We know recognition works with individuals, but it can be just as effective with groups. This section discusses forms of effective group recognition, rewards, and activities, from group-based recognition programs to specific team awards to fun activities, games, contests, celebrations, parties, special events, and travel.
As with recognizing the achievements of individuals, some of the best forms of team recognition are informal and intangible, such as a manager thanking group members for their involvement, suggestions, and initiatives, or sending a letter to all team members thanking them for their contributions. Team spirit and group morale can also be bolstered by informal reviews throughout a project or by hosting a lunch celebration with project teams once they’ve completed interim findings. At the end of the project, let the group celebrate as it chooses.
The task of recognizing teams does present a dilemma, however, in balancing the team’s collective effort and acknowledging the individual contributions of its members. You run the risk of slighting those members who contributed most to the group’s success and reinforcing other members who might have barely made it to the meetings. “Jelly bean motivation”—giving equal recognition for unequal performance—is detrimental to the group’s sustained productivity and morale.
One way to mitigate this dilemma is to be sure the team leader recognizes the contribution of individual members as the team makes progress, and encourages group members to do the same. As the group becomes a team, its productivity and morale is shaped by specific behaviors of any member of the group, not just the designated group leader. To develop a team that functions well, it’s important for members to feed off each other’s success; to support each other in various, explicit ways such as acknowledging productive contributions, new ideas, or suggestions by others; and to create positive interventions, such as volunteering for a group assignment or assisting another member of the group with his or her assignment.
Managers must also learn to couple individual performance with group output. Research by Deborah Crown of the University of Alabama shows that a combination of individual goals coupled with overall group goals results in team performance 36 percent greater than what would happen otherwise. “It might be as simple as changing to rewarding people for the percentage of goals to which they contribute,” says Crown. “You’re more likely to have success if you give people a goal and direct their action where you want it directed, rather than hoping over time they’ll try to do the right thing because they identify with the group.”
1. Have an upper manager stop in at the first meeting of a special project team and express his or her appreciation of the members’ involvement.
2. When individuals present an idea or suggestion, thank them for their initiative and contribution. Encourage involvement in the group’s goal-setting process, problem-solving, brainstorming, etc.
3. Celebrate progress, interim findings, and final results, letting team members decide how to celebrate.
4. Open the floor for team members to praise anyone at the beginning or end of the meeting. Provide a “praising barrage” by the team for one or more of its members.
5. Have members of the team create awards for each other. Invest in team mementos and symbols of a team’s work together, such as T-shirts or coffee cups with a team motto or company logo.
6. Conduct team-building activities and field trips, such as bowling, laser tag, a visit to a state fair, a “popcorn lunch,” or a team challenge or contest against a group goal or another team.
7. Invite upper management to attend a meeting with the team during which individuals ask questions and the group is thanked for its efforts.
8. Send letters or e-mails to every team member at the conclusion of a project, thanking them for their contribution. Consider thanking the team members’ families, as well, if the team effort was significant.
The important thing to remember about group recognition is that the entire team needs to be recognized. If only the manager or highest performer of a group is recognized, the group may lose motivation.
Employees are applauded for doing a great job at the Kansas City Symphony.
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Ron Sutton, CEO of Standard Auto Parts in Baltimore, MD, asked each of his managers to submit a recent positive achievement their group accomplished and that they were proud of. He said that after they submitted an item, he would give them tickets to attend a special meeting. At the meeting, as people started to applaud each example that was shared, Sutton challenged the group to make the response to each item louder than the previous one. Soon the entire group was standing and cheering—sending a positive surge that spread throughout the company.
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Debbie Stutts, customer service manager for Spectrum Chemicals & Laboratory Products in Gardena, CA, asked employees to bring in their favorite CD to play while people work.
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At the Proforma Worldwide Support Center, a printing and promotional products franchise in Cleveland, OH, executives scraped the snow off all 100 employees’ cars at least once a month during winter. They have also rotated a guest parking space—the closest to the building—among employees recognized by their peers, and treat workers to breakfast once a month.
Michelle Steinbeck, a project manager for West Corporation, a customer relations management provider in Omaha, NE, reports that Senior Vice President Jill Vacek hosts a holiday lunch party each year for all employees in her department. Vacek reviews the year, highlighting each group’s contribution and mentions many by name, their years of service, and any promotions they may have received. New members are also recognized. At the end she has a drawing for door prizes. “What everyone realizes is that everyone wins a prize. While presenting the prize, she shakes hands with each person, recognizing and thanking them personally. If a person receiving a prize was not mentioned in her review, Jill usually has something specific to mention about them, highlighting their contribution,” says Steinbeck. “I totally appreciate all the planning and effort that goes into the party each year—it would be so easy just to have a lunch, but what Jill turns the 90 minutes into is so much more.”
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At MicroAge Computer in Tempe, AZ, managers fine individuals who come late to company meetings and pass the money out to people who arrive on time.
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When Randy Dorr was a supervisor at MCI, now a part of New York–based Verizon Communications, he motivated a team of low-performing telemarketers by calling their mothers to tell them how great the employees were every time they met their performance goals. As a result, the group became the top-performing team in the company.
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At Advanced Micro Devices in Sunnyvale, CA, photos of work teams often appear in company publications.
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Terry Horn, Human Resources director at Household Automotive Finance in San Diego, and now a part of Dallas, TX–based Santander Consumer USA, Inc., wanted to thank all the employees in his department for their great work in meeting financial goals. The group was all women, except for one man, who was very health conscious and ate a banana every day on his break. Horn gave each of the women a bunch of flowers and the guy a bunch of bananas. They all really appreciated the gesture.
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To energize their teams, laboratory managers at a Kaiser Permanente office in Pasadena, CA, collaborated to convert a little-used conference room into a Strategy Center, purchasing furniture and equipment and decorating the room to make it conducive to creative thinking and brainstorming sessions.
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Montefiore Nursing Home in Beachwood, OH, a 500-employee nonprofit facility, started a “Keys to Our Commitment” program, in which teams promise to uphold certain values, such as helping one another, serving patient needs, or being helpful to relatives. Basically, workers are challenged never to say “I don’t know.” Staff members who embody a value are awarded paper keys by fellow staff members. They can then trade them for pins, from bronze to gold; for instance, ten paper keys equal one bronze pin. The program has helped employees to work more cooperatively, share information with management, and feel more supported. Turnover has been cut in half.
TIPS FOR BUILDING
AN EFFECTIVE TEAM
• When hiring, look for people who work well with others. You want employees who can handle the collective process.
• Set a good example for your staff. For instance, leave at a reasonable hour so that they know it’s okay to do the same.
• Encourage one-to-one discussions between staff rather than structured meetings. Personal relationships build trust.
• Hold informal retreats to foster communication and set goals.
• Reward collective accomplishment whenever possible, even if the reward is only juice and bagels.
New store managers of J. C. Penney Corporation, headquartered in Plano, TX, make a pledge to the founding principles of the company at a ceremony, and are presented with a pin to mark the occasion.
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At Delta Air Lines, based in Atlanta, GA, employees fill out Team Recognition Cards to give to teams that they feel have gone “above and beyond.” Cards are entered in a drawing for a prize of $500, to be donated to a charity or civic organization of the team’s choice.
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At the Good Samaritan Society–West Union nursing home in West Union, IA, teams are recognized for the compliments they receive from patients, relatives, and administrators. Comment cards are read out loud and posted on the central bulletin board, and administrators bring baked goods or flowers to recognize the team with the most favorable comments.
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Grinnell College, located in the heart of Iowa, recently held a recognition initiative entitled “Above & Beyond” for departments and individuals who demonstrated positive attitude, innovation, and outstanding service to others. A traveling trophy was passed from one deserving office to another, departments formed teams to compete onstage in “Family Feud: Customer Service,” and Excellence Award forms were widely distributed around campus so that staff, faculty, students, and college visitors could share memorable campus service experiences. Those recognized were also featured prominently in each issue of the college’s employee newsletter.
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BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina uses several forms of group recognition:
• One department has three teams working on different projects, each with specific deadlines. To motivate the employees, they allow teams to wear jeans for a week if they meet the previous week’s goals. Everyone pushes to make sure they are not wearing business casual when another team is wearing jeans.
• A team composed of project managers and business analysts (PMBA) recognizes accomplishments every month by awarding a stuffed “Pumbaa” (from Disney’s The Lion King) to the team member with the most significant accomplishments.
• A team manager reports: “For one project, I awarded each team member various items to represent their contribution to the project: a giant bottle of glue for the team member who held us together with sales, a jar of jam for the team member who ‘hand jammed’ (aka manually entered) enrollment data, a set of pom-poms for our always positive cheerleader, etc.”
