Creative ways to recognize/appreciate employees?

Question

I am in HR supporting a large Call Center. We are working on putting together an action plan to help reduce attrition. I'm trying to think of creative, affordable ways to recognize and show appreciation for our employees. Any ideas?

FYI - We have already addressed pay and given everyone a pay increase. Also, we are not abject to pay money for recognition I am just looking for ideas that are not outrageously costly.

Answer 1

Have a "Staying Here" party. As opposed to a "Going Away" party. Have cake and do a "white elephant" gift exchange.
Maybe a potluck.

Where I work we have a "Cautcha" board. We put up all the good things people have been "caught" doing. (ex: when someone goes out of their way to help, or someone kicks butt and goes the extra mile to accomplish a task or goal) Managers read them aloud during staff meetings.

Decorate with the seasons. Even if clients/customers don't come to your office, it boosts morale.

Contests.
Get a great prize. Gift Cert, extra paid time off (you'd be surprised how hard folks work for an extra hour off). The contest has to be something difficult but reachable.

"Princess of the Week" a contest like above, but the Princess gets to choose the music, and "give away" one of her daily tasks for the week. Works better with more than 5 people, that way the "given away" task is shared by the others. She also gets a really pretty (cheesy) crown!

Answer 2

Starbucks gift cards always do the trick. Even if it's only $5

Other than spending money...

Set up a competition ! Each week you could have a new project that your reps will focus on. It could be a team effort or an individual effort. Find something that needs to be improved and have your reps figure out a way to fix it. The best idea wins.

Create a "Wall of Fame" or "Walk of Fame" where it can be seen by all. Post the before and after effects of the idea... and the winners picture on the board.

This really gets the employees "involved" in their work and their company... it says to them that you are listening and you care... and it could be the ticket that opens up COMMUNICATION big time in your call center. Try it.

Answer 3

One of the most basic, and most often forgotten (esp. where I work) is to tell them they're doing a good job. A sincere pat on the back goes a long way. This is especially true when things have been worse than usual.
Other, minimal cost ideas include - a favored parking space, maybe letting them off a couple hours early with pay, movie coupons.
I would stay away from anything that contains the company logo. Employees know that logo things have a certain tax write-off value to the company in the advertising budget.. Or maye it's just us old jaded ones who know that!
An occassional ordering in pizza during a "crazy" time is nice, too.

Answer 4

I have answered this type question several times, and my # 1 answer is to LISTEN to your people. Just because you're in management does NOT mean you are any smarter. I have held many jobs in my life, the ones that I was happiest at were the jobs where the employer would listen to what we had to say. In fact, the jobs where they thought they were too good to listen to us got the poorest results from the people. I have had some very good paying jobs that I hated because of management. I've also had crappy pay jobs I loved. If you treat your people with respect, you will get respect. I've also done things on some jobs to mess with the employer. I had a job hauling US Mail for a contract carrier who treated us like morons. They had unsafe trucks which I refused to drive on occasion. They fired me for refusing so I got back at them by calling the Ca. highway patrol commercial enforcement. CHP went in there and shut down almost every truck they had. The CHP were hoping an employee would do what I did because the company would always lie about what trucks were the good ones. They were out of business within a month, thanks to me. It did not have to end that way if they would have just listened, and treated us with respect.

Answer 5

I hate to say it, but the bottom line is that we go to work for no other reason than to take home some dough. So my suggestion is money. Money is the best incentive around anywhere. WhenI get promised a cheesy freeby gift I roll my eyes but if I get promised a cash bonus I work my butt off really try for it, becuase that's what I am there for. I think anyone else would be the same way. Show me the money honey. even if it is just 10 or 20 dollars helps a lot, and makes you feel like you have really accomplished something worthwhile.

Answer 6

I think they need more than just appreciation, they probabaly need something extra to make them stay around.
You can have an awards scheme e.g. employee of the month. Buy a coffee machine. Free movie tickets. Alcohol, free meals out. Paper plane making competitions. Little gold stickers. You could introduce a military-style rank system , where employees get promoted for good behaviour/performance etc. A commemorative pen, bonuses, group photographs. 3 minute massages at desks. Hiring comedians. X-box 360's. LAN games. Free talk time on their phone. A lounge/den area where they can sit back and relax and chit-chat. Pin-ball /video arcade machines (you can use tokens for them out of their own salary). Introduce uniforms and reward them with a 'free dress' day. Jeans-only days, Hawaiiwan/beach party days. Hope this helps.

Answer 7

I had to look up attrition.
From what I gather, it is when people retire or resign.
Do you have any idea why the employees are resigning?
If so, then fix it.
Evaluation reports do come to mind. That pretty much states how they are doing. Maybe do them more often?
Perhaps the old Employee of the month award? Employee of the week?
Awards for term of service. 1 Year award, 2 year award and so on...

Answer 8

Employee of the month or employee appreciation which would involve:

*Special parking priveleges for the month.

*Receive a trophy for the month (one that could be used on a month to month basis so that it pertained to whomever won for the month.

*Picture of the employee of the month (posted)


I worked at a bank and they had an atta boy or atta girl slogan. If an employee went out of their way to help out another employee, at monthly meetings, the employees had the opporturnity to stand up and show their appreciation to the employee that helped them. They would usually explain how that employee helped them and just get them a thank you card or something of the sort, but it made the employees want to go out of their way to help eachother out because they were recognized. It definately brought the employees closer together and it also made the employees feel more appreciated.

Answer 9

I have to work with an extremely limited budget. I find a nice way to show appreciation is to give out movie tickets to people who perform well. I make a big deal out of it and usually do it during a meeting. Makes the person getting them feel good and makes others want to achieve more. I know its not like giving away a car but you asked for affordable.

I also used to give "Pride and performance" certificates to employees who exceed. Along with the tickets. Something they can hang in their cubicle or where they work.

Another ridiculous but fun thing to do was the old employee of the month parking space. It was more tongue and cheek then anything but it was fun none the less.

A very wise man once told me praise in public and criticize in private.

Answer 10

Little snack bags from Harry and David. The guys/gals will love the extra attention. The spring time candies are really cute right now. If you have an outlet mall near you, the bags run about $3.95 -$5.95.

The dollar store has great candy bags too if you wanted to buy a bunch for $10, then you's have lots to pass out!

Good Luck!