One of the fun elements of the Spot On Peer Recognition Program is the save and redeem rewards. The save and redeem part of your program gives all employees the opportunity to earn rewards. Although Spot travels from employee to employee, not everyone will earn Spot as their trophy. Instead, the save and redeem part of the program recognizes each individual’s accomplishments, both big and small. 

The key to an exciting save and redeem reward program are great prizes. When we were using the Spot On program in the sales suite, our employees saved their tokens to earn Stupendous tote bags. It was a popular reward! We also recommend including Spot gifts in your program like the coffee mug, key chain or Character Pin. These themed rewards help maintain momentum and enthusiasm around Spot. You may also want to include gift cards for popular lunch locations or small snacks to appeal to your more practical employees.

If budgets are tight, you can include popular employee rewards that have little or no cost. Casual days are one of the most popular rewards around Baudville. They don’t cost us anything, but the employees always feel like they’re getting a special treat! A few extra minutes at lunch or leaving a little early are coveted awards, too. 

Tip: Add new rewards to your save and redeem program on a regular basis to keep employees interested and motivated to earn recognition from their peers.

Once you’ve identified what rewards to include in your program, create a structure that outlines how many tokens each gift will cost. By communicating this ahead of time, employees will establish personal goals to help them earn specific rewards. For instance, at Baudville we gave each token a $1 value, so the Stupendous tote bag cost employees 10 tokens. Create rewards available at various values - both high and low - so employees feel the rewards are achievable. 

Tip: To avoid a lot of unnecessary administrative work collecting and distributing rewards, limit token shopping to one day a week. And keep a small inventory of all your rewards on hand so you can quickly fulfill reward requests!

Now your save and redeem program is ready to go!

These little tokens can make a big impact on your peer recognition program! 

How are you using the save and redeem element of the Spot On Program? What are the most popular rewards with employees? 

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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.

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. 

The month of December is a popular time of year for company employee holiday parties and formal recognition award ceremonies. How does your peer-to-peer Spot On recognition program fit in? You can honor the participants and key contributors of your program during the holidays by creating your own Spot awards.

The key to peer-to-peer recognition program longevity and momentum is keeping the program interesting and exciting. Activities and celebrations are a great way to keep your team pumped up about Spot. Your award ceremony also serves as positive reinforcement of your employees’ participation and will encourage and motivate them to keep recognizing one another into the New Year.

For year-end, host a small award ceremony in the office to recognize key program participants. You can create your own awards that best fit your culture and team. Here are a few of our suggestions:

Nominator Award for the individual who has completed the most ballots.

Top Dog Award for the employee who has received the most notes or tokens from peers.

Sure & Steady Award for the individual who consistently recognized peers week after week.

Star Trainer Award for an employee who trained others to use the program.

Create a Participant Award for everyone who participates in the Spot On program with our free downloadable award certificates.

Celebrate your Spot award ceremony by creating award certificates and giving the winners a Spot On gift, like a key chain, coffee mug or Character Pin. The gifts are all less than $10 each and the certificates are free, so you can afford to go wild with recognition!

What other awards can you think of? Tell us how you’re celebrating the Spot On program this month on the Spot On Facebook page.

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.

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.