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You probably have a number of people on your staff right now who have served your company well for 5, 10, 15, 20 or more years. That's just the kind of commitment a company needs to thrive in today's hectic business climate. Service award programs recognize that quality of loyalty and reward employees with merchandise awards that are proof positive of management's gratitude to those who have stayed with the company through the long haul. If you want your long-term employees as well as those who may have recently joined the fold to remain loyal, it's wise to start showing them exactly how much their service means to you.

A service award program isn't new - it's a business practice that's been around for years. The results it can achieve - boosted morale, employee loyalty and retention, corporate goodwill and improved productivity, among many others - are worth their weight in gold to a company. Ultimately, service award programs affect human behavior for the simple reason that they recognize service longevity and an employee's sense of commitment to the company. It's a needed psychological boost because, let's face it - we can all do with some heart-felt appreciation.

This section of our web site will answer your questions about service award programs. You'll discover why these programs have worked for years, be able to determine if you need a service award program, learn how to select awards and get valuable tips on how to put a program together for your company

Service award programs are long-range programs designed to affect the overall attitude and behavior of a company's employees. This age-old practice of rewarding employees for a good job offers many benefits.

1. Goodwill toward the company, its management, product and co-workers

2. Self esteem, company, and division performance

3. Peer approval and respect among fellow employees

4. Involvement with the company, and a sense of belonging to a "family" with shared goals and values

5. The opportunity to stand out

When employees are motivated, enthusiastic, productive and contributing their experience and knowledge to the job the return on investment is significantly increased.

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Before launching headlong into planning and promoting a service award program, you need to do a little self-investigation. Start by asking yourself the following questions, answering them with complete honesty:

1. Does the company have a systematic way of letting people know their contributions are valued?

2. Does your company publicly recognize those people who do something right, rather than those who do something wrong?

3. Has your company established one or, at most, two fundamental attributes (e.g. pride of workmanship. dedication to customer needs) to focus on-and continually reinforced goals to achieve it?

4. Does management give the impression that the company's assets are primarily its machines, products or money, rather than its people?

5. Do you encourage performance competition among workers in a way that is non-threatening?

6. Do you offer rewards that are strictly monetary (salaries, bonuses) but fail to provide symbolic, memorable awards?

7. Is management as committed to its people and their well being as they wish their employees to be toward the company and its goals?

8. Is top management visibly involved in the recognition of employee achievement at all levels?

9. Does management recognize and reward only the few top performers, and ignore the remaining 80 or 90 percent?

10. Has management tried various service award programs in the past, but given them up because they just don't seem to work?

Depending on the answers you come up with, you may now see very clearly that your company needs a service award program. The next step is determining what kind.

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The most common type of service award is the traditional length of service award. Length of service programs recognize people for their commitment to the company and can help re-institute an almost forgotten feeling in today's workplace - a sense of belonging. It's no longer realistic to wait until an employee's 25th anniversary to give them the gold watch or a mantel clock-employees who stay with you through the ups and downs, whether they've been with the company one or 25 years, deserve to be recognized and thanked for their loyalty.

Another granddaddy service program is the absenteeism reduction program, better known as an attendance program. Absenteeism - calling in on short notice to take the day off, whether the reason is legitimate or not - creates gaps in staffing and situations where costly mistakes can severely cut down on productivity and quality. It also builds resentment among employees who show up for work everyday and who may have to cover for the person who is always absent. Many companies have steered away from rewarding employees with perfect attendance records with cash and instead offer a quality merchandise award with true recognition and trophy value.

In recent years, the peer-to-peer service award program has come into vogue. These programs allow managers - and co-workers - to identify and reward colleagues who have gone the extra mile. Those recognized are "caught in the act" of doing something right or demonstrating a new philosophy management has initiated. Most often, awards are given on the spot, so there's no delay in recognition, a most important aspect of a service award program.

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Awards should be arranged in a hierarchy of value and prestige and bear some relationship from one award level to the next. The kinds of awards you select should be those your employees wouldn't ordinarily use their discretionary income to buy for themselves. That is one of the most important reasons that care and consideration has to be put into the selection of merchandise.

Tips for Selecting Awards - Although your personal tastes may be great, avoid selecting awards based solely on them.

- Select awards that are appropriate for the recipient and that are more prestigious as service longevity increases.

- Select merchandise with trusted, brand name recognition and warranties.

- Customize your awards to reflect the company's personal interest in the employee.

- For length of service awards, set truly milestone achievements: 5,10, 15, 20 and 25 or more years of employment. It is more common now, however, to award for the first anniversary, letting employees know early on that management recognizes them and is pleased they've become part of the organization and expects them to be around for a long, long time.

- Seek out the advice of an experienced award distributor. They can offer expertise in selecting awards and promotional materials needed to enhance your program. Plus, they will offer awards at below retail cost.

