Certificates of Recognition: Memorable and Creative Certificate Awards

Certificates of Recognition: Memorable and Creative Certificate Awards

Certificate awards are a classic reward for honoring a noteworthy achievement. When you present a certificate as an award or along with a gift card, you are guaranteed to get the most miles out of your motivational moment.

 Certificate awards commemorate achievement in a tangible, personalized format. To be effective, certificate awards must specifically note the person’s achievement, be attractive in design, show quality and care in their construction, and be correct as far as names and dates.

You may be surprised at the staying power certificate awards have in your office. At Baudville, employees continue to display the welcome certificates they received on their first day at work – years later! And while the gift cards may be long gone, our Halloween costume contest winners also continue to proudly display their certificate awards.

When creating certificate awards, don’t hold back from using a light-hearted award title. “Top Dog Award,” “You are a Shining Star,” or “Your Halo’s Showing” are sure to put a smile on the recipient’s face.

Awarding certificates to high achieving employees is a great way to boost morale and express appreciation for their positive attitude and hard work. The best part – certificate awards are a low cost way to recognize!

For more great ideas on creating memorable certificate awards for your team, check out Baudville’s book, Priceless Motivation. This recognition resource is full of quick tips to excite and inspire your most valuable assets…people!

Quick Tips

Host an Office Olympics with each department fielding a team to compete in a variety of events. Present certificate awards for the different events to honor winners, and you’ll have the whole company cheering!

- Toss Your Boss – Toss a life sized blow-up doll for distance in a faux javelin competition.
- Office Chair Relay Race – Put those rolling chairs to good use! Set up obstacles in the parking lot to make the race more challenging.
- Jumping to Conclusions – Standing broad jump.
- Longest Drive – Tee up a Nerf ball onto a Styrofoam cup and drive it for distance.

Do you have your own creative Office Olympic event? Share it with us!

Not having all the answers

When I was a young supervisor, I remember the pressure of feeling like I always had to have the answer when employees came to me for advice. As I matured as a manager, I realized that I could have a more lasting impact on staff development by encouraging their input.

Instead of responding with the answer, I learned to ask “What do YOU think we should do?” Then the key was to give them enough time to think about it and respond.  After listening to their ideas, I realized that most of the time they really did know what to do.  They just needed my approval and support.

Occasionally their ideas weren’t perfect and in those instances I would offer more questions to help them think of more appropriate options.

Sometimes the best motivator is offering an opportunity for your staff to be heard and then reinforcing their judgment.

Ruby Newell-Legner, Certified Speaking Professional, is an international staff development trainer and culture-transformer. Her company, RubySpeaks, Inc., provides the training employees need to create a work environment where everyone can excel on the job. For more information about Ruby, visit www.RubySpeaks.com.

Shared Experience
The best way to keep recognition creative and fresh at your organization is to stay up to date with what your peers are doing! Send in your submission for Recognition Best Practices, and you could be our next Best Practice Winner featured in next month’s Recognition Report!

This month’s shared experience comes from Janet who shares how her office recognizes co-worker above and beyond behavior. Thanks for the great idea, Janet!

"We have a You Rock Jar in our office. When a teammate does something above and beyond the norm, we put their name on a small river rock, put the rock in the jar, and write in a journal next to it what that person did. Each month we draw 5 names out of the rocks and acknowledge the individuals with a gift certificate.”