Employee Award Ceremony Planning Guide
Appreciation of employees is like a domino effect for your company. Happy employees are synonymous with a happy corporate organization and what better way to do it than throwing an employee award ceremony? Allocate some money for the event, find a venue and party rentals, and plan the event this way:
The Recognitions
First things first, you need to figure out what types of awards you’ll be giving away to your employees. The categories will be named based on things each employee does effortlessly and is a great contribution to your organization.
As an owner of a company, you must tune into this fully, because you want to be able to award the employees based on their skills and strength. This is why making the recognitions and then fitting different employees into them is vital. You can go for categories like the team player, an employee of the month/year, the most strategic employee, the sales attractor, and the list goes on.
You can even custom-create your categories based on the unique nature of each role. The categories shouldn’t be too bland or generic. They need to resonate with the employee and the part they played in achieving said award. So, go to the drawing board and have different departments help you out as well, because you’re going to need a lot of ideas.
The Venue
Now that the basic thing is covered, it’s time to think about the venue of the ceremony. Whether you want to throw the party in your office or want to go all-out and have it hosted in a banquet or restaurant is up to you.
It’s better if you go for the latter because it’s a more chill and distinct option, rather than doing it half-heartedly during the office lunch break. Come on, you’re more creative than that! The employees represent the biggest chunk of your organization and you need to celebrate them specially.
The Budget
This is also something that needs to be taken care of because the team recognition ceremony will be financed by the company management. This is not the time to ignore tracking your expenses, so try to be as vigilant as possible. You want to make a budget and consider all of the expenses, whether it’s the venue, food, décor, entertainment, or even the awards.
Once you get a rough estimate of the budget, you can assign the team to get started on the preparations. It’s better if you allocate a budget that’s not either too high or too low, because you want to maintain the quality, but don’t want to leave your pockets empty.
The Awards
Once you have the recognitions in mind, it’s time to think about how you want the awards to look. You can go for traditional plaques, made out of wood or acrylic, and the recognition is embossed on them, or you can also do thank-you gifts, hampers, and packages.
Alternatively, you can also do a customized gift from the office that has a coffee mug, a branded laptop sleeve and bag, and even a gadget or two like a smartwatch or an old-school pager. Personalized gifts are the best because employees can use them and they’ll be reminded of their recognition.
The Overall Ambiance
If you’re going for a more fancy and formal award ceremony, then everything should exude a similar vibe. You need to add accents to the ambiance in the venue, as well as the entertainment and food.
The ambiance is something that a lot of companies can forget about and they tend to go with a “whatever” attitude. You need to be passionate about it, because the more you put your heart and soul into planning something special for the employees, the greater the effect will be.
Have A Guest List
This one is a no-brainer, but you need to prepare a guest list to get a headcount of the people attending. For all of the employees and management, there needs to be an invitation for two, in case they want to bring their significant other to this special event.
Also, you’re going to have to invite key guests who could help you in climbing the network ladder. Having a guest list will give you an approximate number of people coming to the award ceremony and you can use this number as a reference for booking the venue and even deciding on the menu.
Hire An Event Planner
Award ceremonies, even though they can be planned by your creative team, need that extra kick of perfection and this is why you need to seriously consider hiring an event planner for the event.
An event planner is a master at their job and they can take an event idea and turn it into reality. They are also great to hire if you don’t have the time to plan the award ceremony, but still want something epic, so having a pair of helping hands is good.
Theme Or No Theme?
Award ceremonies can also have themes. If you want to go for a more formal theme, then a black-tie event is perfect. However, there are tons of ideas when it comes to award ceremony themes that will not only serve the purpose but they will be fun and quirky at the same time.
You can go for a hall of fame theme, a business casual theme that’s more chill and laid-back and you can even opt for color themes, and those work wonders because they’re extremely versatile and easy to work with. Since gold is the color of victory and success, it’s the perfect hue to match with black and the whole ceremony will be transformed into an epic gold rush. Once chosen a theme and style, communicate it with the planner and tent rentals Damascus MD.
The Menu
You can’t forget about the most important part of any event and that’s food! Any party or ceremony without food seems almost boring, so you’ll need to entice everybody’s taste buds because you know what they say: The way to an employee’s heart is through their stomach.
If it’s a ceremony being hosted in the evening, then you’re going to have to cater the food towards dinner and include some tantalizing options that will make everyone go back for second and third helpings. You also need to include refreshments and beverages and don’t even think about skipping dessert.
Dress Code
Lastly, the ceremony dress code is also important to mention, especially in the invitation. A lot of employees have horror stories about not knowing the dress code and how they showed up in formal attire when the event called for business casual.
So, do your employees and guests a favor and mention the dress code and even include the theme, if there’s any. This is going to be one less thing guests will need to fret about. So, play the part of a supporting company manager.
Conclusion
There you have it! An employee award ceremony is a wonderful way of not only celebrating the hardworking people in your company, but it’s also a nice, relieving get-together that’s perfect for networking. So, when are you planning one for your employees? If you do, involve your team and corporate tents rental Frederick from the beginning.
Next PagePrevious Page