recognizing employees during covid-19

“At the very core of our humanity is our care for one another. Heartfelt appreciation provides sustenance for another day, especially in turbulent times.”
— Dana Ullom-Vucelich

In the middle of a global pandemic, how do we provide that “sustenance for another day” in our day-to-day roles as leaders and employers? What, if anything, should be different about how we lead during these unprecedented times? How can we connect and show appreciation to our employees during these unique times? 

In the absence of recognition tools such as physical events and appreciation weeks, recognizing employees in a remote workforce can leave employers feeling stuck. Employees may be feeling isolated and disoriented during these times, adjusting to working from home and establishing a new form of work-life balance. A great deal of employees are working harder than ever as they navigate through these unprecedented times. It may seem obvious that showing appreciation and recognition for employees is perhaps more important than ever. When employees and their work are appreciated and valued, satisfaction and productivity typically rise, and they are motivated to maintain or improve their good work. There are many ways employers can show appreciation from bonuses and gifts to simple acknowledgments like e-cards, emails, calling out employees for their hard work during online team meetings and simply saying thank you. At Andrew Watson Design, we can offer a custom, creative solutions for recognizing employee contributions in a way that is meaningful. We specialize in designing and hand crafting employee recognition plaques, awards and trophies. All of our awards are made in-house, in our boutique design studio. 

Above, we have two examples of awards created for employee recognition during Covid-19. The awards designed and handcrafted for Trucking’s Frontline Heroes were awarded to trucking companies that delivered essential items during Covid-19. Award recipients were appropriately called “Covid Heroes”. Our team was very proud to be involved in designing and crafting these awards. Thank you Covid Heroes!

The Verizon Media Hack from Home 2020 awards were designed and handcrafted at Andrew Watson Design. These awards recognized the contributions of employees who were working from home. A beautiful, modern award that would sit perfectly on any employees desk to remind them of their meaningful contributions. 

eco awards - sustainable materials

Creating sustainable and eco friendly awards has become a speciality of ours in recent years. We are proud to say that almost all of our trophies, awards, plaques and gifts incorporate some form of sustainable, eco friendly or recovered materials. Contact us today to discuss incorporating sustainable and eco friendly materials into your next project.

At Andrew Watson Design, we specialize in designing and hand crafting recognition products for any occasion. Our in-house design department will design and produce custom corporate recognition products to fulfill your specific needs. Recognizing accomplished goals of staff members is an excellent way to show appreciation for a job well done and to increase motivation for future endeavors.

employee recognition

“A great employee is like a four leaf clover. Hard to find and lucky to have.”
— Tammy Cohen

Most people, if not everyone, like to feel appreciated and valued. Appreciation is a fundamental human need. People respond positively to appreciation through recognition of their work because it shows their work is valued. When employees and their work are valued, their satisfaction and productivity typically rise, and they are motivated to maintain or improve their good work. Employee recognition helps employees to know their contributions are recognized and appreciated. It also helps to retain top talent, increase employee engagement and encourage high performance. With higher employee engagement comes lower turnover rates and stronger business results. 

In a survey by the American Psychological Association (2017), only about half of the U.S. workforce (51%) said they felt valued by their employer. More than a third (36 percent) had not received any form of recognition in the last year. And only 47% said recognition was provided fairly. Employees who said that recognition practices are fair, that direct supervisors provide recognition effectively, and that they value the recognition they receive, reported a variety of positive outcomes. They reported higher levels of job satisfaction, a greater likelihood to work harder because of the recognition they received, stronger motivation to do their best and a greater sense of feeling valued. Making meaningful employee recognition part of your organization’s culture can go a long way toward improving job satisfaction, motivation and work effort. It's amazing that the simple act of showing appreciation for your employees and letting them know they are genuinely valued can work wonders for both the employees and the organization. One of the best ways to demonstrate appreciation of your employees is to honour them with a custom designed and handcrafted plaque, award or trophy. 

At Andrew Watson Design, we specialize in designing and hand crafting employee recognition plaques, awards and trophies. All of our awards are made in-house in our boutique design studio. We pride ourselves on developing close relationships with our clients allowing us to liaise regularly, from initial design to final manufacturing of the awards. Above we have an example of employee recognition awards we made for our client at BP. Our website has hundreds of examples of employee recognition awards.

years of service awards

“The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement”
— Charles Schwab

Do you want your employees to feel appreciated and connected to your workplace? To feel valued and recognized? Why not celebrate them by offering the perfect ‘years of service’ appreciation gift? A custom designed, handcrafted plaque, award or trophy. 

Employees want to be appreciated for their talent, their accomplishments and successes over the course of their career, whether it’s their first year at an organization or their 20th. Studies have shown a substantial increase in employees feeling like their company cares about them when service anniversaries are celebrated. Such recognition fosters feelings of appreciation, creates connectedness and defines workplace culture. When companies recognize years of service their employees feel like they fit in and belong, they build trust with leaders and strengthen loyalty. Perhaps the greatest value from a service awards program is its ability to kick-start a culture of recognition.

