1. Making employee recognition fun and wacky can enhance its effectiveness, keeping employees motivated and happy for longer.
2. Creative ideas, such as using catchy award titles, giving fun or informal awards, and organizing fun-filled award presentations, can make the recognition process more exciting and memorable.
3. Fun awards can recognize employees’ unique personality traits, hobbies, or habits, contributing to a positive and informal workplace atmosphere.
4. Implementing these fun and wacky ideas can significantly enhance the recognition program, creating a delightful employee experience.
While most organizations have employee recognition programs, they become plain and dull over time. Organizations should consider making employee recognition fun and engaging, making it much more exciting and memorable for employees.
The primary objective of employee recognition is to enhance employees’ happiness and satisfaction.
Encourages them to be more productive. However, recognition in a dull way can reduce its effectiveness.
Hence, by adding a fun element to the entire process, organizations can make sure that the event remains etched in the memory of the employees for a long time.
So they can feel happy and motivated when reminiscing about the event. It keeps them motivated for a longer time.
Making employee recognition wacky and fun can provide better results than a plain employee recognition program.
Moreover, funny recognition of employees is often simpler and provides them with yet another opportunity to share a laugh with coworkers.
So, here are a few practical ideas that can help organizations make the process of employee recognition more interesting
Using catchy titles to recognize employees can make the process more exciting and enjoyable.
But coming up with appropriate titles might require some research and creativity.
Catchy award titles can make the whole experience of being recognized truly memorable and enthralling for the employees.
Here are a few exciting award titles:
1. Top Gun Award
2. Wow Award
3. Rockstar Award
4. Legend at Work
5. Big Boss Award
You can also find more such ideas for exciting and catchy award names in the articles below:
Creative and Innovative Award Names for Employee Recognition (Part 1)
Innovative Award Names for Employee Recognition (Part 2)
Fun Awards are a way to appreciate and recognize co-workers informally and creatively; for their hobbies, interests, and personality traits that create a positive and informal atmosphere at work without offending anyone.
The idea of fun awards is to ensure that the employees feel valued while having a good time and a great laugh.
So, it’s all about recognizing an employee as a person, not just a coworker or an organizational resource.
So, here are a few creative and innovative ideas for informal/fun awards:
1. Dr. Fixit Award: For someone who seems to have a solution for every problem.
2. Office Picasso Award: For the most artistic person around.
3. Fitness Freak Award: For someone who lives and breathes fitness.
4. Caffeine Lover Award: For someone who cannot do without a cup of coffee.
5. Early Bird Award: For someone who arrives at the office and attends every meeting much before anyone else.
For more such ideas, also check the article below:
Informal or Fun Awards for Employee Engagement
It is not just the award, but also how the organization presents it, that can make it more exciting and fun-filled.
Hence, a fun-filled award ceremony can make the recognition process much more memorable.
It would entail the participation of coworkers.
So, here are a few exciting ideas for such presentation events:
1. Surprise party at the workplace
2. Unusual location for the ceremony
3. Presence of a Celebrity/ Spouse/ Partner at the ceremony
4. Video messages from coworkers/ team members
Also, read 8 Creative Ideas for Startups to Recognize Employees
Because regular, routine recognition can lose impact over time. Adding fun elements makes the experience memorable, keeps motivation high, and helps the event stay “etched in memory.”
Use catchy or playful award titles (e.g., Top Gun Award, Wow Award, Rockstar Award, Legend at Work) that spark excitement and creativity.
Recognition based on personal traits, hobbies, or quirks (not just performance metrics). Examples include the Dr. Fixit Award, the Office Picasso Award, and the Caffeine Lover Award, among others.
By turning the award ceremonies into events—such as surprise parties, unusual venues, the inclusion of family/celebrity, video messages, or unusual props—to enhance emotional impact.
With some creativity and brainstorming, fun recognition can significantly uplift the employee experience.
There is no end to the number of innovative and interesting ideas for employee recognition that one can come up with through some amount of brainstorming. Implementing such fun and wacky ideas can add more value to the employee recognition program and make it a truly amazing experience for the recipients.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of experience in both corporate and entrepreneurial settings. Previously, Sagar has held leadership roles with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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