Recognition

It's easy and meaningful to recognize the efforts and accomplishments of employees for their work every day, as well as after the completion of projects both large and small.

Get Started with Recognition Toolkits

Get started with our Recognizing and Appreciating Employees: A Toolkit for People Leaders offers tips on how to build a culture of recognition and appreciation, communication guidance, and ready-made templates.

'Engagement & Retention Conversations Toolkit for People Leaders' provides tips to guide conversations, customizable script samples, conversation starters, notes template, and follow-up questions.

Appreciation Portal

The Appreciation Portal is an easy-to-use online program that allows for quick messages to staff across the university. The system empowers our people leaders to recognize an employee's success or milestone the moment it happens. Simply sign in and share your message privately with the individual.

Informal Recognition

No cost individual and group recognition

Say “thank you” on a regular basis
Smile. It's contagious.
Notice and praise progress towards a goal
Check in on a project to give encouragement
Check in on employees performing daily work to recognize those efforts
Acknowledge each team member’s contribution
Provide immediate positive reinforcement
Commend employees for small successes
Praise employees publicly
Email a note of appreciation and copy the employee’s supervisor
Handwrite a note of thanks for a job well done
Encourage, enable and empower employees to provide feedback, input and observations
Encourage employees to take advantage of development opportunities
Encourage a team mentality; emphasize the importance of working together
Recognize the different roles and strengths each employee contributes
*Casual dress on Fridays
*Support “flex-friendly” schedules
Present “State of Department” reports to your employees acknowledging the work and contributions of individuals and teams
Encourage and implement ideas from employees shared at staff or other group meetings

Other forms of individual recognition

*Car wash and/or wax
*Round of golf
*Occasional lunch or dinner
“Kudos” candy bars
Pack(s) of “Extra” gum
*Magazine subscriptions
*Theatre or Movie tickets
*Tickets to sporting event
*One day parking pass
Nominations for quarterly employee recognition
Nominations for special acknowledgments
*New/varied work or special assignment
*Attendance at work-related seminar
Personalized coffee mug
*Afternoon or day off for project completion
*Institutional Logo Items
Create a trophy to be passed around to a different employee each month
*Day off for a job well done

Other forms of group recognition

Intermittent gatherings with refreshments or departmental luncheons
*Occasionally hold a offsite meetings and provide a meal
*Outing to sporting or other event
Years of service celebrations
Occasional free refreshments
*Off-campus retreats
*Team Morale Building Events
Arrange for a team to present the results of its efforts to leadership
Celebrate with employees at the end of a project
*Schedule an afternoon or extended lunch hour for activities such as playing board games, softball, soccer, volleyball, and/or miniature-golf

Taxable Income: Rewards such as cash, gift cards, debit cards or gift certificates are considered taxable income. Any decision to use these types of rewards should be discussed with your supervisor and/or your Financial Transaction Center or Business Service Center.

Bargaining Units: If your employee is represented by one of Cornell’s bargaining units, please consult with Workplace Policy and Labor Relations (lmj6; 607-255-6866) before you implement recognition ideas marked by an * as there may be restrictions on these types of rewards.

Other Recognition Opportunities

Events

Special events such as fall Employee Celebrations are a broad campus-wide informal show of appreciation for our hardworking employees.

Awards

The university stewards several award programs intended to formally honor our employees for outstanding performance. Some are campus-wide recognitions, while others are specific to colleges, departments and units. Recognize an exceptional employee, supervisor or fellow colleague by nominating them for a variety of campus awards.

Performance Based Pay

For staff employed in positions classified within bands A through I, pay advancement is achieved based on individual performance and pay improvement budgets. Staff who are consistently effective within their positions should be paid within the market range for the appropriate job family and pay band. Premium pay levels may be reached based on a combination of factors such as outstanding performance, long service, and market retention considerations.

Programs

Years of Service Recognition

This tradition of recognition is a grateful celebration of the staff milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 years of service to the university.

To learn more about your local college or unit Service Award program contact your HR lead.

