"Quality" Gifts to recognize Employee Efforts

A number of the Quality Engineers on my team, on their own initiative, just went and took and passed the ASQ CQE exam. Unfortunately, I'm not their supervisor (I'm their Sr QE), and the likelihood of them seeing any direct compensation from our organization for their hard work and financial outlay is pretty slim but they seem to have bought into the merits of the body of knowledge and the value of benchmarking their knowledge against recognized standards.

I'd like to recognize their efforts and was wondering if any of you had suggestions of "Quality" gifts that I could get them as a show of appreciation for their work. There are six of them and I am not looking to make too big a financial commitment (maybe $25 each) but I'd like to get something nice.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to thoughtful/memorable/useful "Quality Themed" gifts they have received, given, or contimplated over the years? I guess the era of the slide rule has passed but I was hoping for some good suggestions. If all else fails I'll just take them out for lunch but I was hoping for another approach.

Thanks,

David

Re: "Quality" Gifts

Company recognition is one thing... Cake and Ice cream, Donuts, Newsletter, Announcement board with Thank-You letter. Personal letter with a filed copy in their HR file is always a good thing.

Our company uses https://www.premierechoiceaward.com/secure/home.asp certificates and it allows employees to choose their own reward / gift card.

Re: "Quality" Gifts

You may not be their boss, but that does not need to keep you from being their champion.

I strongly recommend that you obtain a copy of each of those certificates and find a time that you can talk with the powers that be. That might be your boss, or someone above him. Let them know of the sacrifices they made for the improvement of the company, and suggest that it would be good for company moral for them to receive some appropriate recognition for their efforts. Don't offer suggestions about what that may be unless you are asked.

Good luck with this and let us know how it works out.

In my many years in QA the award/gift I enjoy the most are the Nike Golf Shirts we recieve from Coleman Group online. They are embossed with our company logo. They cost about $35 each. If management does not wish to do this then you can purchase them and have something related to the exam they took on the sleeve instead. I know it is a little more than you wanted to spend but it is something they can use and will be proud to wear regularly.

Disclaimer: I do not work for Coleman Group Online. I am just a customer.

Some thoughts:
1. Please check with HR - the company may be willing to reimburse the cost of the exam / training materials as professional development
2. For congratulation / recognition gifts, I've used Amazon gift cards. These can be in any denomination and delivered to person's inbox. Gas gift cards are also a good choice. One size fits all
3. As others have suggested, please let senior management know about this accomplishment and let them determine whether to take any action.

In the past we have given out little awards, in the shape of a shooting star engraved with "Quality Star"

David-D said:

Does anyone have any suggestions as to thoughtful/memorable/useful "Quality Themed" gifts they have received, given, or contimplated over the years? I guess the era of the slide rule has passed but I was hoping for some good suggestions. If all else fails I'll just take them out for lunch but I was hoping for another approach.

Thanks,

David

Click to expand...

Recognition does not have to be formal. One of the most powerfulways of recognising and giving credit is to do it informally and just by making others aware of what they have done.

Formal recognition functions tend to be a structured, formal and wooden. Many people just seem to go through the motions of attending the function and making speeches, then its never mentioned again.

Making their efforts live on through talking about it over time without making a big show it, makes it more than just on off big bang show.

You might also like to consider doing something such as putting their certificates on the wall in the kitchen for a few months.

Congratulations to your team members! Passing the CQE is an accomplishment.

When I went after my certifications it was because I wanted to expand in my role. Is that why these people also took the initiative to certify as Quality Engineer? If so, try to give them what they want: more responsibility, more interesting assignments, more projects, more chances to contribute. As has been suggested, this might involve higher management and/or HR. That would be fine because such efforts should be recognized by people in addition to you.