How to start a successful employee recognition plan

Your employees have weathered an almost unfathomable amount of change. From being in the office to quickly pivoting to work from home, to whatever workplace model you've found works best. It can seem like there's no end, but as the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, "The only constant is change."

Over the decades, our workplaces have constantly evolved as the ways we work and the tools we use have changed. There were once entire floors and teams devoted to maintaining large computers and data storage systems onsite. Now we use laptops and connect to cloud computing and storage to work from practically anywhere with a good WiFi signal. Employees once worked in cubicles with high walls, which slowly changed to half walls, eventually giving way to open-concept workspaces. Workspaces where even though you're wearing headphones, someone would still tap you on the shoulder to ask a question.

Heraclitus said the only constant is change, and he's almost correct. There's one other constant that successful organizations have – they're great at employee recognition.

Helping organizations recognize employees for their professional and personal milestones is our mission at Chocolate Soup. Celebrating your employees helps scale your culture by:

• Connecting employees no matter where they work.

• Giving employees opportunities to share more about their lives outside of work.

• Showcasing the impact each employee has on your organization's success.

Even with the struggles of the pandemic, many of our clients have reached significant milestones. Milestones they want their teams to celebrate – but getting gifts out to 10, 100, 1,000 employees can be difficult. It's not just packing and shipping. It's the curation of the gifts. It's creating personalized touches that mean more than just a branded coffee mug.

How we help with employee recognition

We offer a subscription service that sends beautifully curated, locally sourced gift boxes to your employees and their family members to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, and more.

To recognize work milestones, we offer our Build Your Career add-on that includes a customized LEGO™ person for every team member, along with milestone bricks for work anniversaries, product launches, and sales celebrations – whatever milestones matter to your team. 

We also offer seasonal gift boxes as ways to show appreciation during the year, even when there's nothing to celebrate.

These gifts do more than help you celebrate. They help start conversations between your employees. Our clients have shared how an employee will post a child's birthday gift box – which sparks a conversation between employees about their children. Great leaders know that their employees care more about their kids than they do about their jobs. As soon as someone takes an interest in your life outside of work, that is step one towards friendship, or at least towards a more meaningful relationship.

That's what we do. We help your employees develop interpersonal relationships, which increases their sense of belonging. That belonging can help drive increased productivity and creates a culture people want to be a part of. It's purpose. It's value. It's Chocolate Soup.

How it works

Getting to know you 

Getting started starts with a phone call. It's an opportunity to get to know your business, your employees, and your goals. From there, we prepare a customized employee recognition plan for your organization. Each plan is unique because each organization is unique.

Automating your employee recognition program

We offer flexible plans for teams of all sizes, from a Start plan recognizing your employees' birthdays to our Growth plan with gifts for children's birthdays, partner birthdays, and more.

Once the recognition plan is approved, you securely send us milestone information for your team. We take privacy and security seriously – including GDPR-compliant storage and removal of personal information. The information you share is based on what milestones you want to celebrate, including: 

• Employee birthdays

• Employee work anniversaries

• Employee family member birthdays and anniversaries

• Company anniversaries and milestones

We curate each box, handwrite a note, and deliver recognition to your employee's doorsteps for each milestone in your recognition plan. They are carefully curated for your company, providing a personalized and unique experience. Our unbranded gift boxes are filled with essential and fun products your team will love, like tech accessories, treats, and more. We do the gifting — your organization gets all the credit.

Our frictionless approach to employee recognition means you get time back in your calendar and have peace of mind knowing that you're never missing a special moment like a birthday or employee anniversary. 

Celebrating just because

We offer customized and remote team gift boxes for any occasion too. Celebrate an employee purchasing their first home to sending out gifts celebrating a team finishing a major project. We source local, Canadian-made products and can customize your gift boxes to meet your unique needs.

Get in touch

We're here to take care of the gifting, letting you sit back and watch your company culture grow by recognizing employees' personal and professional milestones. Get in touch with us today, and let's see how we can help you.