We have the “Top Gun” award, which goes to the top salesperson.  The “Wingman” award which is a vote of the sales team for who has helped them the most in getting their deals done.

We have a number of innovation awards to recognize the continuous innovation within the company.  This award has categories for both product innovation and internal business innovation.  There are a lot of nominations for all the categories included in this area.  Some winners have consistent habits of innovation, some a “stroke of genius” style. They are all celebrated here.  We have had awards around our Workforce Planning and Analytics tool.  Recognition for the design of the Talent Pipeline tracking for talent mobility within InSight.  Innovation regarding methods to collect and communicate customer’s requests have been recognized a few times.

Many years ago we added a “Stars” award.  This is in recognition of the employee which receives the most ‘Stars’ from their co-workers for helping outside of their normal day-to-day tasks.  This program is fully peer oriented and is recognized each and every month with lots of praise and ‘ata boys’.  A Platinum star is awarded for activities that directly save the company money.

Last year, we added a “Game Changer” award.  This was in recognition of the individual(s) that bring something to the table that really changes the game for Aquire.  This could be something that changes our mindsets.  It could be from the genius of a new process that sends Aquire into a new market or a new way of doing things.

Our “InTune with the Customer” award is given to the employee(s) with the best connection to our customers.  It centers around listening and learning from our customer base and providing that knowledge back to Aquire, so that we can develop great products and services that our customers need.

We believe that you are going to get results around what you measure (and in this case measurement also includes recognition).  We use this mantra with clients so much when we approach their workforce analytics.  We know it works, because these awards recognize the practices we want to encourage in the organization.  By measuring and acknowledging innovation, team work, risk taking and strong sales numbers, we get these results.  Layer this on top of the regular recognition and discussion regarding customer service and you get a well engaged workforce and one of the “Best Places to Work” environments.  You get Aquire.

It is going to be another exciting awards ceremony!

Cheers,

Lois

Our stars program is very simple. When an employee wants to give a visible thank you to an employee, they submit a “Star Award” to the Star Coordinator, explaining how the individual went out of their way to help, or they produced exemplary work. There are a lot of stars flying around this place. Last month some teammates did an amazing job on a workforce planning RFP (Request for Proposal). The sales rep for whom they managed it sent them each Stars. Another employee created some beautiful custom succession planning org charts for a customer that looked great in their proof of concept for their CEO. The client manager gave that product support person a Star. Another employee found thousands of dollars in savings for the company. Their manager gave them a Gold Star, and the Executive Team saw the recognition and gave them a bonus.

The Stars show up in their personnel file, as well as an icon on the corporate organizational chart. Each month the employee who was awarded the most stars is recognized at the monthly luncheon. Everyone who gets a star is given a gasoline gift card. The annual winner of the most stars also receives recognition and a gift at the annual meeting. Gifts have ranged from a day at a spa to tickets to a Cowboys football game. So, even though there are very minor expenses associated with the recognition, in general the program is free. The reward for the employee is often priceless. It is a magnifier for the verbal thank you they get when they deliver something to a co-worker. It can be amazingly effective.

Recognition is important; recognition from your peers is really encouraging and very much appreciated. I would like to hear about programs for Peer Recognition that you utilize and how you have made it visible.

Cheers,
Lois