If you’ve ever watched the hit TV series The Office, you will remember the infamous Dundie episodes, where boss Michael Scott gives out employee recognition awards to his staff.
He does this through made-up songs, horrifyingly embarrassing remarks, and inappropriate skits. Though entertaining to watch, you could imagine how it could be rough to sit through.
In order to avoid a drastic Dundie situation, we have come up with ten recognition award ideas (some funny, some serious) for the employees in your office – to be presented in whichever manner you see fit (although you may not want to take your inspiration from Michael Scott).
Employee Recognition Ideas:
1 Customer Service Award – Give this to someone who has gone above and beyond to make a client/customer happy. This person would possess and demonstrate a customer-first mindset, and always exceed expectations when interacting with clients/customers.
2. Biggest Distraction Award – This is a humorous award that could be seen at the Dundies! This award would go to someone who is a hard worker but also knows how to have fun in the office. This should be the office “clown” and someone who is great at lighting up the mood in long meetings. This isn’t meant to be a disciplinary award, but rather a ‘thank-you’ award for keeping office morale up. A set of Post-it® Notes with a clown design is a fun little reward for these employees.
3. Cleanest Desk Award – This one is pretty self-explanatory. This award would go to the person whose office space is always the cleanest and tidiest. Which brings us to the next award…
4. Messiest Desk Award – Though this may seem a little harsh, if someone is known for having a very messy desk in the office, that person probably wouldn’t mind being called out on it. In order to avoid hurt feelings, make sure this person has a good sense of humor.
5. Would-Be-Winner of Trivia Award – This honor would go to the person in your office that always contributes interesting, yet sometimes irrelevant, facts to conversations and meetings.
6. Moving On Up Award – This award is actually a Dundie Award from The Office, given to Darryl because he was promoted to Shipping Manager at Dunder Mifflin. You can steal this idea and give this to an employee who has recently been promoted.
7. Cool Cucumber Award – This prize can go to someone who remains calm in the face of issues and situations where the easy option would be to freak out. They handle work issues very well and are always reliable in stressful situations.
8. Caffeine Consumer Award – This is for the person in your office that either always has coffee or energy drinks in their hand. Every company has that one person in the office that would have a mental breakdown if the company ran out of coffee.
9. Early Bird Award – There is always the one person in the office who is a morning person at their desk every day at 7am sharp. This person deserves some recognition for braving the wee hours of the morning, and what better way to do it than with an Early Bird Award!
10. Organization Award – This award can go to the person in your office who always has all their work in line as well as the contents on their desk.
If you are looking to put these awards or recognitions down on paper to host your own Dundies, be sure to browse PaperDirect’s line of award certificates, trophies and plaques.
