When it’s time to give an employee reward, a tangible gift along with your recognition, deciding what that something should be can be tricky. You want the reward to be memorable and motivating, but how do you achieve that? 

We recently posted a poll on our website asking, what is your favorite employee reward to receive, and the results are in: 

You may have heard about peer-to-peer recognition from a colleague or saw it mentioned on Twitter, but you do know what it is or how it works? 

As Baudville’s copywriter, I am painfully aware of the number of themes we have that relate to making a difference (if you’ve ever had to write repeatedly about the concept of making a difference without saying making, a, or difference, then you know what I’m talking about).

But there is a very good reason we have so many themes of this nature. There are so many ways that a person can make a difference, whether it’s volunteering for a non-profit, working as a caregiver, or having significant impact in a business setting. All people in all situations have the power to affect the world around them in a positive way, which means our customers need to have choices when it comes to thanking these folks.

So, we have Making the Difference, and Making a Difference. We also have one called The Power of One that has a "you make a world of difference" tagline.

Inside these four walls, we giggle about the redundancy (or maybe it’s just me alone in my cubicle); but it’s actually very serious business. When you think about it, it’s pretty profound that there is such demand for this sentiment. In fact, this Saturday is National Make a Difference Day—a whole day dedicated to (here it comes) making a difference! The organization that instituted this holiday focuses on the philanthropic aspect, but since we know that making a difference can take so many forms, we like to promote them all.

Wondering how you can get involved? One way is to participate directly in volunteer efforts in your community.

You can also consider every day Make a Difference Day, and focus on the little things you can do all the time to create positive change. At work, in your neighborhood, at school, for the environment, on the political front, on the other side of the world, or even by smiling at the right person at the right time—there are opportunities everywhere!   

Finally, possibly the most significant way you can do your part is to encourage (and thank) those who make a difference. That’s not why they’re doing it, but that doesn’t mean we all don’t appreciate the efforts any less. And guess what? We have just the thing…

  

With so many tools available to us for communication, it should be surprising that so many companies claim a lack of communication as one of their biggest issues. But everywhere I’ve worked, it has been at different times, and for different reasons.

As I’ve mentioned, I have a background using recognition as a motivation strategy, and have worked in environments where recognition was part of the culture. So, when I started at Baudville it wasn’t a new concept to me. But as I started to really immerse myself in the theories, I had a revelation of sorts: recognition at its core is really just about communication.

At Baudville, one of the ways we strive to improve communication is by defining who we are, what we stand for, and what we consider to be the most valuable traits and behaviors for our staff to exhibit. We call these our core values, and we broadcast them to all staff through a variety of different communication vehicles. Then we recognize when we see them in action. It’s through recognition of ourselves and others that we all understand what we need to do to be successful.

Here’s an example: I pretty much need a meeting scheduled at 8:00 a.m. (with donuts) to make it to work on time. But my managers let it slide because I perform, and often stay late, when I get here. “Perform” happens to be one of our core values, but “punctual” is not. Thank goodness.

I know what’s expected of me because it’s clearly defined. That’s communication. If being punctual were important to my managers, I’d do it. I’d not only get to keep my job, but I would probably receive accolades for doing it. That’s reinforcement of expectations through recognition. 

We recently asked blog visitors to answer the question, who do you like to receive recognition from? These were the responses:
 
- 11.1% said My mom
- 44.4% said Peers
- 33.3% said Manager
- 11.1% said CEO 

The results of this poll reveal two important recognition principles that I think you should take to heart.