The Spot On Peer Recognition Program has been a huge success since it launched in July 2009! Over 250 peer recognition programs have been sold, and Spot has traveled the world with his favorite Baudvillians, telling others about his program.

We want to continue to share Spot’s awesomeness, so we created a video that puts him in the spotlight. The video gives a brief overview of how the peer recognition program works and showcases all the products that arrive with Spot.

We hope you’ll find this video helpful whether you’re currently using Spot or just investigating peer recognition program solutions. If you’re already using the Spot On program, you can share this video with a manager or supervisor to help him or her better understand your program. Or use the video to brag to other managers about the great things your team is doing. If you’re looking for a peer recognition program, this video has all the details you need! It’s a great tool to use when getting manager buy-in and support.

If you're having difficulty viewing the video, you can also watch it on Baudville's website, YouTube or Spot's Facebook page. 

When we created the Spot On Recognition Program, we made sure it came with everything you needed to start recognizing peers right away. But we don’t stop there. We’re dedicated to helping you motivate, engage and retain your workforce, so we’ve added extra tools in the Downloads section of the Spot On website to complement your program.

Recognition programs often start off to a bang when the program is new and exciting to employees. However, as time goes on that excitement can wane. It’s important to continually add fresh ideas and activities to maintain program momentum. For ideas on how to keep your peer-to-peer recognition program thriving, visit the Baudville blog for an article on the subject.
 
When you register on the Spot On website, you receive access to several exclusive downloads that add interest to your program and assist in communications. New to the Spot On website are printable certificates. We created four different certificate options, and all you have to do is print, write in the recipient’s name and present. Use certificates to pass out praise to employees who don’t earn the top Spot award, but have a high level of participation or are a close runner-up.

You’ll also find special Spot On ecards to use as part of your program communications, internal flyers to help spread news about Spot, extra user guides and clip art. All of these resources are available for free when you register to use the website.

We hope you find these resources valuable, and we know the only more valuable is to learn how other Spot On program users are using them. So tell us how it’s going! Post a comment on the blog or add a story to our Facebook page. We know these handy downloads will help with you program, but we know the best advice comes from peers who are using the same program as you.

 

 

One of the new Spot On certificate downloads.

Spot has become quite the icon around Baudville. Not only is he hard at work in the Sales Suite, but he's also one of the best traveled members of the Baudville team. We've been having fun taking pictures of Spot in all his travels: Mall of America, Florida, New Orleans, and lately Italy! The pictures of traveling Spot are fun for the whole team and add a little extra positive mojo to our day.

The traveling Spot is a great way to add some fun and interest to your peer recognition program, too. In the Spot On Recognition Program, an employee is awarded Spot for meeting certain program criteria, such as receiving the most tokens or ballots over a certain period of time. While Spot is in the employee's possession, encourage him or her to take Spot home and snap a few pictures of Spot with the family dog, Spot watching the big game or Spot participating in a favorite weekend hobby. Post the pictures internally and on Spot On's Facebook page.

The traveling Spot will help your employees to grow closer as a team as they learn more about their peers. Peer recognition is about encouraging behaviors and building relationships. When you add this interactive element to your recognition program, you'll quickly see the positive impact it can have!

Spot the Gladiator in Italy!!!

Spot has been running successfully in the Sales Suite at Baudville, and it’s thanks to thorough peer training. Instead of having our staff sit in a conference room and listen to a manager talk at them, we thought a peer-to-peer training session would be perfect to get our peer-to-peer recognition program off the ground.

I purposely paired people who did not usually work together to help build that team atmosphere and made a schedule for our staff. Each employee was assigned a 30 minute interval: the first 15 minutes, an employee was trained on the program; the second 15 minutes they trained a peer. The training was well received by employees. People love to interact and learn on their own in small groups, and it's less intimidating than a large group.

We set up the training area and dubbed it the "Dog House." We displayed all of the Spot On products, included a training checklist and made sure the computer was connected to spotonbaudville.com. We expected our employees to have lots of great ideas for Spot during the training, so they were asked to write down all their ideas. We'll share those ideas soon!

A peer-to-peer recognition program can only be successful when all the participating employees understand the who, what, why and how. Whether you choose to follow our peer-to-peer training model or create your own, make sure you answer these questions for flawless program implementation!

Who can I recognize?

What do I recognize with?

Why are we recognizing peers?

How do I do effective recognition?

The Spot On Dog House Training Area

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Brenda and Cori are co-authors of the Spot On blog. They have nearly 10 combined years at Baudville! Brenda is the Customer Service Supervisor at Baudville and is using the Spot On peer recognition program with her team. Cori is a Certified Recognition Professional and also contributes her recognition expertise to the Baudville blog and Twitter.

