How to Celebrate Employee of the Month: Ideas to Keep This Company Tradition Relevant

In my years as both a team member and a founder, I’ve sat through plenty of Employee of the Month celebrations. Laid bare, it’s a great concept. It’s a positive acknowledgment of someone’s good work. It inspires and motivates others to work toward the same.

At least, it should.

Creating HeyTaco fundamentally changed the way I view something like an Employee of the Month program. I’m not alone there. Today’s employees increasingly see these celebrations as old-fashioned and irrelevant to their individual development.  

This doesn’t necessarily mean I think they need to be tossed out altogether. Implementing Employee of the Month ideas that promote more inclusivity can optimize the benefits of this tradition for modern times. 

How does Employee of the Month motivate staff?

Rewards motivate staff to actively engage with Employee of the Month programs. However, I don’t believe the cash bonus or the gift card is the reward that truly drives them. 

Employee of the Month endures as a motivator because winning team members feel valued, acknowledged, praised, and accomplished. But how is this helping the team as a whole? What does one person getting to feel all of those positive emotions once a month do for team morale and company culture?

This is the main issue we need to address in updating these programs.

The pros and cons of an Employee of the Month program

Before I give you the key to making Employee of the Month effective, I want to more thoroughly illustrate how the lack of inclusivity drags these programs down. 

The following should help you decide whether or not you should implement it at all. 

Pro: It makes the recipient feel like they belong.  

Awards send a message that you’re in the right place, doing the right thing. They’re very affirming when you’re relatively new to a company or have been intentionally improving certain areas.  

Con: It can breed resentment. 

Let’s be realistic. It isn’t always the case that Employee of the Month is the new guy, or the person who turned a new leaf. It’s often the same few people. Team members who aren’t proclaimed winners resent the “contest” and the company favorites. 

Those who aren’t resentful just lose interest and tune it out, which does nothing for morale or team-building.

Pro: It sets a performance standard.

Having a clear set of criteria for this award helps define company expectations. Employees understand precisely what it takes to be an asset to their team. In large organizations or companies with diverse roles, this can be more difficult to ascertain.

Con: It overlooks the good performance of others.

If Employee of the Month identifies a person who met or exceeded the company standard, does that mean everyone else didn’t? Highly unlikely. Now we have employees who did perform to company standards feeling undervalued. 

They may feel motivated to try harder next time. However, it’s just as possible they’ll be left feeling like their best isn’t good enough, when it is. 

Pro: They’re easy to implement.

It’s fairly uncomplicated to create an Employee of the Month program. It’s a popular reward system almost everyone is familiar with. It can also be very budget-friendly. 

Con: The benefits aren’t long term.

Employee of the Month can motivate team members to excel–for a little while. Whether striving for the finish line or accepting the award, the shine goes dull relatively quickly. It’s definitely not the sort of initiative that provides daily motivation. 

Pro: Public praise is important in the workplace.

Praise is a positive action that’s great for morale and continued success. Instructing and correcting are a necessity on the job. Balancing it out by telling people what they’re doing right is essential, too.

Con: It emphasizes competition over collaboration.

You can win Employee of the Month for being a great collaborator, but what about your collaborators? At its core, Employee of the Month is a competition. Teams who value and perfect collaboration are capable of engaging in friendly competition, but this simply isn’t where every team is at.  

How to bring Employee of the Month ideas into 2025 

Whether building a reward system from the ground up or modernizing the current one, the fixes are manageable. The following Employee of the Month ideas are more conducive to consistent motivation and meaningful praise.

Celebrate with team-building activities

Instead of singling someone out for an announcement and giving them a prize in front of everyone else, make it a team event. Games, lunch, a meetup after work–the way you celebrate matters less than ensuring that everyone has a chance to enjoy the occasion.

Expand the awards (and make them more specific)

No, everyone doesn’t need a trophy to feel good about themselves. However, praise is much more effective when it’s specific. Have your reward program highlight the month’s most helpful colleague, the most efficient taskmaster, the best collaborator, or the most morale-boosting attitude. 

Be transparent about selection

If employees know how and why an honoree is chosen, they’re less likely to suspect favoritism or other unfair practices. They can also identify what made them stand out from other high-performing staff, whether it was their punctuality or how they encourage others daily. 

Let teams choose who to celebrate

Each team member has a unique, insider perspective on what each of their coworkers contributes. Accept nominations from them, or use peer-to-peer recognition tools to measure who they appreciated the most this month. 

Bottom line: The best Employee of the Month program ideas include peer-to-peer recognition

Getting everyone involved in the process can transform Employee of the Month programs from exclusive awards to team-building celebrations. Recognizing one another in ways big and small becomes part of their culture.

The advantages are clear:

• Prioritizes collaboration–Putting one another in the spotlight is more team-oriented

• Offers sustained motivation–Peer-to-peer recognition is a daily practice that makes our efforts feel valued all of the time

• Increases inclusivity–Everyone feels like they have a voice in the workplace and an impact on the culture

• Feels more meaningful–Our coworkers understand our challenges and efforts on a different level, so receiving praise from them feels especially genuine

Teams celebrate every day with HeyTaco

You don’t have to urge staff to recite niceties or come up with compliments. Tools like HeyTaco help them make small gestures of genuine approval, even when they’re really busy.

It’s a strategy adopted by Brazilian consultant group Haze Shift. They skyrocketed employee satisfaction and increased employee engagement by 30% using HeyTaco. 

The importance of peer-to-peer recognition is growing alongside remote work. Teams need more opportunities to interact with and appreciate one another. Peer-to-peer recognition can replace monthly awards or infuse existing programs with more inclusivity and positivity.