Are you looking for ways to engage your workforce and drive better team performance? An employee of the year award might be just what the doctor ordered!
Employee recognition of any kind can boost morale, improve company culture, and spark motivation. But annual awards have a certain prestige. Since, you only hand them out once a year, they can be more meaningful.
In this article, we’ll explain what an employee of the year award is, the criteria your team needs to meet to qualify for one, the do’s and don’ts of this type of recognition, and more. By the end, you’ll know exactly how to acknowledge your company’s top performers in a fair, fun, and practical way.
What is an Employee of the Year Award?
Let’s start with the basics.
An employee of the year award is an award that companies give to their top employee on an annual basis. The purpose? To highlight exemplary performance, leadership, and/or the achievement of company goals.
An employee of the year award is NOT the same as a customer service or rising star award.
A customer service award is given to a company’s top customer service representative, while a rising star award is aimed at newer employees who show great potential for future success.
While all these awards serve to recognize team members, the employee of the year award encapsulates overall achievement and dedication within the organization.
What’s the criteria for an Employee of the Year Award?
The best part about employee of the year awards is you get to determine the criteria for your specific organization. That said, you should look for a few specific qualities in your award recipient:
A Good Attitude
The recipient of your company’s employee of the year award should have a good attitude.
That might sound overly simple, but it’s not. A great attitude fosters collaboration, lifts morale, and boosts employee engagement. All of these are crucial to creating a thriving company culture.
Plus, positivity is contagious. When an employee maintains an optimistic outlook, they will inspire their colleagues, leading to better teamwork and productivity. This ripple effect promotes a supportive environment that everyone will want to be a part of.
Basically, a positive attitude is one of the chief cornerstones of excellent performance.
A Strong Work Ethic
The person who receives your employee of the year award should also be a hard worker.
A strong work ethic can significantly impact company success. Employees with dedication and commitment not only meet their targets, but inspire their peers to do the same.
Recognizing employees for their hard work fosters a culture of accountability too. When your team sees their efforts get rewarded, they’ll be more likely to maintain high standards. As such, a robust work ethic often translates to better productivity, quality of work, and problem solving.
Outstanding Performance
Last but not least, the recipient of your employee of the year award should display outstanding performance over a 365 day period. What does this look like in a real-world scenario?
Sales reps should maintain high close rates and drive significant revenue. Marketers should work on effective campaigns that boost your company’s reputation and produce quality leads. Service reps should receive high marks from the customers they engage with.
Just as important, your employee of the year should achieve these things while adhering to company values. Don’t honor people who use shady tactics to do their jobs. Doing so will reinforce bad behaviors and potentially do serious damage to your organization.
Do’s When Giving an Employee of the Year Award
Looking to start an annual awards program at your company? This kind of employee recognition will do wonders for team morale—if you implement it correctly. Here’s how:
1. Do: Consider Every Employee
First, make sure every person within your organization has a chance to win the employee of the year award.
Limiting the award to company leadership or higher ups will lead to resentment among lower-level employees. Why? Because it will look like favoritism, which will erode morale and engagement.
Conversely, allowing everyone a chance at annual recognition will foster a sense of belonging and motivation. It will also encourage healthy competition and cultivate an environment where individuals strive to improve, knowing their efforts will be valued, regardless of their job title.
2. Do: State Selection Criteria
Next, make sure your employees understand how to win your employee recognition award. What traits, behaviors, and/or values do they need to demonstrate?
For example, your organization might prize teamwork, innovation, and dedication. Or productivity, critical thinking, and professionalism. It’s your call. Whatever you choose, just be clear. That way your staff knows what is expected, and can embody those principles in their daily work.
Selection criteria has another benefit: transparency. When employees understand why certain folks get nominated, they will be more engaged in the process. After all, they can easily look at their own behavior to evaluate their worthiness for a specific award.
