THE TROUBLE WITH

MILESTONESREEVALUATING

THE SERVICE ANNIVERSARY E X P E R I E N C E

A Service Anniversary celebration

is meant to look back over the

timeline of an employee’s experience

with your company and to thank that

employee for their engagement, loyalty

and contribution.

It is meant to celebrate, inspire,

increase satisfaction, increase

retention, and strengthen ties among

workers in your company.

But is that how it really works?

Our research shows that traditional

service anniversaries do not make

an impact.

In our 2014 Spring Workforce Mood

Tracker Report, we asked people how

traditional anniversary celebrations

made them feel. 50% of people said

‘it changed nothing at all’. Then we

asked people who had not received

an anniversary celebration how that

made them feel, 73% replied the

same: ‘it changed nothing at all’.

Why are service awards missing the mark?

MY NAME IS NOT “VALUED EMPLOYEE.”“When you get a letter telling you how

important your commitment is, and it’s

addressed to ‘valued employee’ it kinda

takes the wind out of your sails.”

Traditional service awards are perfunctory.

“My manager wrote me a congratulations

letter and offered to take me out to lunch,

but I politely declined. It would have been

uncomfortable with just two of us there.”

Traditional service awards are not inclusive of the work community.

AWKWARD.

“At our quarterly meeting, anyone with an

anniversary came to the podium and got a

certificate. Then we all posed for a photo.

You can see part of my head in the back row.”

Traditional service awards ignore individual contribution.

THAT’S ME IN THE BACK.

I SOLD MINE ON EBAY.“I guess it used to be a big thing to wear these

pins around, but pins and chachkes aren’t my

thing. I put mine up for auction and got $15.”

Traditional service awards haven’t evolved with the needs of new generations.

I GOT MINE FROM MY POSTMAN.“Ten years at my company and the only guy who

congratulated me was my mail carrier when my

letter came through the mail. There’s something

not right about that.”

Traditional service awards are isolating.

I GOT A CATALOG. IT’S STILL IN MY DRAWER.“It was nice of the company to make the effort,

but there wasn’t one thing in that catalog that

interested me. It was all junk, really.”

Traditional service awards don’t offer meaningful, individual rewards.

I WISH I WORKED IN ACCOUNTING.“I really like what they do in other

departments for anniversaries. The whole

group comes together. On our team no

one really notices when someone has

a milestone.”

Traditional service awards are inconsistent and decentralized.

MY MANAGER FORGOT.“She’s not a bad manager, just really busy. About

three months after my anniversary, she dropped by

my office and apologized for missing it.”

Traditional service awards are vulnerable to a single point of failure.

Service awards should be about a community coming

together to celebrate the loyalty and contribution of a

dedicated, unique individual.

Somewhere along the way we lost sight of that, and

anniversaries became about catalogs and certificates,

plaques and shipping routes. The result is an

underwhelming, disappointing experience that does

not move the needle on employee engagement

or commitment.

Service anniversaries are broken and disconnected.

So how can we repair them?

Expand beyond the manager.

Bring together an entire community of colleagues.

Create a rich, memorable, personal experience.

Reflect on the years of valuable contribution.

Offer a meaningful and limitless reward choice.

Automate processes to ensure no one is forgotten.

Integrate into the broader social recognition experience.

INTRODUCING SERVICE TIMELINES FROM GLOBOFORCEService Timelines is not a years of service

award. It is a revolutionary milestone

celebration experience.

By inviting participation from all of

your employees’ work circles, you can

effortlessly assemble a career retrospective

to illuminate the years of contribution

that your employee has dedicated to

your company.

This multimedia experience will remind

your workers of the strong community

they have created together—reinforcing

ties to managers and peers and to

your company vision, mission and

values through shared stories, images

and congratulations.

The milestone anniversary celebration

culminates in a choice of an award

to commemorate the moment—based

not on a catalog, but on what will be

most meaningful for your employee.

And because it is driven by automated

infrastructure with advanced analytics,

native mobile app availability and global

compliance and support, our technology

will continue to evolve and engage your

workforce—everywhere in the world .

TURN MILESTONES INTO CORNERSTONES.Schedule your tour of Service Timelines today.