• One special projects group is involved in a major, multiyear, enterprisewide effort that crosses multiple divisions within the company. Participants are eligible for the “Most Valuable Ant” recognition award. The award is a 6-inch-high custom-painted ant figurine with a personalized certificate attached.
• In the I.S. department, any member can nominate any other member for a “Golden Graeme” award. The awards are given for going the extra mile in ensuring the success of the department, putting in long hours to get the work done against a tight deadline, improving processes to better ensure success and/or quality, improving a business relationship, taking on a very challenging assignment and achieving desired results, and so forth. The award is given out quarterly at an all-hands meeting.
• In another division, the senior vice president, nicknamed “Bob,” presents pins for “Bending Over Backwards” at quarterly departmental meetings. Employees nominate coworkers who have “bent over backwards” to achieve department goals. Photos of the presentation are posted on bulletin boards in the department.
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James Allchin, the retired head software guru at the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA, rewarded programmers for meeting a key milestone on a project code-named “Cairo” by bringing a camel into the office. The camel was an immediate hit with the Cairo team, who petted it and had their pictures taken with it.
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Team members get pins when they complete a project at the Naval Publications and Forms Center in Philadelphia, PA. Employees also received a $500 bonus when the agency won the government’s quality improvement award.
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Merck & Company’s Wilson, NC, plant has a rewards program called “Reasons to Celebrate” and a unit incentive program called “Pay for Performance.” Teams can nominate fellow teams or team members for gift certificates of up to $300 for individuals and $500 for teams.
At Business First, in Columbus, OH, team members receive $500 each if the team reaches a certain goal: If it reaches a higher goal, they receive $1,000 each. To be eligible for team bonuses, members must make at least 90 percent of their individual goals.
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At Great Plains Software in Fargo, ND, where projects could last as long as nine months, project leaders celebrated along the way with dinners, picnics, and other forms of informal recognition as they reached preset goals. The company, now a part of Microsoft Dynamics GP in Redmond, WA, used a two-part bonus program to spur on its project teams. Team members received half the bonus when they hit the product’s target release date, and the other half 90 days after the release, based on the performance of the product. At the conclusion of projects, the teams created a “Friends List” to recognize nonteam members who supported them along the way. Friends received gift certificates and thank-you letters.
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In the team program at Wright Business Graphics in Chino, CA, everyone can win, but one team wins big. “We’re using a combination spoilage/attendance program,” says marketing manager Richard S. Calhoun. “[One year, we] put forty thousand dollars into a special fund, and every time a mistake was made, we deducted from the forty thousand dollars. We ended up giving out about seven thousand dollars.” The next year the 36 employees were divided into four teams, with a prize kitty of 1.25 percent of shipments. One quarter of a percent was credited to each team, and spoilage by any team member was deducted. At the end of the program, the team with the lowest spoilage also got the leftover.25 percent. A Chicago hospital took the same approach, creating a $100,000 cash pool that was used to satisfy billing or customer service complaints. Whatever was left in the pool at the end of the year was distributed to employees.
When Richard Nicolosi—now CEO of Nicolosi Advisors based in Sarasota, FL—became the head of the paper products division of Procter & Gamble, headquartered in Cincinnati, competition had taken its toll. The company’s market share for disposable diapers had eroded from 75 percent to 52 percent in less than ten years. Nicolosi found a highly bureaucratic and centralized organization that was overly preoccupied with internal functional goals and projects. Almost all information about customers came through highly quantitative market research. Moreover, the technical people were rewarded for cost savings; the commercial people focused on volume and share; and the two groups nearly always worked in opposition.
Nicolosi immediately began to stress the need for the division to become more creative and market-driven instead of just trying to be a low-cost producer. “I had to make it very clear,” he later reported, “that the rules of the game had changed.”
The new direction included much greater stress on teamwork and multiple leaders. Nicolosi pushed a strategy of using groups to manage the division and its specific products. Two months later, he and his team designated themselves the paper division’s “board” and began meeting first monthly and then weekly. The next month they established “category teams” to manage their major brand groups (diapers, tissues, towels) and started pushing responsibility down to these teams.
He asked the marketing manager of diapers to report directly to him, eliminating a layer in the hierarchy. He also talked more to the people who were working on new products.
A month after that, Nicolosi’s board announced a new organizational structure that included not only category teams but also new-brand business teams. Within four months, the board was ready to plan an important motivational event to communicate the new paper products vision to as many people as possible. All the Cincinnati-based personnel in the paper division, as well as district management and paper plant managers—several thousand people in all—met in the local Masonic temple. Nicolosi and other board members described their vision of an organization in which “each of us is a leader.” The event was videotaped, and an edited tape was sent to all sales offices and plants.
All these events helped create an entrepreneurial environment in which large numbers of people were motivated to realize the new vision. Most innovations came from people dealing with new products, but other employee initiatives were oriented more toward a functional area, and some even came from the bottom of the hierarchy. For example, a few of the division’s secretaries developed a Secretaries’ Network, which established subcommittees on training, rewards and recognition, and the “secretary of the future.” Echoing the sentiments of many of her peers, one paper products secretary said, “I don’t see why we too can’t contribute to the division’s new direction.”
Within four years, revenues at the paper products division were up 40 percent and profits were up 66 percent—while the company’s competition continued to get tougher.
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Anita Nimtz at Iowa State University in Ames, IA, celebrated Administrative Assistants’ Week with a variety of freebies, including potted plants on Monday, lotto tickets on Tuesday, boxes of Band-Aids on Wednesday, and Crunch ’n Munch snacks on Thursday. Her staff loved it and still calls her the “greatest” manager.
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The Carmel Clay Public Library in Carmel, IN, celebrated Staff Appreciation Week with the following activities, all planned and executed by the library’s 12-member management team. None of the details were divulged in advance, so each day brought surprises.
MONDAY
• An appreciation display consisting of a banner, balloons, and photographs of staff members at work was set up in the lobby and remained throughout the week so that patrons could help celebrate and say “thank you” to the employees.
• Upon arrival at work, each staff member received either an electronic thank-you card or a handwritten note from a manager from another department.
• Each staff member was given a commemorative bookplate with his or her name and invited to insert it into a favorite title at the library. This allowed people to be remembered and appreciated each time a patron checked out their books.
WEDNESDAY
• The library published a 4-by-5-inch ad in the local newspaper inviting the public to join the management team “in recognizing the 135 CCPL staff members who serve our community with professionalism and dedication on a daily basis.”
• The independent coffee shop in the library gave a 20 percent discount to all library employees for the entire day.
THURSDAY
• Managers baked or purchased cookies, brownies, muffins, fruit, chips, and other treats and delivered them to each department via a snack cart in the morning and again in the afternoon.
FRIDAY
• Employees were given a bonus casual dress day (usually limited to the last working day of the month).
• Each employee received rolls of Life Savers labeled “We Appreciate You.”
• “We received extremely favorable feedback on our efforts,” reported Cindy Wenz, Human Resources manager for the library. “With the exception of the $150 ad, which was paid for with funds provided by the Friends of the Carmel Clay Public Library, all of the items were no-cost or low-cost, with the latter absorbed by the members of the management team.”
Fun is a great motivator, making work go faster and creating a buffer to stress. Increasingly important, given that 40 percent of today’s employees say their jobs are very or extremely stressful and 25 percent view their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives today, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health. Having fun can also lead directly to increased productivity. At the Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, employees who viewed humorous training films and attended fun workshops showed a 25 percent decrease in downtime and a 60 percent increase in job satisfaction.
Fun can also achieve more serious objectives, such as communicating critical information or encouraging desired behaviors or performance. A good way to do this is to couch those goals in a game or contest. The relevant information or behavior becomes highlighted in the process, and a general sense of excitement is created along the way. Keys to a successful employee contest include:
• Promoting the program and its purpose
• Setting realistic, achievable, and measurable goals
• Limiting the contest to a brief period
• Keeping contest rules uncomplicated
• Ensuring that prizes are desirable to employees
• Linking rewards directly to performance
• Giving rewards and recognition promptly
If you systematically do things that encourage a fun work environment, the morale of your group will directly benefit. Being thoughtful about planning activities that are fun for your group can also serve as a powerful source of team building.
When its Xbox 360 gaming system launched Kinect, Microsoft, the Redmond, WA–based computer giant, invited all its employees to try it out. Daxko, the Birmingham, AL–based software company, has a work/play lounge that features a Wii and a big screen television.
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The Family Learning Program at Blue Gargoyle Community Services in South Chicago gives employees a tool to cope with the extreme rigors of work. It’s a Chicken Hat, a colorful felt headpiece with dangling legs that says without words that you should not be trifled with. Jane Hough says, “When things get too serious or laborious, you simply don the Chicken Hat and enter an entirely different state of mind. What better way to say, ‘I’ve got one nerve left and you’re on it!’ to those around you?” The hat is available from www.orientaltrading.com for about the cost of a bottle of aspirin.