Here we have several examples of ‘years of service’ awards we have designed and manufactured for our clients, within our boutique awards design studio. 

crafting core values awards for mmt

Combining brindle bamboo and semi-transparent acrylic, we created these custom awards for our client Master Mind Talks (MMT) in the USA. MMT commissioned us to develop awards that would represent the five core values of the company: curiosity, generosity, acceptance, vulnerability and inclusion.

The awards are distinct, with each core value featuring a unique laser engraved pattern on the acrylic to mark the varying award categories. The acrylic is assembled in layers and cut into a spiked pattern to emulate a mountain range aesthetic.

crafting financial tombstone custom awards for milliken

We created a ‘financial tombstone’ award for Milliken and Company to acknowledge a recent acquisition. The ‘financial tombstone’ was created to reflect an abstract paint can following Milliken’s recent acquisition of a paint based business.

The awards feature marine grade aluminum which we brushed by hand before inserting a thick black acrylic panel on either side. Utilizing UV flatbed prints, we applied a vibrant and exotic pattern to the acrylic to reflect the paint.

Inside the award sits a heavy weight to ensure that it stands level and returns to a horizontal plane when placed on a surface. The finished product is a clean and modern award, completely bespoke to Milliken and the recipients to create a sense of value and show true gratification.

canadian health food association awards

A series of custom designs made specifically for the Canadian Health Food Association awards ceremony. Taken together, they create a unique collection that represents a tiered awards system. Incorporating the clients corporate colour palette, we created a colourful sub-graphic for the awards. Sustainably sourced bamboo and anodized aluminium were used to manufacture the awards. 

avery dennison awards - custom

We worked closely with our client at Avery Dennison USA on this custom project. The original design came from our client in the form of a rough pencil sketch. We then finessed that sketch into a refined and finished design ready for production. The idea behind the interwoven rings was to communicate collaboration and synergy, which was done in a subtle and modern way. The colours represent the clients branding.

custom collection - A&W

We designed this collection of awards for A&W Canada. Each award style represents a different achievement but, they all relate to each other by using the same design language (materials and typography). Creating a cohesive collection of awards is always a challenge but, we were able to deliver and exceed the clients expectations. These awards were all custom designed and handcrafted by us in our Vancouver location. 

gap inc. - custom awards

We were commissioned by Gap Inc. (USA) to design these custom awards for their annual conference. With a client like Gap, naturally we were keen to stay on brand; our combination of anodized aluminum and denim maintains a modern style award while referencing Gap’s roots. The incorporation of denim is an unusual choice for an award but, in this instance it worked beautifully. We understand our clients brands and are bold enough to propose unique designs.

hockey canada - custom hall of fame awards

hockey canada hall of fame award

Over the next few weeks we will be sharing some of our favourite projects from 2016.

The project above was a commission from Hockey Canada. We were requested to design a hall of fame award for their new inductees. The idea behind the design was to use the shape of 4 hockey stick handles and create the award around that size. The four sticks can be seen through the maple leaf relief cut, designed as a "peekaboo" detail. The wood was then affixed in-between two water jet cut aluminum panels. A modern design that is simple and elegant. 

The first recipient was Scott Niedermayer, he is a Canadian former ice hockey defenceman and current Special Assignment Coach of the Anaheim Ducks. He played 18 seasons and over 1,000 games in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New Jersey Devils and Anaheim Ducks. Niedermayer is a four-time Stanley Cup champion and played in five NHL All-Star Games.  

ooyala - custom corporate recognition

Ooyala is one of the world’s largest premium video platforms and a leading ad serving platform. Ooyala helps connect viewers with their interests, audiences with advertising, and analytics insights to business strategies.

After meeting with Ooyala, the goal was to create an award representing their corporate core values: innovation, custom focus, transparency, hustle and respect. This was a challenging project as we wanted to create a final design that expressed all of these values. The final piece was a simple, dynamic and colourful corporate custom recognition award that showcases their corporate core values.

american bearing manufacturing association

The 2016 ABMA/AGMA Annual Meeting took place in Amelia Island, FL in May where friends and colleagues gathered to celebrate 100 years of success for both ABMA and AGMA. The meeting featured keynote presentations from well-known individuals such as Mayor Rudy Giuliani and David Gergen.   ABMA hosted a dinner for over one hundred past and present members while guests enjoyed a special presentation from Mr. John M. Timken, Jr. drinks, and live music. We also recognized five global leaders in the bearing manufacturing industry with the Inaugural Industry Icon Award. 

We used a mix of our pre-designed awards and customized them for the American Bearing Manufacturing Association's annual awards ceremony. 

let’s discuss your awards