Recognizing employees for the hard work they do is a great way to boost engagement, retention, motivation, and satisfaction—and Employee of the Month is one of the best ways to structure a fun award that incentivizes productivity and builds your culture.

Learn why Employee of the Month recognition is impactful, how to set up this kind of program at your organization, and what kinds of incentives can be attached to the award. 

With these strategies and ideas, you’ll be able to build an Employee of the Month program that is truly rewarding and exciting.

What is an Employee of the Month program?

Employee of the Month is a reward program that recognizes and awards one employee each month for their stellar achievements. These programs have specific criteria and guidelines to help employees know how to qualify.

The Employee of the Month typically earns more than just a title. The recognition can include various rewards and perks to make the designation meaningful. 

Why recognize an Employee of the Month?

Employee of the Month programs are one way to offer structured, top-down recognition opportunities at your organization. Peer recognition and manager-to-employee recognition are both extremely important and should happen frequently, but there’s something unique about recognition that comes from a company leader or CEO.

Data supports recognition, too. Other benefits of Employee of the Month programs include:

• Stronger value-driven culture. When Employee of the Month awards are tied into company core values, employees will see that those who exemplify core values are recognized and rewarded.
  
• Lower turnover. When employees feel appreciated and valued by the company, they’re much less likely to leave. In fact, recognition can make employees 1.7x more likely to stay with the company.
  
• Increased employee engagement. Meaningful recognition helps employees feel more involved and invested in their work—raising their engagement by 2.3x.
  
• Better well-being at work. When employees are recognized well, including through programs like Employee of the Month, they’re 2.4x as likely to have high well-being at work.
  

When employee efforts are noticed, especially in a structured and reliable way, they respond with greater effort, excitement, and engagement around their work.

Try an Employee of the Month program for yourself as one element of your overall recognition strategy: You can create a culture where employees are excited to come to work, happy to go the extra mile, and motivated to exemplify your core values.

How to implement Employee of the Month recognition

If your organization has never honored an Employee of the Month before, designing a program from scratch can feel daunting. It doesn’t have to be! A few straightforward steps and tools can ensure you create the biggest impact possible.

Build out your program with the help of Awardco and these Employee of the Month ideas.

1. Establish clear award criteria and nomination guidelines 

Choosing who wins the award shouldn’t be random or subjective. Clear award criteria keep the program focused on company values and output—rather than turning into a popularity contest. As you design your program, lay out exactly how any employee can win in clear criteria for eligibility, nominations, and frequency. Think about what types of actions qualify an employee for consideration. 

A scoring guide is a great way to outline award criteria, as it creates consistency across the months. If you tie your scores to your company values, even better. Here’s an example:

You may want to set additional guidelines to keep the program fair. Consider how often the same person can win the award. Larger organizations may also put qualifiers on department distribution and how often someone from the same team or department can win. 

2. Encourage well-reasoned nominations from everyone

One of the biggest mistakes you can make in Employee of the Month programs is to only get input from executives. Leaders don’t always see all of the day-to-day work that frontline employees put in. Peers and managers can see a different perspective on the work around them each day, giving them unique evidence and insight into who really deserves to win.

Opening the nomination process to everyone means you can identify genuine contributors in your organization, no matter which team they work on or how immediately visible their impact is. So if at all possible, accept nominations from everyone. Try Awardco nominations to simplify the logistics.

When you do, empower them to submit meaningful nominations by giving them the criteria you established for winners. You might even offer some nomination examples to make the submission process less daunting. 

Examples of employee of the month nominations

Here are some examples of reasons to nominate someone for employee of the month:

• I’m nominating Jeff because of his new ideas on how to conduct our team meetings for optimal productivity. He’s always leveling up the way our team works with his innovative ideas and collaborative approach. We’re lucky to have him on the team!
  
• Eliza should be Employee of the Month because of the high-quality work she always does. She goes above and beyond to support our clients, especially this month when we had a couple of urgent deadlines to meet. She really lives our value of excellence!
  
• The company should consider Jay for Employee of the Month. Not only did they exceed their sales goal—they were cheering on and supporting everyone else on the team all month long. Together, we had our best month ever! Talk about significant contributions.

Nominations don’t have to be elaborate. But they should give earnest feedback, include specific contributions, and clearly state the company value they relate to. 

3. Choose winners aligned with nomination criteria and company values 

Pick a group of people who will read nominations and choose your winners. This could be a panel of executives or HR team members. Depending on your organization's structure, the responsibility could even rotate to keep the workload fair.

Whoever is in charge of choosing the winners, make sure they take their time considering the winner each month. Winners should be chosen by how well their nomination aligns with the award criteria. It can be meaningful to switch up which values are in the spotlight as well. 