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Agencies of QSource, the Memphis-based nonprofit health care management expert, invite field staff to eat lunch between 11 A.M. and 2 P.M. Managers set up grills in the parking lot and cook hot dogs and hamburgers for the staff while other managers and members of the office staff wash the staff’s cars. At Parrott Creek Child and Family Services in Marylhurst, OR, employees sat in the shade and drank iced tea while their managers washed the employees’ cars.
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Undertone, the New York City–based digital advertising experts, offers twice-yearly team-building events, “Company Weeks,” to reinforce collegiality. Activities range from scavenger hunts to picnics. Undertone’s revenues have jumped 40 percent since it began holding these events.
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The University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa City occasionally turn staff meetings into Teddy Bear Picnics, where everyone brings a stuffed animal that has special meaning to them. “As each staff person explains the significance of their animal,” says Michele O’Connor, PHR, Human Resources generalist, “we get to see the ‘softer’ side of our coworkers and appreciate the side we see at work is often one-dimensional.”
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At Bell South’s call center in Charlotte, NC, the manager unexpectedly served ice cream to call center employees while on a tour of the center.
At OOP!, a specialty store in Providence, RI, employees choose offbeat special “holidays” to celebrate, such as National Hug Month or Willie Nelson’s birthday, taken from Chase’s Calendar of Events. The employees dress to suit the occasion, have a good time, and it costs the store nothing. The fun times also attract customers. One company in St. Louis, MO, has “Dress Your Supervisor Day,” in which employees get even with the boss—in a fun and stress-reducing way.
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Neiman Marcus, the luxury department store in Dallas, formed an ad hoc team to increase fun and excitement at work. They involved employees in the planning process from the start, not just as representatives on the team, but to seek participation in every activity. The team created Project Smile, and planned four “big” events for the year, with sign-up sheets to get help from employees. They also hosted smaller, more spontaneous activities as individuals or teams warranted special attention for their achievements. For example, they produced an “Accounting Olympics” where people competed in a variety of metric activities, while increasing their learning and understanding of the accounting function.
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Jennifer Zuri, the marketing communications manager of Aquascape, a St. Charles, IL, landscaping firm, helped put on a lunchtime “wallyball” tournament at the company fitness center, printing and framing the winner’s certificates. Months later, employees are still regularly playing, and Zuri is planning an office Olympics for the end of summer.
Sausalito, CA, accounting software developer SBT Corporation (now a part of Irvine, CA–based Sage Software, Inc.) gave receptionists petty cash to stock the front desk with yo-yos, candy, and toys. The company knew that laughter and fun are infectious, and that if their receptionists were relaxed and happy, then clients would be in good spirits as well.
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Schwartz Communications, a public relations firm in Waltham, MA, feels like a big family, with employees’ kids—and a company dog—on-site most days. The company has a game room, creativity training, sports teams, and four well-stocked kitchens. It also doles out cash on the spot for special accomplishments and shares profits with employees. When clients renew contracts, the team that services the contract receives a percentage of the annual retainer fee. Says cofounder Paula Mae Schwartz, “People are motivated to perform every day because they know we’ll reward them emotionally, educationally, or monetarily. I don’t think people give their all unless you give yours to them.”
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During the summer, Rich Willis of Paychex’s Cherry Hill, NJ, office bought tubs of ice cream, put them on a cart, and wheeled them around so employees could help themselves. He is now doing the same in Albuquerque, NM.
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Once a month, employees who play musical instruments at KFC Corporation in Louisville, KY, are asked to bring them to work. This motley crew of musicians is then given a list of the month’s top performers and asked to serenade those individuals. The recognition activity has been so successful that the company has initiated a second musical serenade, performed by a string quartet.
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To lighten the atmosphere, one California company gave different Page-A-Day calendars to staff members and encouraged them to share their daily page with others. Calendars included jokes, crossword puzzles, vocabulary words, and gardening tips.
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In Georgia, the Augusta Technical College wanted to create a highly interactive and fun exercise to help team members get to know one another. Participants had to answer questions such as “What is the name of a person you’d like to meet?” and “What is the most exciting place you’ve ever visited?” Answers were written on colored paper and hung as a mosaic in the hallway.
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Charleston Memorial Hospital in Fall River, MA, asked employees to bring in pictures of their pets and had them posted on a lunchroom bulletin board. Everyone had a lot of fun trying to guess which employees the pets belonged to. Jossey-Bass Publishers in San Francisco used a similar idea to help new employees become acquainted with the staff: Veteran employees were asked to post family pictures, along with cute captions, in the work areas.
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Ben & Jerry’s has a permanent committee for planning fun activities, known as the “Joy Gang.” Over the years, various people have assumed the title of “Grand Poo-bah,” as they led the committee in generating fun ideas for the workplace. Perkins Coie LLP has a “Happiness Committee” that consists of five anonymous employees who can initiate fun activities for the organization.
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Employees at a Capital One Financial Corporation office in Tampa, FL, created a fun environment by forming “scream teams” to recognize peers and celebrate such important occasions as birthdays and holidays. The team also developed theme days for people to dress up and bring food, and sponsors a quarterly picnic and the “Wacky Olympics” competitions.
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Employees at Pacific Power in Portland, OR, use Frisbees to deliver memos on “Frisbee Memo Day.”
• Create humorous awards or certificates related to each achievement and a special outfit or hat to wear when they are presented.
Rebecca Rogers at University Health Care System in Augusta, GA, does a fun activity she calls “communal captions.” She posts photos from newspapers and magazines over the copy machine and invites staff members to write funny captions for them, making copy-making time more interesting.
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One of the greatest honors employees can receive at Microsoft is a sodded office: While they are away, fellow employees remove all the furniture and lay down a wall-to-wall layer of sod. This became such a popular prank that a memo was distributed: “Whoever wants to sod someone’s office, call this number and we’ll do it.” Legitimizing the prank, however, made it less fun, so the sodding was soon replaced by other high jinks, such as filling offices with Styrofoam peanuts or popcorn. In one memorable case, a manager returned from a business trip to find his office door removed and the space Sheetrocked over and painted to perfectly match the corridor wall.
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Suzy Armstrong of State Farm Insurance in Tulsa, OK, watched a video filled with cute songs and silly exercises with her employees, and led the 15-member team of underwriters in aerobics exercises in the common area.
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“For eight minutes every afternoon, I have department heads lead their employees in stretching exercises at their desks,” says Pam Wiseman, training coordinator for Designer Checks in Colorado Springs, CO. “It’s a little silly, but it’s fun, and it gives everyone a break. I think we’re more productive because of it and we feel better, too.”
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Merle Norman Cosmetics in Los Angeles buys its female employees makeovers. The company also sponsors an Employee Night every other Saturday at the San Sylmar container manufacturing facility located in the San Fernando Valley outside Los Angeles. First-run movies are shown for employees, who may bring as many as six friends. After the movie, employees and their guests can make their own free ice-cream sundaes.
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Linda L. Miles, president of Miles & Associates, a seminar-planning firm in Gig Harbor, WA, treated her staff of six women to a pedicure as a reward that came to be called “Happy Feet Day.”
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The Bank of America offices in San Francisco have a “Laugh-A-Day Challenge” for one month. Each employee tries to make coworkers laugh the whole day with cartoons and jokes. Winners receive T-shirts and books containing the best jokes and cartoons.
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Matt Weinstein of Playfair, a Nicasio, CA, company that offers humor seminars, has several suggestions for keeping the work environment fun. He recommends giving “joy breaks,” during which employees can look at cartoons or listen to CDs.
He also suggests getting everyone together on the floor for childhood games, like marbles and penny-pitching. Other ideas from Matt:
• Give your employees a casual dress day, such as Hawaiian Day or Suspender Friday.
• Plan a surprise picnic for your employees in the parking garage or lot.
• Make campaign buttons out of employees’ baby pictures. Have them wear one another’s buttons and try to figure out who’s who.
• Put rubber fish in the watercooler.
• Staple Kleenex tissues to potentially stressful memos.
• Glue chocolate Kisses to boring memos.
Ritch Davidson, “senior vice emperor” at the company, adds:
• Designate days when anyone who makes a negative comment forks over a small sum of money—25 or 50 cents—and use the money to start a Fun Committee fund.
• Instead of giving out holiday bonuses in checks, give out cash, close a few hours early, and take everyone to a shopping mall. After the spree, stage a show-and-tell.
• Hold fun contests—Nerf basketball, volleyball, or bubble-blowing competitions—or play cooperative games, such as charades and treasure hunts.
• Have a party for no reason at all.
