Sportsmanship Awards Donated by RCB

Posted by Curt Denevan:

On Wednesday April 18, Curt Denevan of RCB Awards announced that the company, in conjunction with the Journal Sentinel Preps Plus, will donate a Sportsmanship Award to every local high school in southeastern Wisconsin. These awards are meant to highlight in each high school examples of great sportsmanship on the field of play. Too often class athletes are overlooked unless they are the leading scorer. This award allows the athletic director to select the student athlete that demonstrates the true spirit of sportsmanship. 

RCB will also donate Academic Achievement Award to recognize outstanding academic honors. Each high school principal will be asked to determine their criteria for the award. The idea is that there are students who really put in extra effort and succeed. They should be recognized, not just the Valedictorian.

An announcement was sent to each southeastern Wisconsin athletic director and principal this week explaining the program and asking them to select their award recipients.

For additional information on awards for athletic and academic achievement, contact Curt Denevan or visit www.rcbawards.com.  RCB Awards is an award and recognition firm based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin specializing in non-profit and corporate award programs for the last 20 years.

No Cost Safety Award Program

In challenging economic times, companies are forced to look for ways to manage costs better, and insurance costs are a big part of that. If you are a manufacturing firm and don't have a documented safety recognition program in place, you should talk with your insurance company and see what impact a safety program can have on your rates.
Most of the companies with safety recognition programs do so at no additional cost to the company. That is to say, the cost of the program is more than covered by the insurance rate savings. Obviously this will vary from company to company, but it is worth looking into.
For more information on safety recognition, look at Safe Worker Program Overview.

Social Media & Employee Recognition

Social Media: How to make it work? Use your company site for employee recognition. Staff do an outstanding job? Talk it up on Facebook, LinkedIn or other sites. It doesn't cost you anything, it goes a lot farther than a certificate or post-it, and it tells more people how much you appreciate a job well done.

Everybody is looking for ways to use Social Media in the corporate world, and this is an easy example.

10 No-Cost Ways to Recognize Employees

Every organization can benefit from increased recognition. If you need ideas for certificate design, layout/creation or plaques and crystal, contact www.rcbawards.com. They are the experts at that sort of thing. For no cost suggestions on how to impact your department, here you go...

10 No-Cost Ways to Recognize Employees
by Marjorie Treu

Turn on any nightly newscast and you will hear the doom-and-gloom predictions of an economic recession just around the corner.
Reactions inside organizations run the gamut from “Things are great. Go Team Go!” to “Stop all spending now!” based on manager leadership styles and their comfort level with potential high-risk changes. One of the first places you will be asked to curtail expenses often affects the very people who keep your business going…Team Members.

The manager who can balance the bottom-line without sacrificing the spirit of the team is the manager who will weather economic highs and lows effectively. Your team members are doing their job and performing well, and it’s only human nature for them to want acknowledgment of those efforts. Here are my 10 ideas that don’t cost a cent.

10 No-Cost Recognition Ideas

1. Use praise. You know this one yet many team leaders find it hard to do in-the-moment. Download a helpful Tip Sheet now.
2. Increase team member visibility. Write an article about their contribution, send a group email, let your CEO know, or announce it during a staff meeting.
3. Give information. Employees crave accurate information so communicate often and early. It will stop potential rumors and increase their trust in the company direction.
4. Increase team member involvement. Create ways to solicit individual opinions on issues facing your organization. Where practical, allow them to have a voice in the final decision.
5. Offer interesting work. Create opportunities for the individual to work on a special project team – a plum assignment that encourages their professional development.
6. Give feedback on performance. Report back more frequently what you see the team member accomplishing, and how they are meeting your expectations. This may lead to a mentoring relationship.
7. Listen, Really Listen! Consciously practice deeper listening to understand and connect with the individual. Pay attention and stay focused to what your employee is saying.
8. Allow flexibility. If it’s not critical to customers, can you allow the individual freedom in establishing their work hours and time off?
9. Recommend independence. Offer in-house training that allows the individual to learn a new skill. After the training, give them a project to use the new skills and allow them the autonomy of how the task should be completed.
10. Play. As adults, we aren’t often allowed to “play” at work yet it relieves stress and improves morale. Consider lunchtime walks, team stretch breaks, Joke of the Day challenge, Silly Socks Day, or whatever your team brainstorms.

BONUS: 3 Low-Cost Recognition Ideas

1. Recognition Box. Keep box filled with small supplies (cards, colorful post-it notes, smiley paperclips, assorted page flags, stickers, markers, coupons, etc) that an individual can select when you’ve observed them doing something great for internal or external customers.
2. Certificates of Recognition. Create awards for individual performance – anything from a customer interaction to a hidden talent can be recognized. 
3. Celebrations. Acknowledge birthdays, company anniversary, safety milestones, and production goals. You might begin just by eating lunch OUT! There is something satisfying about connecting with others through the sharing of a meal.

It doesn’t take much to recognize team members even during harder economic times. It does, however, take consistency for you to get the most impact for your efforts.

ABOUT THE WRITER
Team leadership expert Marjorie Treu, CEO of Team Fusion, works with Fortune 500 companies as well as small businesses to help leaders create collaborative, cohesive, and conscious teams.
If you liked this article, you’ll love her FREE reports, Leadership Adventures, Coaching, and other resources to help leaders at all levels develop themselves and build ultimate success. When visiting, be sure to sign up for the FREE monthly Tip Sheet downloads and FREE e-zine “Team Talk Today”!
Learn more now at http://www.teamfusion.net

For more information, contact RCB Awards at 1-800-929-9110.