One Tweak That Makes Employee Awards Unforgettable

YOU KNOW THE DRILL. Annual meeting, your name gets called, you walk up and receive a paperweight that says “Excellence” on it. You don’t even know what you excelled at. All you know is that you now own a very small, heavy rectangle. Instead, why not do what the global banking firm HSBC does: When employees win the annual awards contest, they’re asked what they’d actually like to receive. The prize is capped at $10,000 and can’t be redeemed as cash, but beyond that? Their call. One guy chose plane tickets to fly his family to Mexico to visit a grandmother he hadn’t seen in ten years. We bet he’ll remember winning that award for years to come. You probably can’t swing $10K. But you can ask the question of all your employees: What would be a true reward? A weekend getaway. Concert tickets. That fancy dinner they’d never splurge on themselves. The remember-ability isn’t in the dollar amount. It’s in the specificity. Could you offer a scaled-down version of such a prize?