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During a recent canning season, overtime had climbed so high at the Dole Food Company plant in Springfield, OR, that workers wondered if they were going to go crazy. As one technician said, “I couldn’t look at another bag of lettuce!” To prevent burnout, manager Donna Lynn Johnson started a kazoo band. At first, the 325 plant employees were skeptical, but they soon got into the spirit of things and started smiling more.
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At Eastman Kodak in Rochester, NY, an executive formed a Humor Task Force to gather Monty Python videos, Woody Allen books, plastic chattering teeth, and other props for a “Humor Room.”
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Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters in Norfolk, VA, hosts a stress-relief fair for employees with booths (dunk tank, Velcro dartboards, massages) and food.
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IBM, Coca-Cola, Ford, Monsanto, and Nikon all purchase gold-sealed Star Certificates declaring employees’ ownership of actual stars, with a star album containing a sky chart and star verification record. Star certificates are available for $45 from the International Star Registry in Ingleside, IL.
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Iteris, Inc., based in Santa Ana, CA, has its own Fun Committee, which launched Project Girth. For every pound an employee lost, a dollar would be sent to his or her favorite charity. Iteris also sponsored a “Guess the Stock Price on March 31” contest in which the winner got a free lunch at a hoagie shop. Finally, the plant’s conference room has an exact replica of the space shuttle Columbia made out of Budweiser beer cans.
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MCI, now a part of New York–based Verizon Communications, had top management work together to shoot a movie. Famous scenes from movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark were filmed, using team members in the roles of the actors and actresses. The project was a great team-building experience. The completed movie was shown to all employees at a company meeting.
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Small teams of food service executives received a Kodak K12 camera and a list of captions at a recent Society for Foodservice Management conference in San Francisco. After a 20-minute lesson covering the basic points of photography, they had two hours to snap pictures of their teams to match captions, such as “to boldly go” and “team spirit.” Claudia O‘Mahoney, executive vice president of the association, says, “The cameras made the meeting successful because they allowed people to be their most creative.”
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At Mid-States Technical Staffing Services (now owned by AccuStaff), in Davenport, IA, teams of employees competed to produce the most accurate time sheets (which originally had a 38 percent error rate). Within three weeks, time sheets were 100 percent accurate. The teams only competed for ten weeks, but time sheets were still 99.6 percent accurate at year-end.
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Robert Marn of the Chilcote Company in Cleveland, OH, used a bingo game to teach workers proper procedures, to lower injury rates, and to cut compensation claims against the company. Accidents decreased by 56 percent the following year, with a savings of $21,000.
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At Valassis Communications, a marketing company headquartered in Livonia, MI, employees were given cards and stampers to play bingo at work. Numbers were called out hourly over the PA system from morning until about two in the afternoon, with a break for lunch. Winning cards were placed in a drawing for one of five prizes, which were tied into a theme, such as Fourth of July, movie night, summer, or winter.
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During staff meetings at the Phoenix Business Journal, an employee is chosen to read the mission statement; then the publisher quizzes people on what it means for them. Token prizes are handed out for correct answers.
Memtron Input Components in Frankenmuth, MI, now a part of Esterline Corporation, created its own version of Monopoly, called Memtronopoly. Managers supply caricatures of themselves to serve as game pieces and submit lists of problems that are made into “Process” and “Systems” cards. Players roll a die, draw a card, and discuss problems or hand out employee recognition as they progress around the board.
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One health services company in Oakland, CA, holds bowling games during Friday afternoon breaks. They set up the pins in a long hallway and award prizes for the winners. It ends the week on a lighter note.
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As a break for busy assembly or warehouse workers who are meeting quota or ahead of schedule, some firms in Silicon Valley call for a surprise 15-minute basketball break, although Ping-Pong or pool works, as well. At Microsoft, it’s not uncommon for employees to take a break to throw a Frisbee.
• Hold a raffle for members of an outstanding work group, giving away a night on the town, a resort weekend, or a home computer.
Fun and games are an important aspect of work at Robert W. Baird, a financial services company located in Milwaukee. Some departments have “humor rooms” where associates can unwind with puzzles and games.
At one branch, sales associates were told to reserve time on their schedules for a mandatory compliance meeting, where they were to watch a compliance video. When they arrived, they were treated to a comedy movie and junk food instead, while brokers covered their phones. Everyone appreciated the opportunity to drop what they were doing, relax, laugh, and enjoy the afternoon.
Another branch celebrates Christmas in July. One year, families were invited to a bowling alley, where the branch manager showed up in a summertime Santa suit complete with red shirt, suspenders, red gym shorts, red high-top Converses, white hair, and a beard.
The company also hosts numerous contests. The public finance group held a “Talk Like a Pirate” week during which associates wore pirate hats to work and were judged on their performance. The information technology department held a three-legged race in which the winning team was allowed to leave early. And in celebration of a record month, one branch closed the office early and held a putt-putt match. Teams played on a makeshift golf course built from two-by-fours, toy windmills, and bridges, which snaked in and out of offices and cubicles. After nine holes, everyone wanted to play another nine.
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The U.S. Postal Service sponsored a national contest to sell the greatest number of first-class phone cards in one month. The winner of the $1,000 prize was the Rio Linda, CA, post office, with average sales of $25.58 per employee per day—well above the $22 figure achieved by the runner-up. Employees planned to use the money to buy a refrigerator to store their food.
Remington Products, Inc., the personal care products maker based in Atlanta, GA, held a company contest tied to the theme “What Makes Remington Good.” Prizes included a trip to Acapulco, won by an employee who submitted a poem about the company.
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Southwest Airlines, based in Dallas, TX, has a Halloween costume contest, a Thanksgiving poem contest, and a design contest for the year-end newsletter. The firm also has an annual chili cook-off.
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Truck drivers with FedEx Freight Corporation in San Jose, CA, participate in truck-driving championships, competing in events such as maneuvering a tractor trailer through a barrel course. State winners receive special recognition, a trip to “boot camp” to prepare them for the national championships, and a trip to the national championships itself. The Chairman’s Challenge gives national winners a number of opportunities, including a choice of several vacation options, including a seven-day, all-expenses-paid cruise in the Caribbean or a trip to a major sporting event, such as the NFL Pro Bowl in Hawaii.
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Hardee’s Food Systems, the fast-food chain headquartered in St. Louis, MO, held a Competition for Excellence, in which three-person teams from each of more than 2,000 restaurants competed against other Hardee’s in their districts. The teams were judged by regional managers on the three basic qualifications for fast-food employees—service, product makeup, and work area cleanliness—as well as on how well they worked together. Winning teams advanced to the regional competition, and seven finalists were flown to the company’s headquarters. Cash awards were given at each level, with the winners of the national competition receiving $1,500 each. All the national finalists flew in on the company jet, were whisked around the city by limousine, and were generally treated like VIPs.
In a competition called “Bonus Bucks,” employees “caught in the act of doing something right” were awarded bonus points. At the end of each quarter, each district (five to seven restaurants) held a party at which workers used their collected points to bid on items like T-shirts and televisions.
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For every job listing a graduate passes on to the Career Planning and Placement office at Fordham University in New York, a piece of paper bearing his or her name is entered in a lottery. A random drawing, held every three months starting in October, selects a winner, who is then featured in the Fordham magazine. Prizes consist of season tickets to Fordham sports events, dinners at local restaurants, and vacations to spots like historic Tarrytown, NY.
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QuizMaster Productions, a quiz show company focused on team training based in Roswell, GA, holds contests modeled after TV game shows, such as Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and Win, Lose, or Draw. Employees play in teams, answering questions about company products and operations.
To promote product knowledge, BI Performance, a Minneapolis-based performance improvement company, has foreign and domestic car salespeople call an 800-number and take a product knowledge test over the phone. During the test, a computer randomly chooses 15 to 20 questions out of a pool of about 200. Salespeople who answer 80 percent of the questions correctly win instant merchandise.
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Teams of custodians at Texas A&M University in College Station hold their own annual “Olympics” to test their proficiency with everything from dust mops to floor waxers. Just as in the real Olympics, participants hold preliminary meets, in key events such as the “Peanut Push” and the “Obstacle Course.”
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Domino’s Pizza, Inc., based in Ann Arbor, MI, holds an annual companywide “Olympics” in which it promotes events ranging from accounting to dough making, vegetable slicing, truck loading, dough catching, and tray scraping. The Domino’s Olympics awards $4,000 to national champions in each of 16 categories. The team leader who supervises the most “gold medalists” wins a free vacation.
