than just celebrating achievements; they're about building a foundation for customer satisfaction and employee loyalty. At Successories, we understand the power of appreciation. That’s why we offer creative solutions for every occasion and budget. If you want to build a positive company culture, our range of recognition awards provides the perfect way to show gratitude and acknowledge the dedication of your team.
Ready to recognize your most valuable people? Shop for recognition awards today.
Recognition Award FAQ
Have questions about recognition awards for your employees? Successories has answers.
What is an example of recognition award wording?
A straightforward message like "For Outstanding Leadership and Dedication" is always a strong choice. Just make sure it's specific to the person or achievement being celebrated.
For more award wording ideas and inspiration, check out our popular award messages.
What is a professional recognition award?
A professional recognition award is given to honor exceptional achievements in the workplace, such as innovation, leadership, or long-term dedication. These awards celebrate the meaningful contributions employees make to your organization's overall success.
