Implementing a long service awards program is an important part of fulfilling and maintaining a good company culture and employee benefits scheme. You want to ensure you deliver a long service award plan that rewards, incentives and celebrates employee loyalty to the company.
It wasn’t that long ago that the simple thought of ‘a job for life’ was seen as a normal and almost admired accolade that many looked to achieve. However, the workplace is fast-changing and staying at one company for the entirety of your career doesn’t gain the same respect as it once did. Many employees now look for modern workplaces that look to achieve great company culture, paired with good employee awards and benefits. Employees now want to work for employers that don’t just offer a job for life but reward this achievement. Therefore, it’s important to ensure your company recognises work anniversaries of employees and has a clear reward scheme.
But first, what is a Long Service Award?
What is a Long Service Award?
A Long Service Award is a way of recognising and rewarding employee loyalty to a company, for a certain length of time. Traditionally, Long Service Awards are presented to an employee for 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years of employment. However, as the job market changes Long Service Awards now recognise employee loyalty from 1 year of service.
Long Service Awards offer so many benefits to both the employer and employee, including…
Reduce Employee Turnover
High employee turnover is a relatively new business issue, once associated with certain industries such as hospitality, now is a much broader issue affecting many industries and businesses. To tackle employee turnover in the new digital era of the workplace requires a renewed approach. By investing in rewarding employee loyalty and commitment to the company you’ll help to reduce your staff turnover, as well as benefit from a host of other advantages from doing so.
Increase Your Return on Investment
Employing a new member of staff is extremely time-consuming and most importantly, costly. The cost of recruiting a replacement is just the tip of the iceberg when a member of staff chooses to leave a company. There are also the additional costs and knock-on effects to other departments from training time to an impact on customer service quality. By investing in an employee reward scheme, including Long Service Awards, you’ll be reducing your staff turnover and in turn, increasing your return on investment.
Improve Your Business Reputation
In business, reputation is everything! By implementing an attractive long service award scheme you’ll be increasing your chances of retaining, as well as attracting, the best talent. In addition to this, a rewarding company culture won’t go unnoticed. Ensuring your company is one of the best to work for in the industry you’ll be catching the eye of potential recruits as well as potential clients, customers, and competitors.
Enhance Employee Engagement
Many successful business owners know that employee happiness and well-being is the key to a successful business. Without the employees a business is nothing. Therefore, by implementing a clear reward scheme, employees feel genuinely valued and are motivated to contribute to the success of the business.
Using Long Service Awards, as well as an employee reward scheme to boost your employee engagement will pay dividends when it comes to the long-term growth and success of your business.
When to Award a Long Service Award?
Although a long service award would suggest at least 5 years of employment at the company, with the increased competition in the job market, it’s important to recognise every work anniversary. Therefore, we would recommend that a Long Service Award is presented at 5, 10, 15, and so on, years of service. However, company anniversary gifts should be given every year to recognise and award the employee’s loyalty to the company and their hard work throughout the year.
Tax-Exempt Long Service Awards
Did you know that non-cash Long Service Awards are exempt from tax when the employee has worked for the company for at least 20 years and you haven’t given them a Long Service Award in the last 10 years? Additionally, the value of the award must be less than £1000 for 20 years of service. This means that our crystal awards and gifts at Laser Crystal are a great way to celebrate and honour an employee who is celebrating 20 years of service.
Commemorate A Long Service Achievement
When rewarding your staff for long service or recognising a work anniversary it’s important to commemorate the occasion. Physically presenting an award to an employee is sure to leave a positive impact on not just the employee being awarded but on other staff members. Seeing a team member be rewarded is a great way to publicly acknowledge their service to the company, as well as boost morale and act as encouragement for other team members.
And what better way than with a premium quality crystal award or gift. Here at Laser Crystal, we specialise in creating personalised 3D engraved crystal awards and gifts, perfect for commemorating a work anniversary or celebrating a long service achievement.
Work Anniversary Gifts
If a Long Service Award isn’t quite right for the occasion, then why not present the employee with a work anniversary gift. A work anniversary gift can be great for celebrating a first work anniversary or maybe a ninth work anniversary.
Here at Laser Crystal, we offer a range of crystal plaques, paperweights and office accessories that can all be personalised through our 3D laser engraving process. Our range of crystal gifts are a great way to commemorate a work anniversary and provide a lasting keepsake of the occasion when paired with a monetary gift or work perfectly as a standalone gift.
If you’re looking for a Long Service Award or Company Anniversary Gift then browse our range of products at Laser Crystal today. For a bespoke quote or to discuss design ideas call our friendly and knowledgeable sales team on 01202 675000 or email sales@lasercrystal.co.uk.