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Company Rewards and Recognition Ideas

polycounter lvl 12
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dand3d polycounter lvl 12
Hey everyone I am in need of some assistance, and ideas.
I was chosen to be part of a team at my studio to come up with some ideas that can be used to reward and recognize people for working hard and being with the company for a long time.

As of right now we have some ideas, but I am reaching out here to get an idea of what other companies do to motivate or reward their workers for a job well done. 

Currently we have these ideas.

Performance Feedback (Which will lead to rewards and Recognition)

Playstation Plus Gift Cards (we are a Sony company)

Playstation store gift cards

Free games.


Likewise at the studio there are full time employee and contractors, so things like bonuses to pay wont work as only full time employees would have access to rewards like these and we want all employees to have the ability to get a chance to be rewarded. Likewise there are other "rewards" that full time get such as a 5, 10 and 20 year trophy type thing. 

So if anyone could give some ideas, or what their studios do for these type of things I would really appreciate it. 

Thanks!

Replies

  • Ruz
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    Ruz polycount lvl 666
    extra money woud be my first choice
  • dand3d
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    dand3d polycounter lvl 12
    Ruz said:
    extra money woud be my first choice
    True this would be my first choice as well, but Full time employees seem to be the only ones to have this option for rewards, and we are looking for rewards that all employees would be able to get.
  • slipsius
    Why only fulltime people? Pre-paid credit cards! Just like a gift card, but they can use it anywhere!
  • dand3d
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    dand3d polycounter lvl 12
    slipsius said:
    Why only fulltime people? Pre-paid credit cards! Just like a gift card, but they can use it anywhere!
    That is a good question, I am not quite sure but full time get yearly bonus and part time does not have access to that and other things. But I'd like not to get into Full time VS contractor thing here. 
    Pre-paid crecit cards is a good idea though I'll add that to a list of things thank you!
  • Brian "Panda" Choi
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    Brian "Panda" Choi high dynamic range
    Weird thought:

    Government bonds?  or similar investments?
  • MagicSugar
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    MagicSugar polycounter lvl 10
    Back in my corporate studio days...loved the education or self-enhancement benefit a lot.  It was something like 3 times a year you get up to $400 to spend on a class.  If the class or workshop is outside the city you can still apply it towards your travel cost or course fee.

    Took lots of night art courses at the local U as well as nudie figure drawing drop-ins. Even a Don Bluth cartoon workshop in Emeryville (where Pixar hq is located).

    Freelancing now, I'd be happy with just Gumroad money or even, if you guys are doing very well (cuz maybe you're fucking SuperCell bought for billions by Tencent) maybe you'll give out 1 year gnomon tutorial subscription membership.
  • RyanB
    Stock purchase plan.  Discount based on years worked, employment status, performance, etc.
    Paid time off.
    Sabbatical.

  • dand3d
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    dand3d polycounter lvl 12
    All these suggestions are great and I appreciate them! I think there is another group trying to do the education thing for people. 
    Keep them up please all suggestions are helpful!
  • aesir
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    aesir polycounter lvl 18
    Professional masseuse comes in and gives them a massage.  

    Happy hour - work ends an hour early, you bring in a bartender and get people drunk.  Alternatively blizzard does a cubicle crawl where you go from cube to cube and have a drink at each one.

    A nice bottle of scotch.

    In n Out truck day.  They come to your office.  It's awesome.

    Give them a sword.  A real sword.

    Cigars.

    Mini fridge under their desk full of awesome stuff.  

    Limo to and from work for a week.


  • seth.
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    seth. polycounter lvl 14
    sleep, give them the gift of sleep.

    late starts ftw.

  • PixelMasher
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    PixelMasher veteran polycounter
    my biggest one besides a raise and extra money would be extra free days off to use whenever they want. I love to travel and spend as much time doing that as I can outside of work.
  • lefix
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    lefix polycounter lvl 11
    Give them a raise or promotion :pleased:
    Or more vacation!
  • yukonwanderer
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    yukonwanderer polygon
    Yeah if not financial compensation, I vote for some paid days off, or other quality of life things like gym membership, childcare, free learning etc. Sony store perks and products like you mentioned would be cool too.
  • Eric Chadwick
    Tidal Blast said:
    Personally, I think that a company that threats employees like family is hard to beat. 
    :D