- For ongoing programs, merchandise should have continuity.

- Choose awards that can be delivered within a reasonable time frame. Quick turnaround time ensures participants remember they are being rewarded for a particular achievement.

The Benefits of Merchandise Awards - There's always something to please everyone and to suit all lifestyles

- Merchandise has trophy value

- It's available in an array of price points, suitable for all levels of service awards

- Recipients don't have to travel or rearrange their work schedules to receive their award

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Service award winners deserve their moment in the spotlight. Show them, immediately and with style, just how grateful you are for their hard work and dedication. Here are some ideas:

- Create excitement in the office with an announcement as soon as the service award recipients have been determined. Schedule a formal awards presentation. If your budget is small, you can hold your awards program in a cafeteria or a conference room with refreshments. Awards should be personally presented by the president or someone in upper management in front of peers, which will generate self-pride in employees. If your budget is larger, go all out with a huge awards ceremony and banquet dinner for those being recognized, their spouses and fellow employees.

- Be sure to recognize service award recipients with a speech that lets colleagues and spouses know exactly what they did to earn their award. The speech should tie in with the program's objectives and how the individuals achieved specific goals.

- If the awards are to be personally presented, wrap them with class: select plain but elegant paper and bows, tasteful logos and always include a handwritten thank you note.

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Logotown can supply you with everything you need to produce a "Service Award Booklet." Each employee should have a copy. You might also consider creating your own in-house communications portfolio which should include, at the very least, these basic pieces:

- An announcement piece that clearly explains management's philosophy regarding employee recognition and service awards. It should also include the program's objectives, length, measurement system and the attractive merchandise awards that will be given.

- From time to time throughout the program, give employees a pat on the back through promotional mailings or notes expressing gratitude for their hard work.

- Standings bulletins update participants' progress (as in an attendance or safety program) and should be sent out frequently.

- At the end of the program, be sure to send a congratulation mailer celebrating a milestone anniversary or the achievement of a particular goal.

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A non-sales service award program still requires a number of tasks basic to any type of motivational program. You'll have to:

- Set appropriate objectives that tie in with the award program.

- Target your audience. Find out how each person is involved in day-to-day operations. How long have they been with the company? Try to assess how much you can realistically expect from them based on their level of involvement. The answers should show you exactly who needs to be motivated, recognized and rewarded.

- Decide what type of service award program makes sense for the group. You may even want to tie a number of service award programs under one umbrella. For example, you can set up an overall corporate program that recognizes and rewards length of service anniversaries, perfect attendance and on the-job safety.

- Determine your budget, which encompasses all administrative costs for the program as well as the awards. The following guidelines, which are variable, have proven reliable through the years:

- Administration: Between 5 and 15 percent of the budget is usually allocated to administration, which includes any type of database maintenance, points and award tracking, special mailings and preparing management reports.

- Promotion: About 20 percent is spent on promoting a service award program, whether on paper or electronically. Don't skimp here - make a splash with effective communications. You want employees to know they will be recognized and rewarded for their service and efforts.

- Awards: The majority of your budget fund - between 70 and 75 percent - should be spent on the awards as well as celebration awards banquets or other special events.

- Training: The remainder of the budget should be used for special training employees who may need to improve job performance.

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Congratulations to you and your service award recipients. If you've planned your program well, selected great merchandise awards and recognized your employees publicly for achieving their goals, your program is certain to have been a raving success for everyone. Now take the final step - evaluating the program. This important analysis will tell you exactly how successful your service award program was and justify to management the importance of recognizing those who count most-the employees who help your company rise to the top year after year.

Speak with the recipients personally to find out how they feel about the program: Was it clearly communicated? Were the goals achievable? If not, how should goals be adjusted in the future? Most importantly; ask them how they feel about the amount of recognition they received and if the rewards justified their efforts.

Ask the program administrators if they encountered any problems running the program and what elements they thought were successful.

Then consider all the tangible and intangible aspects of the program. Ask yourself such questions as:

- Was the right target audience(s) selected for this service award program?

- Did the program and its awards meet or exceed the participants' expectations?

- Which awards were popular with recipients?

- Were there any unexpected fringe benefits, such as renewed enthusiasm or an increase in goodwill gestures?

- Is there anything you'd do different next time around? Are there different objectives you would include?

- Review separately the program's components: the budget, the measurement system, the awards, promotion and the administration. See what worked and what didn't. Fine-tuning each step will only make each succeeding year's service award program better and even more meaningful.

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When it comes to selecting the perfect award for your service award program, consider a Bulova timepiece. Watches and clocks have been traditionally recognized as excellent awards because of their visibility, usefulness and beauty. Whether traditional in style or fashionably high-tech, watches and clocks are available in a wide range of price points to suit all budgets.

Logotown is proud to be a distributor of fine Bulova timepieces. Please e-mail us for more information.

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