One of the challenges of any recognition program is keeping the momentum flowing as the newness of the program wears off. Here are a few fun employee recognition ideas that you can incorporate into your peer recognition program on a monthly basis or for special events.

- Have pet show and tell. Encourage employees to bring in pictures of their dogs and talk about them.

- Reward employees for using the program by awarding an extra token to those who submit a ballot for a peer.

- Have Spot pose with company leadership. These pictures will let your employees know leadership notices and supports their program.

- Encourage employees to take Spot home with them. Ask them to take a few pictures of Spot doing one of their favorite activities. Share these pictures in the office and with other Spot users on Spot’s Facebook page.

- Place Velcro on the token keeper doghouses so they can be displayed on a cubicle wall.

- Recognize multiple people at the end of a month with dog-themed giveaways, like Baudville’s paw-shaped sticky notepads.

- Take pictures of Spot in fun places and email them to all staff or post in a public place.

- Create a newsletter that shares Spot updates. Share stories on submitted ballots to give extra recognition to special individuals.

- Dress Spot up for special holidays like Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day.

Keep your recognition program up with these fun employee recognition ideas! 

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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 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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