Does your company have a years-of-service recognition program in place? Many employers overlook the importance of recognizing dedicated workers who’ve invested X amount of years into their company. Instead, they assume cutting a paycheck to their workers is enough to keep their workforce satisfied. But studies have shown that workers respond more to recognition/appreciation than monetary compensation.

What Is Years-of-Service Recognition?

So, what exactly is a years-of-service recognition program? As the name suggests, it’s any program in which workers are recognized for staying with the company for a given period of time. This may be 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, etc. A worker who’s been with the company for 5 years, for instance, would have “5 years of service,” at which point the employer could reward him or her with a personalized plaque or trophy as a way of saying thanks.

Benefits of recognizing employees for years of service include the following:

• Promotes an all-around positive work environment by boosting worker morale.
• Reduces employe turnover rates (which subsequently lowers recruitment costs).
• Encourages other employees to stay at the company rather than look for job opportunities elsewhere.
• Years-of-service recognition can boost productivity.
• Let’s face it, employee recognition is a fun way to break up the workday!

Of course, these are just a few of the many benefits of recognizing employees for years of service. You’ll likely find dozens of other ‘perks’ once you launch your own years-of-service recognition program.

Years-of-Service Recognition Tips

To make the most of your company’s years-of-service recognition program, it’s recommended that you choose memorable, meaningful rewards. Giving an employee a company-branded t-short for their 10-year anniversary probably isn’t going to have much of an effect on him or her. On the other hand, rewarding this same employee with a personalized crystal trophy will encourage them to stay.

Another helpful tip is to create several different milestones for employees. If you only recognize employees for reaching 10 years of service, it’s not going to have a positive impact on the workforce as a whole. Break up your years-of-service recognition program to include 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 and other increments. This gives new workers a reasonable goal to try and achieve while still giving long-standing workers future goals as well.