Having great employees is something to celebrate. They are consistent, always act in your business’s best interest, and are incredibly loyal. These employees deserve your appreciation. If you haven’t started an Employee of the month program yet, it just might be time to start.

There are a number of reasons to start recognizing employees, as it can help improve retention and motivate your employees to improve their skills in the areas that the employee of the month typically excels in. There is even an official day dedicated to employee appreciation, which falls on March 2nd this year. But beyond that, creating a more formal employee appreciation program, complete with an employee of the month certificate, is certainly worth a try.

Today we’re going to go over how you can easily design an employee of the month certificate that shows how much you care. In addition, we’ll discuss some ways you can celebrate your star employee.

Personalizing the Experience

When crowning a member of your team “employee of the month” you’ll need to be very specific about what they did to earn the title. All of your other employees are watching in this moment and they may aspire to gain the title in the future. Did your employee of the month make the most sales? Did they gain the most positive feedback from customers? Did they do the right thing, even when no one was watching? There’s an endless list of ways to measure who becomes the employee of the month, but it’s key to make it clear that you have been taking notice of all the ways your employees have gone above and beyond for your business. Also, make sure you have strict criteria to keep the selection process fair.

Creating the Certificate

One of my favorite tools for creating employee of the month certificates is Canva. This online tool has a number of templates to choose from, so you can pick one, customize to create your own, or even change the theme each month to match with employee interests. If you prefer to keep it simple, Microsoft Word also offers numerous templates that you can download and type your employee’s information right into. Feeling creative? You can create your own template in Adobe Spark, even if you don’t come from a design background.

How to Reward Your Employee of the Month

Celebrating your employee of the month should go beyond a simple ceremony where you put your appreciation into words with a speech and conclude with an employee of the month certificate. While this recognition is great, so is going the extra mile to thank your employees. What you can offer depends on what size business you run, revenue, and more, but there’s a way to celebrate your employees no matter what your budget is.

One way to do this is through time off or a cash bonus. It won’t cost your business much to offer a few hours or even an entire paid day off. Maybe there’s a new restaurant in town that your staff has been talking about. A gift card to that restaurant could be a nice gesture as well. If you have a close-knit staff and understand what type of gift each employee would want, feel free to tailor it to individual interests. Otherwise, find common ground and even tell employees in advance what the prize is that month to encourage everyone to strive to win at the end of the month.

The Bottom Line

The goal of an employee of the month program is to show how much you appreciate your employees. Your certificate and way of celebrating your employees doesn’t have to be grand or cost a lot of money. It just has to be genuine. You may already be thanking employees informally when they exceed your expectations. Starting an employee of the month program is a way to formalize it and share their success with the entire team.

Do you have any employee of the month success stories to share? Feel free to leave a comment with advice for other businesses that want to start off their program on the right foot.
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