Recognition ideas from "Young Non-Profit Professionals Network"
Following is a "brainstorm" of recognition ideas from the Young Non-Profit Professionals Network (http://www.ynpn.org), an independent 501c3 organization:
- Job-related field trips. The department can encourage staff to visit programs or offices similar to their own. This provides a break from the regular schedule, some autonomy, and free professional development as they will come back with new ideas for their own program. This usually works best when staff goes in pairs and is a "trade" with another office; i.e., "you can visit our program and we'll visit yours and share information."
- Generate donations from your suppliers and other businesses as incentives and giveaways.
- How about a Sierra Club hike (they're free, usually), or a kayaking trip or maybe even just a day off!!!
- Employee of the Month Award. One employee is named "Employee of the Month" by the Manager at the first staff meeting of the month with a full description of the singular achievements of the individual for the previous month. S/he also receives a framed, signed certificate (to hang on the office wall) AND the division go out after work to a local restaurant for drinks and appetizers paid for by the organization. Typically two clients would be acknowledged as Employees of the Month and two staff members would take them out to lunch.
- Workshops. The department can pay for job related one-day workshops, selected by the employee. This pays off because the employee feels valued, and also receives training which can be shared with the larger group.
- Where I work we have something called a SPOT bonus (Superior Performance something something). Anyone in the org. can nominate anyone else but it must be approved by the nominee's supervisor. The bonus comes in the form of a gift certificate to any number of Bay Area stores. SPOT bonuses can be given for anything, such as: a co-worker who has successfully struggled to meet some major deadlines, taking on tasks above and beyond your usual ones, and so on.
- In
graduate school I studied ways nonprofits can motivate employees
and boost morale. Interestingly, studies show that monetary gifts
do not motivate employees; rather, they lead employees to feel entitled
to those gifts in subsequent years without the effect of boosting
morale. Good ways to show appreciation to employees include:
1) giving staff a day off to volunteer in a place of their choosing (can be their child's school or another agency)
2) taking a work day to bring the staff to somebody's home for an all-day retreat to discuss work-related issues and to do bonding activities
3) providing staff with a pizza dinner and music on the radio during a late night when everyone is working together
4) having the staff over to the Executive Director's home for a casual gathering - Many businesses offer gift certificates to non-profits for use as raffle items, prizes, and as rewards for volunteers and employees. Ask around. One boutique I spoke with said that only 1 in 8 gift certificates it gives away are even used, so they don't mind giving out several at a time. Ask any business (clothing store, restaurant, movie theater, supermarket, etc.) you think might be used by your employees.
- If you have a newsletter, you can spotlight an employee or a team of employees who've worked on a particular project with an article and photo. It may sound cheesy, but an "employee of the month" type plaque or special recognition award can be motivational if the culture of the department respects it and what it symbolizes.
- Depending on the nature of work your office does, letters of gratitude from those you serve collected in a binder for a particular employee may also help rejuvenate a stressed out, overworked, typical worker.
- Regular celebrations that build community, including: holidays, esp. recognizing the diversity of the people who work there (like, 'not just christmas'). birthdays - one place (Tides Foundation) I worked at used to have monthly b-day parties, w/good (Just Desserts) cake and a banner made for the b-day people that month, signed by everyone and usually decorated.
- Peer-nominated awards: I received one; they gave me money, but as valuable as anything were quotes from my peers, excerpted from the nominating e-mails and pasted into a nicely presented collage, which they gave me (and which was sent out in emails for all to see). Knowing in detail how your peers value you is very rewarding, I think. And having it publicized (esp. if you're shy about publicizing your own work).
- Transit passes. Not only is it a free ride to work, but it's also (hopefully) better for the environment.
- I worked at a place that had a sunshine committee in charge of birthday celebrations - gifts of up to $25 & sweets at the closest meeting. Everyone on staff paid $2/mo to finance it.
- Some of the ways we bring our staff together are staff retreats that combine teambuilding activities, food and recreation, and goal setting or action planning. Getting out of the office and your usual setting is key! I also recommend ropes courses or other physical activities where people build trust and support - we've talked about doing learning the trapeze with trapeze artists in Sonoma.
- Another idea is to bring in inspirational speakers for brown bag lunches or evening events. At our next retreat we are giving awards to various staff members for their contributions large and small - every staff person will get one, and a few words will be said in appreciation of them.
- I also threw a breakfast for the people I directly manage to appreciate them, and periodically write cards of appreciation for special accomplishments.
- After some big transitions here, We've been having some lunch hour salsa classes. They're awesome, and people get to know each other through dancing together.
- I suggest creating an outing for example dinner and a show at Asian American Theater Company or any other local mid sized arts organization. This way you see exciting young and new theater, support your local arts organizations and create a feeling that SF has the ART SCENE. You could also go out after the show and have drinks, that way you can discuss what you have seen, which would create dialogue amongst staff that may not normally see each other, plus you will have lots of fun.
- We have a quarterly all-staff meeting where as many as the staff as possible can gather together in one place. At that meeting, we have an "employee spotlight" event, where 3 staff members names get pulled out of a jar, and then the folks who work closely with that person say nice things about them. They also win some nice prizes (gift certificates, etc.). The assumption behind the spotlight is that everyone is doing a good job, and some folks don't normally get recognized publicly, it also gives folks a chance to get to know what their co-workers are doing. At those meetings we also recognize staff anniversaries, and share agency wide information.
- We
have a "SPICE" committee that is responsible for:
o Making sure that there is spice in people's lives in little ways (like chocolates in everyone's mail box)
o Planning a spice event once every three months for an hour in which no one is allowed to talk about work. If you talk about work, there is a punishment (past consequences included singing "Singing in the Rain" while wearing a yellow rain coat, hula-hooping etc.). Past spice events have included nap time with candles and bedtime stories, tropical paradise with smoothies, Hawaiian music, etc. and so on. - Visit this site, their main page has a menu and one of the options is recognition, it'll give you tons of ideas. http://www.cybervpm.com/
- One
option would be to use cardblast.com. This is the only egreeting
site that allows you to customize the cards yourself, and put whatever
message you want directly on the card.