58% of American employees reported employee recognition as a driving factor between their motivation and tenure at their current workplaces. Job openings and the number of people quitting their jobs are hitting record highs. And it’s no longer just due to Covid, employees want companies to appreciate the hard hours they put in.
Teams with 20% more recognition reported 59% fewer turnovers than those who did not make the effort to recognize employees. There is no better way to show your employees how much they mean to you than with an annual employee awards ceremony.
Awards ceremony planning is a fun and simple experience, but it should be well-planned in order to make the most of the time. Below we share everything you need to know about planning an awards ceremony.
Determine Your Recognitions
The best part about awards ceremony planning is there are no rules to follow. Everything about the event can be extremely unique to your company and team. You can follow a suggestion of general employee superlatives and milestone benchmarks, or you can create your own scale of success and award employees based on it.
The important part is that you recognize those who are really working hard and have some fun.
Some ideas of classic recognitions are:
- Highest sales revenue
- Most clients
- Longest tenure
Other ideas of unconventional employee recognitions include:
- Most likely to work from home
- Most determined
- Most likely to re-read the email seven times
Determining your recognitions beforehand will help you decide on other factors like the award count, time, and guest lists.
Create a Guest List
Once you know who you’ll be recognizing, it’s important to determine your budget and guest list. These two will go hand in hand.
Do you want this to be a regional celebration? Or a nationwide celebration? How many guests can each honoree bring?
These are all things to consider. Once you have your guest list you can estimate how many people will be at your awards ceremony and to whom the invitations will be sent.
Select a Date, Time, and Venue
This is really important to solidify before sending out the invitations. You can hold your awards ceremony during the day or night at The Madison!
Reach out well in advance to make sure you get the date and time you want, but have some backup dates in case the venue is booked.
Onboard an Event Planner
All-inclusive venues like The Madison remove the stress of finding someone to take over event planning. The Madison provides an event coordinator to help with all aspects of planning.
This is really important because you’ll still have all of your regular work responsibilities to tend to. A designated event planner’s job is to respond to any emergencies and troubleshoot any technical issues. They’ll act as the liaison between you and all aspects of your event.
Decide on a Theme
In this case, your theme is an employee award ceremony, but you can get really creative with what that means. You can do a black-tie awards ceremony.
But you can also do award ceremonies inspired by the Olympics and hand out metals and sweatbands. There is no wrong answer when it comes to the theme.
Purchase Decor and Party Favors
Once you have your theme, that will guide your hand in what kind of decor to use. The decor is what brings the theme to life. With an all-inclusive venue and event coordinator like at The Madison, you don’t have to worry about purchasing the decor supplies.
The team will bring your vision to life. Party favors are a great way to give everyone some memorabilia from the celebration. You can purchase party favors separately and even look into personalized favors to show each employee just how special they are to your organization.
Notify Guests of the Suggested Attire
Everyone loves a good excuse to dress up outside of the usual work attire. There are so many attire ideas and they can really go hand in hand with the theme you decide. Below are some attire ideas to inspire your team and match a theme:
- Black-tie
- Color theme
- Season theme
- Character dress up
- Flannel theme
- Company colors
- Decades theme
- Vacation
Make sure to make a note in your invitations of the suggested or required attire so employees know how they are expected to dress up for the event.
Create an Award Ceremony Program
Having awards ceremony plans is essential to a seamless flow of events. Like with any event things can get delayed and technical issues happen. Having a planned flow of transitions will make it easier for the organizing staff to handle these hiccups.
An itinerary is also useful to guests who want to understand what will be expected of them and how long certain segments will last. This just makes things easier if people need to excuse themselves for a minute.
Decide on the Menu and Entertainment
It’s not a party without some delicious food. Spend some time brainstormig awards ceremony ideas for the menu. The food items you choose will impact your overall spending too.
Make sure to be sensitive to dietary restrictions like vegan, vegetarian, halal, kosher, and any food intolerances or allergies. A safe bet is to always have a vegan gluten-free option and then a meat or fish option. Most venues will let you sample the food before the event, so you’ll be able to tell just how tasty everything is!
Entertainment is also an important part of the night. You can hire live performers or create some interactive entertainment like games and a photo booth.
Hire a Photographer
You’ll want to capture this experience. A photographer will not only benefit everyone by getting the event on digital to look back upon. But a photographer will also give you content that you can use to promote your organization.
Job seekers who see how invested you are in employee recognition will be more likely to apply. They’ll get excited about your annual celebration.
Determine Your Reward Form
It wouldn’t be an awards ceremony without awards! How you recognize employees is completely up to you.
You can do a tangible award like a trophy or plaque. Your reward can also come in the form of PTO, a raise, or a newsletter highlight on that staff member. There are no rules for how to plan an awards event.
Planning an Awards Ceremony Is Easy at the Madison!
Awards ceremony planning is a fun experience. You get to throw your team a party and also improve employee camaraderie and satisfaction in the process.
The Madison Event Center is ready to help you with all aspects of planning your next employee awards ceremony. Schedule a tour today to celebrate tomorrow!