3. Do: Include Employee Votes
Employee awards improve engagement levels. Lean into this fact and allow your staff to nominate individuals for Employee of the Year. Then take it a step further and let them actually vote for the winner. Doing so can make the whole awards process more transparent and fun.
Just remember, employee votes should be one element you consider. You and the rest of your leadership team should have a say in who wins your employee of the year award. The winner will represent the organization for the next year, and shouldn’t necessarily be the most popular or visible nominee.
Find a balance between leadership and staff opinions to choose the winner.
4. Do: Implement a Formal Process
Your company’s employee of the year award should be prestigious. Make sure it is by implementing a formal process around the award. This will heighten its importance.
We’ve already talked about some of the things you can do in this regard. You can set clear selection criteria, allow employees to nominate their coworkers, and more.
But you should do more. For example, you can send a formal letter announcing the winner of the award. Or host a company-wide banquet to honor the finalists and name the actual recipient. Or create accurate documentation to record annual winners.
In addition, offer a prize, such as a trophy or gift card, to reinforce the value of this recognition award. This can make the award more meaningful. Let’s talk about that…
5. Do: Make the Award Meaningful
Your staff should want to win your employee recognition awards. If they don’t care about your Employee of the Year honor, they won’t work hard to earn it. This lack of motivation could have negative effects on company goals. Fortunately, there are ways to make it more meaningful:
- Give Company-Wide Recognition: Public acknowledgment boosts morale and instills pride in the workplace. Announce the Employee of the Year to the whole organization.
- Offer Promotional Opportunities: Employees of the Year are top performers. As such, they’re prime for career advancement opportunities. Remind your team of this fact.
- Award Recipients With Enticing Prizes: Tangible rewards, like gift cards or extra time off, make recognition more sweet. Allow the wider team to get in on the celebration with a group recognition tool like a Kudoboard.
Don’ts When Creating an Employee of the Year Award
The purpose of an employee of the year award is to recognize your team for their hard work and increase engagement. But a poor or misguided rollout can do the opposite. To help you achieve this goal, avoid these five things when establishing an employee of the year award:
6. Don’t: Delay the Recognition Process
The last thing you want to do is procrastinate during the employee of the year award process. By “procrastinate” we mean waiting longer than necessary to pick a winner.
Create a timeline, share it with the wider team, and stick to it. Delaying the recognition process undermines the award’s significance. It sends a subtle message that you don’t really care about the award. And if you don’t care about it, why should your team? There are plenty of other things they can focus on.
Plus, your employees might be on pins and needles waiting for results. Why wouldn’t they be? Achieving employee of the year can have amazing career benefits. Forcing your team to wait for an extended period of time is bad form. Instead, offer recognition in a timely manner.
7. Don’t: Keep the Award Private
Make sure everyone in your company knows who wins your employee of the year award. Announce it to the whole company and post the announcement somewhere public. This will benefit your company in two distinct ways:
- First, it will give your winner the recognition they deserve. This person probably worked extremely hard to become employee of the year. They should be able to bask in their accomplishment. If they aren’t given this opportunity, they might lose motivation.
- Second, a public announcement will create a clear benchmark for your company’s other employees. They’ll see exactly what top performance looks like. They can then model their behaviors after the winner to improve their output.
Put simply, public recognition helps foster a culture of excellence while driving better engagement and productivity. Don’t hide the award winner away!
8. Don’t: Award the Same Person
Picture this: Stephanie is an incredible employee. She always has a great attitude, works hard, and produces incredible results. She’s a lock for your first employee of the year award.
Year two rolls around and Stephanie is still crushing it. So, you honor her with the title of Employee of the Year once again. Year three and four go the same way. See the problem?
Always awarding the same person—or even a select group of individuals—can be detrimental to workplace morale. It fosters a sense of favoritism, causing other employees to feel undervalued and overlooked. The less favored staff members will probably start to lose motivation and wonder, “Why bother? It’s not like my hard work will get recognized anyway…”
To combat this, celebrate a diverse group of achievers with your employee of the year award. This simple act will encourage everyone in your company to excel.