Employee Degree Completion Recognition

Each year, dozens of Cornell staff members graduate with degrees from Cornell and other colleges with the help of the Employee Degree Program and the Tuition Aid program offered by the University

Video Transcript

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welcome back to the manager Take 5

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series I'm Maria Wolf the senior

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consultant for talent retention during

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this segment we'll take five minutes to

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talk about the importance of retaining

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talented employees and what you as a

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manager can do to proactively address

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challenges you may be experiencing in

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this area we know people are leaving

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Cornell and the top three reasons

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include

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lack of advancement opportunities

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dissatisfaction with their salary and

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not receiving enough recognition for the

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work they do the goal of this video is

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to provide you with some helpful tips

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and tools that you can leverage right

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away so let's get started

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foreign

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[Music]

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speaking with Dustin Cutler Dustin

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welcome and thanks so much for being

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here yeah it's my absolute pleasure and

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an honor to be here so thank you for the

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inviting so the reality is people are

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leaving jobs they're leaving jobs

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everywhere and hiring managers are

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having a really hard time filling vacant

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positions

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how has this Dynamic impacted your

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organization we have hired over 110 new

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Frontline Associates here at Cornell

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dining and that is a massive effort and

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very strategic approach in leveraging

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the Partnerships within our our HR

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partners and and student and campus life

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so what do you focus on when it comes to

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being proactive about retention and what

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role does Career Development play we got

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away from talking a lot about

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compensation compensation is very very

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important we're explaining really the

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why and the benefit of being a Cornell

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employee in particular Cornell dining

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employee and we have it's yielded us

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some some great success with recruiting

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as well as allowing people to grow

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within the organization so for two years

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we're really focused on how to continue

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to nourish our team provide them with

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the training that they needed and the

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tools to make them successful for the

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future and that has yielded some some

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outstanding results let's talk about

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recognition it's so important for people

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to feel valued and appreciated for the

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work we all do so how do you recognize

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people in Cornell Diamond recognition is

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so key A couple of years ago my

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organization started a program called

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The Big Red Apple and some of you may

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have seen that around campus as you go

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into our locations there's a really big

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tree and individuals recognize one

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another and that's really been a core

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value of our organization and the key to

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our success of letting people know Hey

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listen we care about you we care about

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your impact we care about your career

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over I think 10 000 recognitions have

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happened over the past five years so

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we're very proud about that and and it's

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yielded some great results it's pretty

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clear that we are caring and

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compassionate leader is a priority for

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you so how does your leadership style

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help keep your staff engaged and wanting

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to stay at Cornell quite frequently we

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really explain to our Frontline staff

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and our management team our why in our

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purpose

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it's very important for people to be

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able to connect what I am doing what

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that impact is to the our community and

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the individuals that we serve and it's

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very important to simplify that agenda

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like our purpose statement is nourishing

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the future our staff knows that our

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training and development efforts are to

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help nourish their their minds and and

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allow them to grow the food that we make

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helps nourish the people's bodies that

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we feed on a regular basis right so

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being able to connect that why is very

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important you want individuals to come

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to work because they know their why they

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understand what their purpose is

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it's important to be a servant leader

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and making sure that people can really

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connect to why I come to work

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what is the impact and building a sense

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of community

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amongst your group that is what really

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builds a great culture that propels

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success thank you so much for sharing

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all that as we come to the end of our

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conversation would you mind just sharing

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two to three tips managers can leverage

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right away the three tips that I would

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give in areas that I would say has

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worked for Cornell dining and myself is

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to focus on authentic communication

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recognition and servant leadership and

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when I say communication try as much as

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possible to get in front of human beings

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face to face be present when I say

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recognition do it frequently do it

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consistently and again allow it to be

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authentic when I talk about servant

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leadership this is where I say that

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individuals need to look at

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leadership in the sense of it's an honor

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to be able to lead an organization to

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give guidance and make sure that you are

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seeking to understand before being

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understood I often say that best

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communicators are the most effective

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listeners and I think a lot of people

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during these times need to do a lot of

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listening Dustin I really enjoyed

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talking with you

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so much for the opportunity my pleasure

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thanks Cornell dining we hope the past

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few minutes have provided you with some

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actionable tips to implement today

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please check out these additional

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resources

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thank you