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The Hotel Association of New York City hosted a “Hotel Olympics” to recognize employees. Chefs had to prepare a Caesar salad and an appetizer of their choice; bartenders were asked to make a Manhattan and an original drink recipe; maids were timed for bed-making speed as well as tautness of the sheets; and waiters and waitresses had four minutes to carry a tray of champagne-filled glasses 800 feet, spilling as little as possible. All entrants received cash prizes, tote bags, and soft drinks. In addition, first-place winners won cameras and trips to Las Vegas and California, second-place winners received TVs, and third-place winners got his-and-hers Bulova watches.
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CUNO, a maker of water filtration and purification systems in Meriden, CT, knew wholesalers would not sell its products if they knew nothing about them. To change this, managers mailed 5,000 training guides about water-quality problems with a 50-question multiple-choice test. Wholesalers were asked to review the manual, dial a toll-free number, and answer 10 randomly asked questions from the list of 50. A wholesaler who scored 80 percent or better received a customized baseball cap, a mug, a bumper sticker, and a certificate naming him or her as a water filtration specialist. A total of 1,900 wholesalers enrolled, and 1,000 earned certificates.
To encourage participation, distributors who returned their enrollment cards were entered in a sweepstakes that offered 82 prizes, including RCA TVs and VCRs, radios, and pen-and-pencil sets. The company also tracked those who did not call and encouraged them to read the manual and take the test. Once certified, wholesalers could qualify for a second-level award. Anyone who sold 15 of the company’s products in 45 days won a nylon jacket imprinted with his or her name and the company’s logo; 140 jackets were distributed.
Finally, the company placed 15 “mystery” calls during the promotional period to ask distributors to name the water purification system they carried. All 15 wholesalers answered correctly and won $100 each.
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Tupperware, based in Orlando, FL, holds four-month contests and two-to-three-week challenges throughout the year. Both reward high sales or recruiting efforts through points that can be redeemed for catalog merchandise. Meeting or exceeding sales quotas can earn dealers a week for two in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, or a seven-day cruise.
To combat high turnover among its approximately 90,000 dealers, the company developed an incentive recruiting program. Dealers who recruit at least one new dealer in September, when turnover reaches a peak, receive a porcelain doll. Tupperware gained some 3,000 more dealers than expected through such efforts. Hostesses whose parties generate a minimum of $61 in party sales qualify for gifts or merchandise from the Tupperware collection. Managers who reach sales quotas or a combination of sales and dealer recruiting goals qualify for the use of a car, which can be turned in for a new model every two years, or cash.
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Don Lundberg, CFO of Peoples National Bank of Kewanee, IL, describes a contest for the marketing of new MasterCard and Visa cards in which employees receive gifts tied to the number of new accounts they open. For each of the first four accounts, they receive a flower; for every five additional accounts, they win the following items in succession: a $5 gift certificate for Dairy Queen, a waiver for card fees, a $15 gift certificate at a local restaurant, a $50 savings bond, a day off with pay, a riverboat ticket, and $25.
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First Capital Life, now a part of Pacific Life Insurance based in Newport Beach, CA, held an offbeat sales contest called “Murder in Montreux,” in which marketers got monthly clues to try to determine who of eight possible suspects was guilty of “murder.” To entice marketers to play along, a special grand-prize drawing was held in Switzerland for those who solved the mystery.
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USMotivation, an incentives firm in Atlanta, GA, persuaded the king and queen of Sweden to sponsor a sales contest for a group of American employees of a Swedish-owned vinyl manufacturer. During the contest, the king and queen sent the employees letters concerning royal etiquette, autographed pictures, and gifts like Swedish crystal to those who were meeting their goals. At an awards dinner outside Stockholm, the king and queen presented the awards, and the ceremony was videotaped.
Celebrations, parties, and special events are more organized forms of public recognition. While it is often traditional for companies to host holiday or year-end celebrations, group celebrations are more effective when they are linked to the performance of the group or organization. With a little forethought and planning, you can make any group event a meaningful form of recognition. Celebrating birthdays is another important, and more personal, way for companies to honor their employees, and a few examples are included here.
At Welch’s, the Concord, MA–based fruit products giant, CEO Dave Lukiewski serves his staffers lunch in the company cafeteria during special employee recognition days. “I have always been motivated by ‘attaboys,’ but I try to formalize that and make it more of our culture,” says Lukiewski. Surveys have found a nearly 7 percent improvement in positive responses due to the recognition efforts.
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Led by CEO Kent Murdock, 1,600 employees of Salt Lake City–based O. C. Tanner Co., a jewelry store, gathered in the company cafeteria to dance the “O. C. Tanner Adulation Jiggity-Jig,” a group dance that was led by Kent in honor of National Employee Appreciation Day. After the employees participated in the group dance session on Friday, the company treated them to a free lunch. CHG Healthcare, also headquartered in Salt Lake City, honors employees on a day other than the official National Employee Appreciation Day. CHG designates a week in June as Employee Appreciation Week. It has given employees free massages, sponsored a health fair, and had managers run errands for employees. CHG spokeswoman Mary Biljanic says, “Since implementing an employee recognition program, our company has seen lower turnover rates.”
Mary Swank, owner of Simply Swank hair salon in Hudson, OH—one of the fastest-growing salon/spas in America—celebrates each employee’s birthday. She finds out what kind of cake they want and then bakes it from scratch.
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At Dean College in Franklin, MA, senior managers surprised the staff with a visit from a local ice-cream vendor to thank them for their hard work during a student orientation session.
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At Clausen Nursing Home in Iowa City, IA, owner Gordon Clausen and his family treat their six employees, mostly students from a local university, to a home-cooked meal with the family during the holiday season.
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SME Vista Optics, a contact lens products manufacturer based in Widnes, Cheshire, UK, recognizes its 20 employees with curry and beer evenings; visits to the theater; thank-you mentions at weekly team lunches; bottles of wine; a director treating the team to an evening out to celebrate success; and taking the entire company to an overseas trade fair to meet customers.
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Wequassett Resort and Golf Club in Chatham on Cape Cod, MA, hosts clambakes, croquet matches, and themed events for employees of the resort. In-home care provider Right at Home, in Bloomington, MN, traditionally treats more than 200 employees to an annual meal and show at the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres. Camden Property Trust, a real estate investment trust in Houston, TX, and Fairfield Resorts, the time-share unit of Cendant Corporation in Central Florida, host annual Halloween parties for employees and their children. The entire staff at MMI Associates, a marketing firm in Raleigh, NC, spent a recent Friday at a local spa.
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Oregon-based Flying Pie Pizzeria restaurants maintain a tip fund that pays for concerts, parties, paycheck stuffers, recognition, enhancements like a nicer stereo system, and an annual raft trip. Starwood Vacation Ownership, with 1,900 Central Florida employees, rewards employees with a variety of family-oriented events.
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David Hall, owner of several Overflow discount stores in Queensland, Australia, hosted a top-notch Christmas party. It had a 5-star buffet dinner, an open bar, music, and presents. He gave every shop manager a voucher for a shopping expedition. The expedition started with champagne breakfast, included lunch, a cocktail party, and $100 for hotel accommodations.
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Employees of Vicinity Media Group, a publishing company that produces regional lifestyle and business magazines and is based in Fairfield, NJ, attended a joint holiday party with other small businesses. CEO David Black purchased tickets for his 19 employees to attend a “Bring Your Own Business” party in early December hosted by Jersey Street Furniture Rental, a party decorations company in West Orange, NJ. At the event, his workers drank, danced, and mingled with other small-business employees. Black says he spent 25 percent less on the joint party than he would have spent on the company’s annual holiday dinner, which normally takes place at an upscale restaurant.
On Valentine’s Day, The Container Store, the nation’s leading retailer of storage and organization products, based in Dallas, TX, surprised its 4,000 employees across the country by declaring “National We Love Our Employees Day.” That day and in the following week, employees were treated to special celebrations and recognition at the company’s stores, home office, and distribution center. The company supported its recognition effort with ads in The New York Times and The Dallas Morning News (the hometown paper), customer e-mails, a social-media campaign, outdoor and online messaging, in-store signage, and messaging through the stores’ music systems.
“While we appreciate and recognize our employees every day of the year, we thought it fun on this Valentine’s Day to publicly thank them for their diligence, positive attitude, perseverance, and commitment to helping our customers and ensuring our special company remains strong despite a tough economy,” said Kip Tindell, chairman and CEO. “We also encourage other companies to adopt Feb. 14 as a day to recognize their own employees’ contributions and successes.” Successful, this company is: For the past 11 years, the retailer has been named to Fortune magazine’s annual list of 100 Best Companies to Work For.
