When making an award presentation, it's important to remember that this may be the one opportunity your recipient is publically recognized by his or her employer. To make the award memorable and effective, plan both the award ceremony and the events leading up to it. Your careful planning will ensure that the value of the award is clearly expressed and communicated.

This week, the latest edition of our Trophy Catalog is hitting mailboxes all across the country. Throughout its pages you'll find hundreds of trophy and award solutions to commemorate the big achievements in your workplace. Here's what you need to know…

In the last couple of months, we've talked a lot about retirement. It was a topic of conversation in our booth at this year's SHRM Annual Conference and Exposition and it has also come up as a workplace event our customers want to hear more about. Enter the concept of a Lifetime Achievement Award!

Public figures and private-sector individuals receive Lifetime Achievement Awards to honor their contributions to their fields or to society/humanity at large. Their work spans a great number of years and an abundance of different endeavors. Sounds kind of like the lifetime of experience your retiree has (and has shared eagerly), doesn't it?

I remember my Dad's retirement party well: it was in the early aughts and I was wearing this smashing purple-on-purple polka-dot dress (hmmm…wish I still had that dress…) and everyone was there: his former secretary from, like, 1974, past and present colleagues, friends, family, and, I could swear even one of his grad-school professors. I can picture the scene like it was yesterday, even though you'd think it would be a memory long-discarded—just like that dress.

As I mentioned in my first post in this series, in the next five years many members of the Baby Boomer Generation will be retiring. They could be leaving companies they've been with for 40-plus years or five years—and, while honoring them in a meaningful way is a must, the way they are celebrated will likely be different depending on their years of service.