Take special care to vary the winners. Winners should always deserve the award, so don’t choose random employees just for the sake of variety, but the same people shouldn’t win over and over again, either. If employees feel like they’re doing everything necessary to win but are never rewarded, they’ll quickly lose motivation and potentially burn out.

To keep the program fair and effective, monitor winner and nomination patterns over time. If only the same small group is repeatedly nominated or a certain department dominates wins, dig deeper into underlying causes. Investigate your criteria, nomination process, program visibility, and reviewer structure to see if any elements unintentionally favor certain roles or teams.

4. Honor winners and easily repeat the program with Awardco

Winning Employee of the Month should feel special. Choose award ideas that make your program stand out and motivate employees to do their best and nominate their peers.

Personal, thoughtful messages from whoever nominated them, plus a company leader, make the moment feel significant. Pair that with a gift or other tangible reward for well-rounded awards.

The logistics don’t have to be complicated to make all this happen. Employee of the Month programs should honor great employees, not create a burdensome to-do list for leadership and HR teams. The very best programs are easy to repeat each month without losing the motivational value for employees. 

Awardco’s recognition platform can handle nominations, award announcements, and reward fulfillment. And with customization, you can allow any employee to nominate for Employee of the Month—or even pair this program with others for a robust recognition strategy.

Recommended reading: How to build employee recognition programs (step-by-step guide)

9 employee of the month recognition ideas 

Employee of the Month is a meaningful designation, and the accompanying award should go beyond a quick thank-you to really show how much this employee’s contributions mean. The rewards you offer can still match your organization and your budget. 

Here are a few ideas at various price points—plus a few details on how to make these gifts personal and meaningful.

1. Extra PTO 

Give winners a vacation with some extra PTO days for Employees of the Month. Allowing employees to take a few days off during the month they win the award is a great way to let them choose how they want to celebrate.

2. Experiences

Do employees want to attend a sports game or concert? Are they interested in snorkeling, skydiving, or visiting a national park? Pay for winners to participate in an experience or event that aligns with their interests (and your budget level). 

3. Company swag

A small gift doesn’t have to be impersonal. Create a unique Employee of the Month design and let winners decide which branded item they’d like to receive. From practical office supplies to dress-code-compliant clothing options, choice makes this a personal, practical option.

4. Team activity

One way to spread excitement to more employees than just the winner is to allow them to choose an activity that their team gets to enjoy together. This can create stronger camaraderie and working relationships while celebrating a specific employee’s achievement.

5. Day of wellness

What makes the winner feel calm, happy, and recharged? It can look different for everyone: an afternoon at the spa, a day outside, a good book. Whatever the answer, allow the winner to choose a day of wellness, and then pay for what they need to unwind.

6. Traditional trophy

Traditional rewards can add a sense of importance to a moment. Put the winner’s name on a break room display, give them a trophy, and highlight them on the company’s social media—if public recognition matches their preferences and you gain consent. Pair this recognition tactic with a thoughtful gift for a well-rounded reward. 

7. Flexible reward points

Awardco offers flexible reward points that give employees a budget to spend on anything in the reward catalog, with millions of options to choose from. Give Employee of the Month winners the freedom to buy whatever they want with an extra set of funds added to their account.

8. Office makeover

For remote or hybrid employees, a budget to upgrade their home office situation could be very welcome. Whether they need a new desk, a new chair, or new accessories, this could make a big difference for day-to-day wellness and productivity.

9. Personalized gift

A small gift feels important when it is thoughtful and personalized. When you know your employee well, a surprise gift that matches their sensibilities can mean a lot. Consider ideas like a plant for their office space, a basket of their favorite snacks, or a book you know they’ll love.

Add employee of the month to your recognition strategy

A monthly award is a great way to reward employees for their month-long efforts and larger accomplishments. However, considering only one or a handful of employees will win each month, that’s not nearly enough recognition for all of your workforce.

Recognition should be frequent, genuine, and timely for everyone. So in addition to this monthly award, consider spot recognition, incentives, and milestone celebrations.

Schedule a demo to learn more about all the different types of employee recognition and rewards you can implement and customize around your budget.

Frequently asked questions 

What is employee of the month recognition? 

Employee of the month recognition spotlights one employee at your organization each month, recognizing them for stellar performance or upholding company values. Recognition for an Employee of the Month should come with meaningful feedback and personalized rewards.

How do you choose Employee of the Month fairly? 

Keep Employee of the Month programs fair by setting up clear program guidelines, outlining standard nomination criteria, and choosing varied winners across the company. 

Are Employee of the Month programs still effective? 

Yes, Employee of the Month programs can still be effective when they use clear criteria, an accessible nomination process, consistent review standards, and meaningful recognition. This kind of recognition program should be considered as one part of a well-rounded recognition strategy alongside other programs like anniversary milestones and peer recognition.