Employee Service Awards

Evolution of a Years of Service Program

The war for talent is here and will continue on until workers close the gap on the skills they currently have, with what the best jobs demand. With that in mind, it has become very clear that organizations have to dedicate resources to increase employee retention and employee engagement. The cost is just too high to not do anything as your best talent packs up and moves on to organizations that will show them the love. An employee service awards program, when done right, is an easy want to increase the engagement that companies need.

Whether you call it a service award program, service milestone award program, length of service award program or employee anniversary program, they all are based on the simple premise of recognizing employees on their work anniversary or corporate birthday. In and of itself they are basic, simple programs that check the box for most companies who can say – we offer an employee service award program.

What worked yesterday does not work today when crafting your employee service award program. Traditionally, employee service awards were awarded starting at 5 years of service, and every 5 years thereafter.  Great companies, are starting employee recognition on day 1, the employee’s corporate birthday, through onboarding recognition, followed up by formal recognition at 6 months, 1 year, and 2 years. This doesn’t mean that a significant amount of budget dollars is needed, as the public and social act of recognition is what will have the highest impact.  During these early years of recognition, it is imperative to let younger tenured employees know that “we value you now”, and want to say thank you early and often.