Some employees stay with your organization for years and push its goals forward tirelessly each and every day. Employee recognition for years of service encourages and motivates such employees. Employee retention becomes a challenge for many organizations because they don’t give enough credit to loyal employees.
When employees get rewarded, they feel secure and recognized, making them stay longer. Long service awards can be a norm for many organizations. However, as per the current trend, individuals switch jobs easily for better remuneration or higher positions.
Therefore, employers and HR managers should reconsider the tenure, i.e., length of service award, to determine the deserving employees. Some of the top ways of implementing employee recognition for long service are highlighted below:
Employee Recognition for Years of Service
1. Setting Shorter Milestones
The trend of giving away employee service award gifts after 10 or 15 years is no longer relevant in today’s job market. According to research, employees belonging to the age group of 25 to 34 years tend to stay in an organization for around 2.8 years on average. However, the average is slightly higher at 4.2 years when it comes to salaried ones. Therefore, setting shorter milestones for celebrating employees’ contributions inspires them to stay longer.
For example, you can bestow long service awards after five years but before that, celebrate the shorter tenure of 2 or 3 years.
2. Communicating Better with Employees
While considering your current award policy, don’t forget to emphasize communication. Without fostering healthy communication between the management and employees, it is not possible to make them feel special.
Therefore, while giving employees longevity awards, talk about their accomplishments or describe their values to the organization. Sometimes, simply talking about how they have improved over the years as an employee is enough to channelize their energies positively.
3. Using Social Media Platforms
These days, everyone is on social media. Therefore, after presenting employee years of service awards, share a social media post regarding the event. The post must include photographs of all the employees who have received years of service awards. Along with that, you can also add a short description of the event to make it more memorable for your employees. Partnering with a skilled social media marketing agency can amplify this effect, ensuring that such significant achievements and the company’s appreciation are showcased to a broader audience, enhancing employee morale and company visibility alike.
4. Employee Engagement Through Memories
The employee recognition awards need not always be in monetary form. Neither is it a compulsion to give them a memento or certificate every time. You can also create wonderful experiences with them that stay as pleasant memories.
For example, taking all the employees to a jungle safari or taking them on a cruise party would be equally satisfying for them. They will cherish these memories and strive to re-live such moments in the future.
5. Offer Them a ‘Choice’
While giving anniversary awards for employees is a good employee retention tactic, you can sometimes offer them some rewards and ask them to choose one or two as per their wishes. It will show that you really care for your employees and think about what they need the most.
The choices could be between a cash award and a family trip plan or something that is created after analyzing their actual needs and demands.
Employee recognition tools can help you give employees the freedom to splurge themselves with what they want as a reward. But which one is the best-suited for your organization? Check out here: Comparing Bonusly Pricing and Features: Here are the Top 4 Alternatives
6. Setting Different Award Levels
Setting different award levels as per the experience and performance of the employees is also essential. For instance, you can give ‘Learning Awards’ to the employees who have completed their first year of service. Once they complete their 5-year mark, give them ‘Expert Awards’ and when they complete the 10-year mark, bestow on them ‘Asset Awards’.
Including such levels in the employee recognition policy will surely help the retention strategies of your organization.
7. A Gift that Secures their ‘Future’
Many employers provide health insurance benefits to their employees. However, if you give a wellness kit along with a higher coverage benefit as long service awards, it will mean something for them. As medical costs have increased in the recent past, giving them something that secures their future could be wise.
8. Special Events with Special Memories
It is also essential to make employees feel how well you know them. You need to touch their emotions and make them feel like a part of your family. For that, create special videos that contain the little memories or achievements of an employee during their work tenure. Include photographs from when the employee just joined and how they received their first award.
Therefore, while redefining the employee recognition for years of service strategy, don’t forget to connect with them emotionally.
9. Giving Vouchers or Gift Cards
Give gift vouchers or cards to include flexibility when it comes to giving employee awards for years of service. It gives them the flexibility of selecting their award, and associating a monetary value to an award always helps. In addition, it makes them feel that they are valued in your organization.
10. Giving a Personal Touch
Adding an employee’s name to a memento or on gifts like luxury watches will make them happy. Giving a personal touch to these gifts helps. Just giving a simple pen with the employee’s name inscribed on it would mean the world to an honest and hardworking employee. The employee recognition for years of service policy of your company should be such that it makes your employees feel valued.