9. Don’t: Look Down on Other Staff
Remember, only one employee can win the “Employee of the Year” award per year.
That doesn’t mean the rest of your team performed poorly. Don’t look down on staff members who don’t win or consider them inferior.
Every employee contributes to your company’s success in a unique way. And they each deserve recognition for their efforts. (More on daily recognition in the next section.)
Also worth noting, the reason you give annual recognition awards is to motivate and engage your team. If the process makes certain members feel undervalued, you’ll undermine that goal.
10. Don’t: Forget About Daily Recognition
While “Employee of the Year” awards hold significant value, daily recognition is more important.
Why? Regular recognition fosters a positive work environment and boosts morale. It also encourages employees to maintain high performance. And because it makes staff members feel appreciated, it can have a significant impact on your company’s turnover rate.
If your company hasn’t thought about employee recognition programs yet, now is the time to start. Celebrate small wins and award employees frequently. This practice will help cultivate a culture of appreciation throughout your organization, and lead to long-term success.
Creative Names for Your Employee of the Year Award
When it comes to naming your company’s employee of the year award, you don’t have to settle for the cliché “Employee of the Year.” Instead, think outside the box. Consider creative names that spark interest and excitement. Ideas include:
- Apex Achiever Award
- Excellence in Action Award
- Shining Beacon Award
- Star Performer Award
- Team 365 Award
- Top Trailblazer Award
When coming up with a name for your organization, think about your company values or product. Try to tie the name into something employees are already familiar with.
Remember, the award recognizes employees who go above and beyond. A creative name will not only highlight the achievement, but inspire others to strive for excellence.
3 Benefits of Employee of the Year Awards
We won’t lie to you, implementing an annual employee recognition plan will take work.
You’ll need to determine criteria for the award, market the competition to your workforce, collect employee votes, purchase prizes, plan an award ceremony… The list goes on.
Fortunately, all of that work will be worth it when your company achieves:
Higher Engagement
Annual employee recognition awards boost employee engagement.
When your team feels like they have something tangible to strive for, they’ll be more inclined to invest their energy and talents into their work. In other words, their motivation will spike.
This is important because companies with high employee engagement achieve 21% greater profitability. Furthermore, employees who are engaged are often more proactive and innovative. These traits are essential if you want your company to achieve its goals.
Improved Performance
Annual employee recognition awards also lead to improved performance.
It makes sense when you think about it. Before you announce your annual award to your team, you’ll pinpoint the traits, behaviors, and values the recipient will need to exhibit. This criteria will show your employees exactly what you want from them.
The desire to win the award may also motivate your staff to work harder. After all, the harder they work, the more likely they’ll win the award and the related perks (assuming you attached good ones!).
Better Staff Retention
Finally, annual employee recognition awards can improve staff retention.
When employees are engaged in their work, motivated to perform well, and valued for what they do, they are less likely to seek outside opportunities. This translates into lower turnover rates, which are crucial for maintaining team stability and reducing recruitment costs.
Studies show that replacing an employee can cost up to 213% of their yearly salary. Ultimately, high retention rates save companies money and help maintain a strong workforce.
Recognize Employees Year-Round With Kudoboard
An employee of the year award will help engage your staff, improve their performance, and boost retention. But you have to go about the award process the right way. After reading this article, you know exactly what to do (and what not to do) in this regard.
Just remember, your company also needs a ongoing employee recognition program. Once-a-year honors, while important, aren’t enough to truly revolutionize your organization.
When it comes to employee recognition, you can’t go wrong with Kudoboard. Our platform makes it easy to publicly recognize employees. Just as important, your team will be able to recognize each other too, which will only engage them further. Win!
Create an Employee of the Year Kudoboard
Celebrate the winner of your company’s Employee of the Year award with a Kudoboard.
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