• Turnover of less than 10 percent (compared to retail industry average of more than 100 percent)
• Strong financial performance, including a double-digit, year-after-year compounded growth rate
• National recognition as an employer-of-choice, driving such interest that only 3 percent of applicants are hired into the organization
• Ongoing commitment to laying no one off
The Container Store attributes its success to its values-based business philosophies focused on its entire interdependent group of stakeholders, beginning with employees and also including its vendors, customers, and shareholders. In doing so, the retailer finds that employees take better care of customers, which ultimately ensures a prosperous bottom line even in a challenging economy. “We strive for excellence, to be special, to be different and to be more than just another retail store. That has always meant putting our employees first and in doing that, they truly take care of the customer,” says Tindell.
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At Minnesota-based Wilson Learning Corporation, each employee is given a Mickey Mouse watch on their first day of work as a reminder that they should always have fun while working for the company.
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Hewlett-Packard uses informal beer busts in the afternoons to mark special events.
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At Dow Corning, in Midland, MI, management hosted an ice-cream social in which managers made and served ice-cream sundaes to employees to thank them for an accomplishment, reports George K. Stevenson, Human Resources specialist for the company.
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Don Coyhis describes how a humor seminar helped when he was district manager for Digital Equipment Corporation’s Colorado customer support center: “We taught everyone to juggle beanbags; if employees felt uptight after a call, they were encouraged to juggle to break the tension and prepare for the next call. We also instituted a ‘grouch patrol,’ which was empowered to tell grouchy people to take a break. We found that if we systematically took breaks, productivity improved.”
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Give a personalized cartoon for an employee award. Nichecartoons.com can create a fully customized comic strip including the recipient’s name and work achievement.
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Alissa Meredith, lead physical therapist for Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas, CA, instituted a “Margarita Award” for the therapist who had to work with the toughest client that week or month. The awardee was then treated by the group to a margarita happy hour.
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The morning after a product passed a crucial test at Odetics, a company that makes robots and spaceborne tape recorders in Anaheim, CA, a mariachi band paraded through the plant, followed by some girls from the local Baskin-Robbins franchise offering free ice cream.
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Advanta Corporation in Horsham, PA, has its senior management host a “grill your boss” cookout in which they dress up as chefs and cook hamburgers and hot dogs for all employees, reports Joan Cawley, director of Human Resources for the company.
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First Chicago Bank gives out “Felix” and “Oscar” awards for the employees with the neatest and messiest work areas.
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At a recent quarterly meeting, Apple executives used kazoos instead of applause to indicate their approval of speakers.
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At Domino’s corporate offices in Ann Arbor, MI, everyone from the president to the receptionist wears a red, white, and blue Domino’s uniform once a week. Employees are invited to bring their pets with them to work on Fridays.
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Liebert Corporation in Columbus, OH, which manufactures air-conditioning and power-supply systems for computer rooms, offers free popcorn to employees all day long.
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Parties are always breaking out for almost any occasion at Time Warner in New York City. For example, when Money magazine moved from the 29th to the 33rd floor of the Time & Life Building in Rockefeller Center, Money held a block party. The best employee parties are reportedly held at Advanced Micro Devices, Apple Computer, Leo Burnett, Hewlett-Packard, Odetics, Tandem Computers, and Time Warner.
15 suggestions for relieving office gloom:
1. Order pizza or a huge submarine sandwich for a communal lunch.
2. Designate a bulletin board as a place for employees to post favorite jokes, cartoons, etc.
3. Attach cartoons or humorous anecdotes to the more mundane memos that need to be circulated.
4. Schedule a staff meeting off-site in a congenial atmosphere; if possible, follow up with a casual social event.
5. Schedule an “Ugly Tie” (or Crazy Sweater or Silly Socks) Day with a joke prize for the winner.
6. Hold betting pools for such high-profile events as the Super Bowl, Kentucky Derby, Oscars, Emmys, and the World Series.
7. Take a daily humor break; designate someone to share a joke or funny story with the rest of the staff.
8. During a lunch break, screen a funny film or television show in a conference room or one of the larger offices.
9. Bring a camera to work. Take candid shots of employees and post the results throughout the office.
10. Make a point to smile and say hello to office mates.
11. Give everyone an opportunity to arrive or leave an hour early one day a week.
12. Never take anything too seriously. Keep reminding yourselves, “This isn’t brain surgery.” (Unless, of course, it is brain surgery.)
13. Trace the history of employees’ family names and post on bulletin boards.
14. Create a baby pictures bulletin board: of employees or of their children.
15. Create a Facebook page for employee vacation pictures.
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Marion Laboratories, Inc., takes all its employees and their spouses or guests (some 2,500 people) to see the Kansas City Royals play baseball once a year. Everyone wears a baseball cap or T-shirt with a big M on it, and top executives of the company go up and down the aisles handing out free drinks and other refreshments.
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At Space Camp in Cannes, France, employees can train much the way astronauts do, learning about satellite deployment, aerodynamics, and astronomy, as well as working in simulated weightlessness and training in other space environments, such as hypergravity. The program culminates in a simulated space flight. French operations of Microsoft and Aerospatiale both did this.
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First Pennsylvania Bank in Philadelphia arranges a once-a-year banquet for employees (and their families) who “take that extra step.”
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West Texas Utilities in Abilene, allows employees to celebrate their birthdays or special occasions by bringing in cakes or doughnuts to share with others during breaks. This gives them control over whether or not to celebrate, and costs the company nothing. Most employees participate.
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When SI Ventures founder Manny Fernandez was CEO of Gartner, Inc., a Stamford, CT, technology consulting and research firm, he would call every employee on his or her birthday. Said Fernandez, “It used to be a lot easier when we were small. Now I sometimes make 12 calls a day, but it’s a great way to keep in touch with what’s going on in the company and employees seem to enjoy it.”
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Martin Edelston, chairman and CEO of Boardroom, Inc., in Greenwich, CT, personally signs a “Happy Birthday” card to each of his 85 employees and drops by to sing to them on their special day.
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The president of Merle Norman Cosmetics keeps track of everyone’s birthday and makes a point of seeking out people to wish them well on that day. The company chef also bakes a birthday cake for the employee.
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Personal letters and cards are sent from headquarters in Laval, Quebec, to the stores of Dairy Mart (now part of Circle K, based in Tempe, AZ) on people’s birthdays and wedding anniversaries.
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Compass Bank in Birmingham, AL, plans a lunch outing for each birthday person. He or she gets to select the restaurant, and the manager picks up the tab. All other staffers are invited to attend on a “Dutch treat” basis.
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When associates at Robert W. Baird turn 40, they receive a “birthday rock” to keep on their desks until the next person turns 40. The rock has been making its way around the firm from desk to desk for years. One Baird manager lets associates leave a couple of hours early, as well.
“One thing we do that is an especially big hit with the employees’ families is sending flowers or cookie-grams to the place of business or to the home of all spouses on their birthdays and anniversaries,” says Michael L. Finn, chairman and CRO (chief remover of obstacles) at Fortress Safe & Lock in Cincinnati, OH. Every child (up to age 16) is also sent a birthday card with $20 in movie tickets. “Including the families has meant a lot to everyone,” Finn concludes.
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Employees pick random birthdays and give that person a cake and celebration at Windsor Shirt Company.
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Have a birthday committee in charge of thinking up new and creative ways to celebrate birthdays. Once, when four employees had birthdays on the same day at Porterville Development Center, they blindfolded them and drove them to a restaurant, put signs on their backs that read “It’s my party,” and everyone in the restaurant stood and sang “Happy Birthday” to them.
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There’s a birthday album at the spaceborne products plant of Odetics, Inc. (now Iteris, Inc.), where everybody’s picture appears on his or her birth date on a huge calendar hung along a wall.
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H. B. Fuller and Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) give employees the day off on their birthdays. Lowe’s Companies offers them a free lunch, and all Mary Kay, Inc., employees receive a birthday card and a voucher for a free lunch for two.
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Spouses of employees at Black & Decker in Anaheim, CA, get flowers on the employee’s birthday, thanking them for their support, reports Bill Paolillo, district manager for the western region. Flowers can also be given to the spouses of employees who travel a lot to show appreciation for the sacrifice.
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At the Veteran’s Administration Philadelphia (PA) Regional Office and Insurance Center, during the month of his or her birthday, each employee has the privilege of giving a coworker the office’s Extra Step Award, a $30 cash award given annually to employees who go out of their way to satisfy their internal customers, i.e., other workers they serve.
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On a person’s birthday at San Diego–based Four Pi Systems, Inc., coworkers individually delivered a single flower every 15 minutes throughout the day.
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Employees at The SCOOTER Store throw spontaneous celebrations for colleagues who do something exceptional. This typically involves giving them pats on the back, throwing confetti, and making lots of racket with horns and noisemakers. The guests of honor feel great about their jobs and company, and the “combusters” (the individuals offering the “spontaneous combustion”) appreciate the opportunity to play around. The store’s Insurance Verification Department also held a contest in which, if it achieved a certain record, the male manager would come to work in a dress picked out by the supervisors, and one of the team members would do his makeup. Not only did they meet the goal, but they exceeded it.
