13 team awards ideas

Teamwork is essential to the growth of a business. No one can achieve much on their own. With each goal achieved and every milestone reached, how can we celebrate those who support us? Team awards at work empower leaders, peers, and staff members to recognize each other and to cultivate a culture of positivity.

At Cristaux International, we help organizations develop their own employee recognition programs, while working on our own team awards. Every person and company deserved to be recognized, and we’re in the business of making that possible. After years of collaborating with clients and growing our staff, we’ve gathered the top team awards ideas.

What are the benefits of giving team awards?

Team recognition awards can bring miracles to a workplace. Essentially, recognition helps nurture the mental and emotional needs of employees. By giving team awards, one can reap the following benefits:

• Greater collaboration and teamwork
• Improved communication and relationships
• More positive attitudes and feelings of belonging
• Greater employee engagement and productivity
• Less absenteeism
• Greater employee retention and loyalty
• Stronger incentives and more inspired team members
• Greater employee and customer satisfaction

13 creative team awards ideas

Awards for team members can celebrate a wide variety of achievements. However, it’s important to celebrate the accomplishments leaders want to see within their organization. For instance, a manager wants to improve their sales, so they start a sales recognition program. While browsing the following ideas for staff awards, consider which are closest to your goals.

1. Team player award

A team player award is perfect for employees who help others, stay humble, and continue to improve. Recipients truly care about their team and deserve to be recognized for their dedication. Additionally, this kind of award can easily be presented on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis. It works well with any company’s schedule.

2. Sales award

Designed with a sales team in mind, custom sales awards help drive business and employee growth. Additionally, there are different types of sales recognition a business can try. For instance, leaders can regularly recognize business deals or develop a President’s Club for top achievers.

3. Customer service award

Reserved for customer gurus, a customer service award celebrates team members who go above and beyond to support clients. They showcase exceptional communication skills. Also, it’s important to note the relationships between employee and customer satisfaction. The happier employees are, the happier customers are. Internal recognition goes beyond one’s team.

4. Work anniversary gift

Designed with the recipient and company in mind, a work anniversary gift honors employee years of service. Perhaps the greatest perk to this kind of recognition program is objectivity. By presenting the same awards for the same milestones, leaders practice fair recognition. Also, this empowers all employees to achieve because the recognition requirements are clear and can be attained by anyone.

5. Achievement award

An achievement award can commemorate any accomplishment. Also known as milestone awards, these recognition pieces can celebrate business deals, distinctions, and more. These awards are great for celebrating the teams who made the achievements possible. Milestones make amazing opportunities to honor all who helped the organization reach that point.

6. Company value award

The best recognition programs align with company values, so businesses create awards that honor staff members who embody those themes. For instance, an organization’s guiding values may include excellence. With Cristaux, they can create excellence awards to honor those who achieve great things for their team.

7. Appreciation award

Sometimes, leaders don’t need a specific accomplishment to applaud their employers. Instead, they can show gratitude with appreciation awards. Occasional, unprompted reminders of appreciation help team members feel valued. Also, showing consistent appreciation inspires others to recognize their peers and to create a positive culture.

8. Collaboration award

Sometimes, the perfect people team up and accomplish amazing things. For those special teams, collaboration awards applaud their exceptional teamwork. This type of recognition can be used to celebrate project-based teams, departments, and more.

9. Creative award

For the designers and artists who create beautiful things, a creative award honors their craft and skills. Leaders can’t present cheap and copied awards to the most creative staff members. Instead, they can collaborate with a recognition vendor who can design and fabricate something special. At Cristaux, our creative designers work hard to realize innovative and striking custom awards.

10. Most improved player award

Employers are always looking for people who continue to learn, improve, and grow. A most improved player award can honor anyone from newcomers to veteran employees. Inspired by individual or team goals, the ideal recipient shows dedication to their career and organization.

11. Safety award

Although they don’t work in the most glamorous profession, safety professionals are essential to a business’s growth. For their continued hard work, they deserve safety awards. These recognition pieces can commemorate training completion, safety milestones, finished projects, and more.

12. Leadership award

Leadership awards can honor anyone from emerging leaders to established executives. Additionally, this type of recognition can inspire others to achieve more and can encourage healthy workplace competition. By seeing peers publicly recognized, other staff members will want that award for themselves and will work harder to achieve it.

13. People’s choice award

To encourage staff participation, consider creating a people’s choice award. This award inspires peer-to-peer recognition, by asking employees to vote for who most deserves to be celebrated. Also, recognition from one’s peers often feels the most valuable because it comes from those we work with every day.

Great team award names & titles

Creative award names are crucial for effective recognition programs because they communicate what is being honored. The best team award wordings focus on the skills or criteria of the award, while including company values. Whether looking for serious or funny award title ideas, it’s important to make sure the award name captures the goal of the program. Consider the following creative award titles for employees:

• Most Improved Player
• Excellence in Action
• Outstanding Service Award
• Circle of Achievement
• Role Model Award
• The People’s Pick
• Impact Award

Discover more award names for employee recognition.

What else is part of a good employee appreciation program?

Beyond giving team awards, there are countless ways to show appreciation for employees. Before figuring out which programs to try, it’s essential to identify the company’s culture, goals, and budget. Often, taking time to lay out a strategy for recognition saves effort and resources in the long run. Consider the following tools for an employee recognition program.

Remote Recognition

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many teams have shifted to a remote work structure. As a result, leaders must learn how to recognize their remote employees. There are many ideas for remote recognition that make staff members feel valued despite the distance. For instance, companies can host a virtual awards ceremony and organize a meaningful event for their team.

Corporate Gifts

Corporate gifting is a common practice for organizations to show appreciation for customers, vendors, and more. Specifically, corporate gifts for employees help improve internal company culture and strengthen staff relationships. Gifts include goods, services, and custom-made creations.

Employee Incentives

Incentives for employees provide motivation for team members. With a prize in sight, staff members will work harder to achieve and win. Different rewards include added paid time off, professional development opportunities, and other perks.

Reward your employees with creative team awards

Team awards have countless benefits and take on many forms, so it’s safe to say that any organization can find an employee recognition program that works well for them. Regardless of budget and vision, we can make it happen. Explore and test various ideas until you find the perfect team awards for your people. It’ll be worth it.

Contact Cristaux and start designing your team award today.