The statistics are grim. If you’re employees are disengaged and feel un- or under-appreciated, they’re nearly 40% more likely to miss work. They’re almost fifty percent more likely to cause or be involved in workplace accidents and they cause a staggering sixty percent more office errors than motivated, engaged and satisfied employees do. Which would you rather have working in your office?
The answer is simple, and even better, creating satisfied, fully engaged employees is easier than you think. A big part of that revolves around employee recognition and where that recognition is concerned, few things are more important or have a bigger impact than celebrating your employees who hang in their for the long term by recognize the anniversary of their employment with you.
9 Creative Employee Anniversary Awards
Below, you’ll find several ideas you can employ to do just that. While you may not be able to utilize all of these, we’re including several so that no matter what your company’s situation is, you’ll be able to pull something of use from this article and let your employees know how important they are to you. Here we go.
1. A Feature On The Company’s Web Page
This one’s super easy and these days, just about every company in existence has a web presence of some kind. Take a photo and write a short article highlighting the achievements of your employee on the occasion of their anniversary.
While the article will inevitably move off of page one, be sure to leave it on the site for posterity so they can show it off to their family and friends.
2. Lunch With The Boss
Not only is this easy to do, it also makes you more accessible and approachable to your employees, which will have a dramatic positive influence that will reverberate throughout your company. If improving your corporate culture is high on your to-do list, this is a fantastic way to start.
3. Give Personalized Gifts
Everybody loves getting gifts and again, this is straightforward and relatively easy to do, but there’s a catch. The gift needs to be personal, which means you need to know your employees and something about them. What direction their tastes and preferences are at the very least. If you don’t know the basics, this will fall flat, so take some time here and if you’re at a loss where an appropriate gift is concerned, be sure to spend some time browsing our extensive collection of employee gifts.
4. Cards Work Too
If your budget simply won’t permit even a modestly priced gift, don’t beat yourself up over it. A card containing a hand written, heartfelt note is also a good option and will be deeply appreciated. As with gifts, we’ve got a broad selection of cards for every occasion, including anniversaries. Spend some time browsing and you’re sure to find exactly what you’re looking for.
5. Recognition Awards
Depending on your company’s culture, formal recognition awards might be more appropriate than gifts. If that’s the case, we’ve got you covered on that front as well, with a number of high quality, great looking, totally customizable years of service awards for any occasion.
6. Fulfill A Wish
This obviously won’t be possible for every company and again, it requires knowing a great deal about your employees but if it’s something you can afford to do, it has a tremendous impact.
Has your employee always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon? Go white water rafting? Have some other form of adventure like that?
If so, you can make that happen for them to celebrate a milestone anniversary, surprising them with tickets or the means to cross an item off of their bucket list. You’ll be instantly regarded as a rock star and they’ll be talking about the adventure for years. You just can’t get better than that.
7. Greater Autonomy
Autonomous, empowered employees are more satisfied, driven and productive. If you simply can’t afford to help your employee fulfill a bucket list wish, this is an option that stands as a good alternative. Give them more control over their work schedule, allowing them to come and go more or less as they please as long as all the work gets done on time.
Give them more control over the kinds of projects they work on and invite them to work on projects that they’d normally not be able to be a part of. Few things demonstrate trust and confidence in their abilities than this.
8. Grant More Time Off
If you’re not quite ready to hand out increased autonomy, consider giving additional time off. If you want to make it less formal, you can design fun coupons that can be redeemed when your employee wants an extra day off and include them in a card with a handwritten note. It’s simple but has an enormous impact.
Building on this idea, you could also include gift cards to area restaurants or if your company has a dress code, include a few extra coupons that allow for a more relaxed dress code for the employee in question as a means of recognizing them on the occasion of their anniversary.
9. Support A Cause That’s Meaningful To Them
Give your employee time off to volunteer to a cause they’re passionate about or even better, make a corporate donation to a cause that matters to them and make it in their name. It’s a great way to not only burnish your reputation in your community but to demonstrate in tangible fashion that you pay attention to the things your employees find important and support their passions to the extent that you’re able.
This can be incredibly meaningful, especially if you’ve got an employee working for you who is civic minded.
Again, not all of these will be applicable to, or possible for every small business. Our hope though, is that you found at least a few things you could realistically put in place at your company to demonstrate your appreciation for your best people on the anniversary of their employment with you.