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BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina hosted a “parking lot lunch” with a tent and barbecue to thank staff for their hard work on a major corporatewide initiative.
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When Jennifer Wallick, a computer software manager, worked for a subsidiary of Hewlett-Packard in San Diego, she rewarded her work group after finishing a demanding project by giving them a “popcorn lunch”—that is, taking them to see a movie over lunch hour. As she explains, “It meant a slightly longer lunch hour, but it was a great break and a lot of fun!”
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To recognize the accomplishment of a team goal, Nancy Lauterbach, owner of Five Star Speakers & Trainers in Overland Park, KS, closed the office for half a day and took the entire staff to the movies and to a restaurant for coffee afterward. At the movie, everyone received money for snacks. On other occasions, the company offered employees a casual dress day to reward extra effort.
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Jon Holmes at the Anderson Mall & Clemson Boulevard Chick-fil-A restaurants in Anderson, SC, throws an annual banquet for his team, during which he gives each person a present. He believes the key to employee retention is to show you care by attending team functions, ball games, and cheerleading competitions.
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Firmani & Associates, a public relations firm in Seattle, closes one day per quarter so employees can go to a movie. Besides being a fun stress reducer, the outing promotes camaraderie. Owner Mark Firmani also tries to create a fun atmosphere with perks, such as a casual dress code, weekly staff lunches, and supplies of juice, soda, and candy.
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At the Fayetteville, AR, Crabtree Mall, manager Charlie Kerr throws midnight bowling parties to recognize his entire Chick-fil-A team for meeting performance goals.
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Radio rating surveyor Arbitron celebrates the achievement of significant milestones with appropriate dinners and parties. When the company completed a phase of its Mexico project, there was a taco bar, music, and sombreros. Additionally, the finance department gets together every year to recognize individuals with the “Top Dollar Award”: They get a fun gift that changes from year to year, and their names are engraved on a plaque. Work groups and departments often use recognition as an icebreaker or a welcome break from meetings.
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Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, TX, threw a party for 400 full-time employees and their families. Children were given small gifts, and employees drew tickets in a raffle for gifts from the park’s gift shops, as well as larger electronic items such as TVs.
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Software developer McAfee, Inc., transformed a hotel ballroom into a winter wonderland, complete with 6,100 tiny white lights strung on 49 white birch and fir trees, giant ice sculptures, cotton snowdrifts, and a dance floor made to look like an ice-skating rink.
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Alaska Airlines has an annual Children’s Holiday Party in one of its airplane hangars. Employees transform it into a winter wonderland filled with decorations, pizza, cookies, cotton candy, popcorn, inflatable toys, face painters, and clowns. The best part, however, is when the hangar doors open and one of the planes (with the nose repainted as a reindeer) rolls up from the “North Pole.” An employee dressed as Santa jumps out with all of his elves, and the crowd of 2,500 employees and family members goes crazy.
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Since Robert W. Baird’s headquarters is located in sometimes-frigid Milwaukee, one department held a post-holiday ice-skating party for associates and their families. A mock skating “code of etiquette” was circulated, with requirements such as “absolutely no laughing at someone else’s fall until you’re sure nothing is broken.” At the end of the night, surprise trophies were presented in the following categories:
• Skating as a Weapon of Mass Destruction
• Most Artistic Fall vs. Ugliest Technique
• Most Vertically Challenged
• Most Original Style
Each year, Baird associates and family members also enjoy exclusive access to the Milwaukee Zoo for an evening that includes dinner, refreshments, entertainment, and special animal shows. Approximately 3,000 people attend.
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Advertising giant DDB’s Sydney, Australia, office throws terrific holiday parties, complete with truckloads of decorations, live bands, theme cocktails, and gourmet finger food. According to former senior media group head Greg Tremain, DDB “announced the Agency Person of the Year and had a joke award ceremony and a video of all the commercials made throughout the year. It was a big morale builder.”
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Guests at a corporate Christmas party at Wembley’s Conference and Exhibition Center in London were treated to a Cinderella Ball, complete with costumed characters, waltzing, and a Christmas feast.
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Kaiser Permanente’s corporate offices in Oakland, CA, join together for a team-building activity every December; they built gingerbread hospitals one year. This type of activity not only reinforces the roles people play at work, but gives everyone a chance to sit down together for a treat after they’re finished.
Lands’ End, the Wisconsin-based clothing and merchandise retailer, defines the standard for zany and fun celebrations. Here’s a snapshot of some of the activities in a recent year:
• Give the employee a round of golf.
• Rent a sports car for the employee for a week.
• Rent a billboard and put up a message featuring the employee’s picture and name.
The company has used the theme of “Going for the Gold” throughout the year in events and activities ranging from company meetings, a 40th anniversary celebration, the Lands’ End Summer Olympics, “Golden” Customer Service Week, and “Golden” Service Stories (customer letters).
WORLD’S LARGEST PILLOW FIGHT
On September 29, 2004, employees and their families, retirees, community members, and local students, 2,776 in all, joined Lands’ End for the “World’s Largest Pillow Fight.” Following the fight, pillows and pillowcases embroidered with “Sweet Dreams from Lands’ End,” worth a total of almost $100,000, were donated to the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps. Coverage of the event spanned from New York to California, including MSNBC and a national spot on NBC’s Today show.
SUMMER OLYMPICS GOLDEN GAMES
The Lands’ End “Summer Olympics” were hosted July 13–August 21, and featured events such as marshmallow golf, a beach ball throw, the plank walk, a free-throw contest, and the gurney push. The top team for each event was awarded a traveling trophy and the honor, fame, and status that goes with being an “Olympic” champion. The event included opening and closing ceremonies, and all finalists were honored at the company picnic, which featured games, rides, bingo, and entertainment for all ages, including a game show, the Lands’ End Alumni Band “Kids from Wisconsin,” and an award-winning entertainer, Neal McCoy.
No Olympics is complete without a torch. So “torches” were sent to various departments in the company, and each department had to submit a photo of its torch in a unique location. It ended up in Rome, Japan, the Lands’ End swimming pool, a roof, a tractor, and many other places. The division that most creatively displayed its torch received extra credit toward the Lands’ End Olympics. (Incidentally, the torch picture did end up swaying the Lands’ End Olympics results, allowing a merchandising team to win by a hair.)
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The Portland, OR, REI displayed its employees’ artwork one year by showing it in conjunction with the Portland Pearl District’s First Thursday Art Walk event.
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At Dow Chemical Company in Midland, MI, management hosted an ice-cream social where they made and served sundaes to their employees to generously thank them for their accomplishments.
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The Texas Rangers baseball club treated 150 employees to a serenade by the Hamilton Park Men’s Choir.
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Lucian LaBarba, former president of American FoodService, now a part of Houston, TX–based FreshPoint, said he wanted to hold an event that all associates and their families would enjoy, so he asked his daughters what they thought might work. They both suggested the circus, so he planned the event, dubbing it “The Greatest Food Service Show on Earth.” It was the most successful event the company had ever held. They repeated it the following year, purchasing over 500 tickets. Each person also got $5 in “circus bucks” to spend that day.
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ACCESS Destination Services in Long Beach, CA, offers many unique themed events. For example, Safaris, Inc., re-creates Hollywood’s golden age at the former home of mogul Darryl F. Zanuck. A Hollywood marquee emblazoned with the company’s name greets guests, floral arrangements and candles float in the pool, and Chinese lanterns hang outside the pool-house-turned-casino. Five hundred people dine, play croquet and no-stakes casino games, and dance to a jazz trio at the lavish estate.
The company also arranges Indian-Western barbecues at Indian Canyon, a desert oasis with towering palms in the foothills of the Santa Rosa Mountains near Palm Springs. Authentic Cahuilla Indian dancers and singers perform at the barbecue while potters, weavers, and silversmiths demonstrate their crafts at an Indian marketplace where participants can shop. Stuntmen stage a gunfight, and guests—who wear cowboy hats and bandannas—two-step to a country-and-western band.
The company sometimes arranges other events, like a “Field of Dreams” evening at Dodger Stadium, where retired ballplayers in vintage uniforms play ball with participants.
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Recently, Mana, Allison & Associates temporarily took over Napa’s Inglenook winery and staged a Renaissance Fair, barbecue, and winery tours for 850 people. Mimes, jugglers, and musicians entertained the group.
Viacom in New York City has its own version of the Academy Awards in various categories, such as customer service, leadership, innovation, and teamwork. Nominations can come from employees at any level.
