Showing Staff That They Make A Difference
In any kind of business, taking care of your employees should be a top priority. Giving them the proper training and all the tools for success is a great start, but it’s also important that staff members know that their work can make a difference. When a person can see their impact in reaching company goals, they feel empowered and motivated to reach for even greater heights.
Here at Signature Coins, we work with businesses and teams all over the country that are looking for new ways to show appreciation to employees and to ensure each person knows how they can make a meaningful impact in the company. Often times, these companies choose to make a series of custom coins for unique employee recognition programs, and our team is always happy to help. We are firm believers that if you treat your employees like they make a difference, then they will, and the coins we help design are perfect for making that happen.
Starting Your Own Employee Recognition Program
There are three important steps for any company looking to start their own employee recognition program. The first thing to do is establish a firm vision for the program. The priority should always be to find new ways of helping staff understand their value to the company and to show appreciation to the hard-working people helping to make your company great.
The next step is to outline the criteria for employees to earn recognition in the program. When it comes to praising members of staff, it needs to be meaningful or else you risk sounding insincere. Having criteria in the recognition program helps leaders know what to look for in their staff and know when to recognize their efforts with a meaningful gift like a custom coin.
The third and last step is to promote the new program within your company before getting started. Springing a new program on your employees simply by giving someone, or a couple of someones, challenge coins can have the effect of making the decision seem arbitrary or like favoritism is at play. If you announce the program first, and outline the criteria for everyone, no one will be surprised or off-put by the first recipients.
As staff members and leaders learn more about the program, it becomes easier for everyone to get involved. Employees know what they are striving to achieve and managers know what good qualities to look for in their employees.
Showing gratitude to staff does not have to be that difficult. As long as you take the time to recognize hard work, then you are off to a great start. Including custom challenge coins like these ensures that there is a meaningful gift that can be awarded to recognize hard work and a company’s top performers.
Coming Up With the Right Employee Recognition Coin Design
There are a few different ways to go about creating a unique design for your employee recognition coins. Some companies choose to make one-off designs, while others create a whole series of coins that go together. In either case, it’s important to consider how the artwork will enrich the recognition program and add a meaningful message of gratitude.
Core values are one of the most popular things to focus on when designing employee recognition coins. Companies like Apex use their brand logo on the front of their coins and while the reverse side of each coin represents a different core value in the company.
Designing coins this way helps keep the cost down because half of each coin uses the same coin mold. Having the coins represent something different helps employees know what they have earned recognition for and what they need to aim for to earn the rest.
But you don’t need an entire series of coins to make a successful employee recognition program. Companies like Palo Alto Networks and many others have their own unique challenge coin designs that are awarded to staff members for crushing sales and helping the company reach important milestones. As long as your design focuses on showing gratitude to the hard-working individuals at your business, you’re off to a great start.
Working For the Right Company Keeps You Motivated
The amazing results of employee recognition programs is a work culture where managers are looking for what staff do right, not what they do wrong, and employees have a clear idea of what their mission is and how they can reach their goals. For any company looking to start their own employee recognition program, just remember:
- Have a clear vision for the program. If you are focused on increasing sales or something like that, then you are missing the point. Your goal should simply be to praise staff and help them understand their value to the company.
- Set up firm criteria for staff to earn recognition. There is no bad time to show staff members that their work is important; however, you do not want to risk sounding insincere by praising staff too much.
- Promote the program among your staff before getting started. This ensures the team can work to no surprises with a clear understanding of the criteria, and no one will be off-put by the first recipients of the coins.
Starting an employee recognition program is an excellent way of reminding staff that their hard work is helping the company succeed and that their efforts are not going by unnoticed. It does not have to be hard to recognize your employees. It can be done with something as simple as a personal handshake and a quick thank you. Adding a personal gift like a custom challenge coin is a unique way to commemorate important accomplishments and motivate staff to keep up their important work.