As part of the Spot On peer recognition program, we encourage Spot program users from around the world to share their stories, advice and pictures here on the blog and Spot's Facebook page. We got our first feedback this week! Check out how Meredith is preparing to use the program this fall with her staff at College of St. Elizabeth. To share your stories, email our Spot On Specialist, Mary Jo, at spoton@baudville.com or post them directly to the Spot on Facebook page.

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Dear Mary Jo,
Thanks for your "Spot On" support. For years my Residence Life Staff (that's right, higher education loves Baudville, too!) had been using a similar recognition technique utilizing a stuffed animal named "Lucky."

At each staff meeting we would go around the room and tell everyone one "High" and one "Low" for the month. Then someone would receive "Lucky" who needed an extra boost. We started to see that the same people kept receiving "Lucky" and some of our staff members who really needed a boost or who deserved a shout out were not receiving recognition. When I saw "Spot On" I jumped at the chance to change things up a bit. When "he" was on back order I was disappointed but I could see how everyone wanted one. Despite being on back order, Spot On arrived quickly and now I can officially start the year off right focusing on positive attitude and employee recognition.

I'm already utilizing the link you sent and I talk up Baudville to everyone outside of my department (my department is already reaping the benefits of the "Attitude is Everything" package and recognition cards!). My staff is excited for the "Spot On" program and I know we'll be utilizing Baudville in the future. I'm already a fan on Facebook, too! Keep up the great job of encouraging employee recognition!

Meredith Beebe, Director of Residence Life
College of St. Elizabeth
Morristown, NJ

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Spot is IN THE HOUSE!
 
Spot officially entered the Baudville Sales Suite yesterday, and he left his paw prints all over! We had a kick off event to start the Spot On recognition program, inform employees about the program, and get everyone excited. Of course, we did a few special things to make the kick off a fun and motivating event.

Starting a recognition program with a kick off event is a great way to get staff informed about the program and excited to use it. We used the event as an educational opportunity to improve team building and have fun together as a group. We incorporated our training into the event, and I’ll write more about that next week.
 
We first gave each employee an introductory hand-out with information about the program. It was really easy to create with the downloads section on spotonbaudville.com. The pre-designed format made it easy to place our information and print off copies for everyone with the Spot On theme artwork.
 
Because you can’t have an event at Baudville without delicious food and snacks, we brought in a few treats for our staff. Our Spot On Specialist, Mary Jo, made a large batch of Puppy Chow for the entire team to enjoy. If you’re not familiar with this treat, you are missing out! We highly recommend making it for your kick off event, and we’ve posted the recipe below. 

Since the Spot On recognition is all about rewarding positive behaviors, we gave small bags of bone-shaped candy to employees once they completed their training (more about training coming soon!).  Because our employees are working with Baudville products everyday, we wanted to make our Spot On program extra special and unique. We customized our Spot dog, so he barks when you push his ear. It’s already a big hit with the employees!

We’ve posted more pictures about the Baudville sales suite kick off on our Facebook page. What are you doing for your Spot On recognition program kick off event? Let us know! Post a comment on the blog or Facebook! Send us pictures and we’ll add them to our photo albums. We can’t wait to see what Spot does!

Our Spot On Specialist, Mary Jo, serves  up some delicious Puppy Chow!

Puppy Chow
Ingredients:
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup butter
1 cup chocolate chips
½ tsp. vanilla
9 cups Chex cereal in the flavor of your choice
1 ½ cups powdered sugar

Instructions:
Combine peanut butter, butter and chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for one minute then stir to blend all ingredients thoroughly. Add vanilla and mix well.
Place the 9 cups cereal in a very large bowl. Pour the peanut butter-chocolate mixture over the cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag.
Add powdered sugar. Seal bag and shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool.

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Brenda has been a Baudvillian (a.k.a. Baudville employee) for over seven years and is currently the Customer Service Supervisor at Baudville. She loves spending time with her overweight dachshund, Teddy Bear, and Spot. She regularly blogs about her experience implementing the Spot On recognition program in the Baudville sales suite.

 

Spot On is a new employee recognition program created by Baudville. The program is centered around peer recognition, and requires a high level of involvement from the entire team. The day-to-day recognition strategy and team involvement will have a greater impact on your culture than other recognition programs that only allow managers to recognize once a month or less.

In addition to the complete recognition program, we're dedicated to bringing you resources to help your recognition program be a continual success. This blog will bring you ideas to energize your team about Spot, different Spot applications and case studies of Spot in action.

We didn't just create Spot On, we're also using it. Our Sales Suite is launch its own Spot On program next week. Continue to check Spot's blog for updates about the program, its challenges, successes and new ideas. And don't hesitate to share a few of your own ideas! Here are a few ways to get involved with other Spot users:

• Become a fan on Facebook to share your pictures of Spot and follow Spot on his travels!
• Need help setting up your program? Looking for some ideas? Want to share a best practice? Email our Spot On expert at spoton@baudville.com.
• Let us know what you think right away! Post a comment on this blog. We'll respond to every comment we receive.