In a recent survey of American workers, 77 percent ranked a trip to a desirable destination with a spouse or guest as a positive incentive. Travel incentive rewards have a number of advantages: They are extremely desirable and promotable; they provide an exclusive venue for fostering team spirit and education; and they have “bragging value.” There are, however, disadvantages: They are too costly for many applications; travelers are out of the office during the trip; it takes extensive effort and experience to create a high-quality travel program; and typically only a few employees can get the reward.
Keurig, a Reading, MA–based coffee machine maker, sends high-performing employees on a five-day “Origin Trip” to Central and South America to see where the company and its owner, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, get their coffee. The trips are meant to inspire, to reward for good work, to deepen relationships with the company, to meet the farmers, and to live the company’s environmental mission of sustainability.
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TOP INCENTIVE TRAVEL DESTINATIONS
(ranked in order of popularity)
WESTERN HEMISPHERE
1. HAWAII
2. CARIBBEAN ISLANDS
3. CALIFORNIA
4. FLORIDA
5. MEXICO
6. NEVADA
7. ARIZONA
8. NEW YORK
9. CANADA, BERMUDA
10. PUERTO RICO, CHICAGO
Every other year, Rudi’s Organic Bakery, a private company based in Boulder, CO, rewards its outside sales representatives who meet sales goals with trips. Employco USA, based in Westmont, IL, also recognizes its employees with free trips.
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At Stew Leonard’s, proceeds from vending machines in the employee lunchroom are used to subsidize trips and outings for employees.
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Tina Berres Filipski, editor and director of publications for Meeting Planners International in Dallas, TX, took her staff of eight to the Texas State Fair one Friday afternoon, paying for their admission.
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Jeff Alexander, a dentist in Oakland, CA, took his staff on a field trip to a shopping mall and gave each an envelope with $200 (all in ones!), stipulating that they buy at least five things and that he would take back any money they had left after two hours. At their next staff meeting, employees had a show-and-tell.
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Shane Benson, manager at the University Place Town Center Chick-fil-A restaurant in Charlotte, NC, takes team members on a ski trip each year. On the bus, they hold “rolling award” banquets, during which awardees walk the aisle to receive prizes.
TOP INCENTIVE TRAVEL DESTINATIONS
(ranked in order of popularity)
OVERSEAS
1. FRANCE
2. SPAIN, ENGLAND, GERMANY, ITALY
3. AUSTRALIA
4. PORTUGAL, MONACO, AUSTRIA, SWITZERLAND, HONG KONG
5. IRELAND, SINGAPORE, BALI, THAILAND, ISRAEL
At monthly P&L review meetings, employees at PSS World Medical in Jacksonville, FL, go off-site to amusement parks, bowling alleys, miniature golf courses, or play a business version of Family Feud.
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Panache Destination Management took a group of several hundred people to the Hacienda Winery in Sonoma and staged an I Love Lucy-style grape-stomping competition, followed by lunch.
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Incentives To Intrigue, a firm based in San Francisco, provides a staff of writers, producers, and actors who come up with a script for a murder mystery or treasure hunt. One such event was staged for a group of employees during a dinner on the Napa Valley Wine Train. The costumes, decoration of the train cars, and events took participants back to the First International Wine Tasting during World War I. Another murder mystery weekend took 66 employees of Ford Motor Company through Chinatown, Union Square, and the financial district to solve the mystery.
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Kaiser Permanente in Oakland, CA, encourages work groups to use their cash rewards as a group. Winning groups have purchased box seats at a baseball game and taken a train trip to Napa Valley’s wine country, both on workdays.
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Brier & Dunn stages jungle-theme dinners at the lions’ den of the San Francisco Zoo, with lots of plants and jungle music. The company also arranges private yacht-club dinners, preceded by a regatta or cocktail cruise, and black-tie dinners in historic mansions; and it offers the Great American Rolling Treasure Hunt, which has teams exploring the city’s neighborhoods by streetcar to discover local landmarks.
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Dick Eaton, chief energizing officer of Leapfrog Innovations, based in Medford, MA, knows how to structure fun. Eaton hosts scavenger hunts in the city for corporate clients, designed to promote teamwork and build morale. Mercer, Inc., headquartered in New York City, also uses a scavenger hunt to orient team members who travel to new cities. They are asked to visit client offices, large hotels, and the convention center when they arrive, bringing back “proof” of their visits to each location.
When Nelson Motivation, Inc., in San Diego achieved quarterly revenue goals, it packed everyone into a limo driven by an Elvis impersonator and drove to Disneyland for the day. On other occasions, the company sent employees horseback riding on the beach, gave them a day at a spa, and flew all staff and spouses or significant others to New York City to celebrate for a week.
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Tegrant Corporation, based in DeKalb, IL, has a novel way of rewarding senior managers who demonstrate successful leadership. They win a trip to the company’s manufacturing plant in Bowling Green, KY, to spend a day with line workers there. Likewise, plant workers who are especially productive or offer innovative, money-saving ideas win a trip to any of the company’s sales offices in the United States or Canada. Those who have taken part in the exchange have gone back totally pumped.
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The Container Store awards top-performing employees a week at the CEO’s mountain cabin in Colorado.
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PricewaterhouseCoopers, the financial consulting company, rewards its top ten professional and administrative employees with monetary awards and five-day trips to New York City.
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Every dollar that marketing staffers save on airfare, hotel bills, and meals while on the road earns them points toward a resort vacation for two at the Dr Pepper Snapple Group, based in Plano, TX. The two people who collect the most points by year’s end win the weeklong vacations. Travelers save money from their travel allotments by taking connecting rather than nonstop flights, flying on weekends, staying in more modest hotels, and dining in less swanky restaurants.
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Molson Coors Brewing Company took 325 people from more than 80 of its distributorships across the country on a houseboat excursion. Winners attended an informal dinner with coworkers at a resort, where they were given a brief introduction to houseboat safety and handling. Then everyone headed for the houseboats, which slept from six to ten people. The next five or six days were spent meandering on a lake; optional activities, such as tours of nearby parks and group rafting, were also worked into the schedule. The last day included a Farewell Fish Fry, after which winners were shuttled back to the airport. The price for the excursion was about $300 a week per person.
• For a thrilling adventure, give a skydiving package that includes a six-hour introductory course, complete with a written test and first jump. Such packages can be found all across the country at smaller airports, particularly in warmer areas such as California, Texas, and southern Florida.
• Sailplane or glider rides also appeal to the adventurous, as does hot-air ballooning. These trips usually begin in the early morning and last about an hour.
• White-water rafting is popular across the country, especially in Pennsylvania, northern New York, Idaho, California, Oregon, and Alaska. Give a one-day experience, a weekend camping trip, or a weekend stay at a lodge or hotel.
Since every distributor “won” a houseboat, each decided whom to send—a salesperson and his or her family (up to six people) or a group of salespeople. Rick Clay, vice president of sales, says, “Houseboating’s a great form of relaxation because it’s one of the few places where there aren’t any telephones. This type of setup really allows you the opportunity to talk and listen to each other.”
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Dogsled treks across marked, groomed trails are available in various parts of the American snowbelt. Lewis Elin, president of The Topps Company, Inc., the maker of baseball cards in New York City, has been mushing with friends, customers, and suppliers for several years. “It gives you a totally different perspective on winter and the great outdoors,” Elin reports, “while offering a really challenging experience as well.”
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The Travelers Companies, headquartered in New York City, sent winning agents to the Masters golf tournament each year. They were flown on the company jet and wined and dined at the event. Each agent received a bag of customized merchandise—from cookbooks to visors and suntan oil. They mailed a Masters scratch-off game card to other key brokers, who have to follow the tournament to win. Prizes ranged from a trip to London to imprinted visors. Richard Brown, second vice president for advertising marketing services for the insurance company, reported a 23 percent response rate on the card. For nonsales employees, a putting contest was held one week prior to the Masters. For three days, the home office set up a golf turf and challenged its employees to make a hole in one. Golf shirts and balls were awarded to winners, who were also entered in a drawing for eight golf-related prizes ranging from warm-up suits to windbreakers.
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For a truly unique experience—especially for car lovers—there is racing school. At Road Atlanta, a two-and-a-half-mile Grand Prix track in Braselton, GA, individuals can attend a one-day racing school to learn handling techniques such as braking, skid padding, and heel-toe downshifting. They then spend another day racing around the track. The Valvoline Company organized this incentive trip for six buyers from distributorships around the country.
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All managers at Quad/Graphics, Inc., printers in Sussex, WI, are entitled to a free trip to New York City. The company picks up the airfare for two and lets them use its apartment on 57th Street. About 20 managers a year take advantage of this opportunity.
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When Leo Burnett Worldwide reached $1 billion in advertising revenues, every employee in the New York and Hollywood offices was flown first-class to the Chicago headquarters for the company’s annual breakfast celebration.
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