  • Jonas Ronnegard
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    Jonas Ronnegard polycount sponsor
    days off with a paid trip somewhere ;)
  • dand3d
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    dand3d polycounter lvl 12
    Thank you everyone for the responses I'll shoot these ideas forward!
  • Geezus
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    Geezus mod
    Nothing. Personal incentives for "working hard" tend to breed a toxic studio culture, in my experiences. Obviously, performance based raises and a boosted bonus for how impactful your work on the project is/was is always good, but I've really never seen anything past that work out well. At the end of the day, we're a team, and any extra benefits or rewards for a job well done should be shared among the team.
  • pior
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    pior grand marshal polycounter
    Nothing. Personal incentives for "working hard" tend to breed a toxic studio culture [...]

    100% agreed. If anything I find rewards for things that are not performance-related to be much more appropriate. Things like getting rewarded for carpooling or biking to work, or even, activities offered to everybody regardless of so-called performance, than anyone can opt-in to without being mandatory.

    I would go as far as saying that incentives offered for so-called "hard work" at a studio would be a red flag for me.

    I'd second the idea of group art classes (opt-in, not mandatory).
  • dand3d
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    dand3d polycounter lvl 12
    Geezus and Pior.  Thanks this too is a good information. What I think the upper management is trying to do is undo the somewhat toxic studio culture that is here at the moment between the full time and contractor workers. 

    I am not  going to go into the differences and the causes of it but I think management is trying to alleviate the toxicity with these "carrots on a stick". 
  • Add3r
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    Add3r polycounter lvl 11
    At previous studios and my current, they have rewarded employees for communication, team work, morale boosting, etc.  Performance rewarding by leadership does tend to breed toxic behavior when it is all that is driving morale.  If you have employees all working together, and leave the nominations for peers, I think you are off to a good start.  You don't want to start a studio culture driven by other people attempting to simply out work or out succeed others, rather you want them working together to create product X or Y, having the studio out perform other competing studios.  I do believe individual performance can be good to reward, but I think it should be largely decided on by peers rather than just leadership, which is something that will happen once everyone is working together.  
  • dand3d
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    dand3d polycounter lvl 12
    Add3r Thank you, This is a good idea to still have rewards without them turning the situation toxic.

  • beefaroni
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    beefaroni sublime tool
    Add3r said:
    At previous studios and my current, they have rewarded employees for communication, team work, morale boosting, etc.  
    Yea, a studio I worked at handled it this way and it's a great way to reward people. Who doesn't like more communication between modellers and game design, or modellers and animation? It's a win win for everyone.
  • Jonas Ronnegard
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    Jonas Ronnegard polycount sponsor
    thinking about what others said I also think it might be good to keep away from individual awards, keep individual performance to the salary.
    I know Dice do stuff on a team/studio level, If I remember right the whole studio went to Dubai because they hit their sales goal.
  • almighty_gir
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    almighty_gir ngon master
    reward character artists by getting scott eaton in to educate them.

    reward environment artists by taking them on a group trip to some awesome castle or something.

    reward everyone by taking them on paintballing or other fun activities.

    rewards in the workplace should always, ALWAYS be fun, engaging, and should in some way help bond the group even further. personal rewards only trend toward unfair competition.
  • dand3d
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    dand3d polycounter lvl 12
    Awesome thank you all for the suggestions! I have brought up the suggestions and the ideas that we should try not to cause a toxic studio environment. 
    Now it is up to the Management and out of my hands! 
    Once again thank you everyone for the suggestions and the words of wisdom.
  • Deathstick
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    Deathstick polycounter lvl 7
    We have some pretty sweet christmas parties at our company, my first one was at a nice old mansion with some pretty sweet catering and open bar. Apparently the years before was a booze cruise but I missed those doh! Also the company does pizza/cake for things like 10 years at the company, gold watch at 25 etc. Secret Santas, etc. Makes it feel like the company really cares about people who come into work, and also manages projects pretty well so there really isn't ever such a thing as "crunch time." Yay for a business that let's you go home not feeling terrible after putting in a solid 8 hours of work. Also actually good health insurance and dental is aweeeesomeee (I drink alot of energy drinks/aka teeth killers...eeeep)

    We also had an unofficial "bowling league" during the winter which was pretty fun and handicapped so it was mostly who improved the best/won the most games gets a high score so everyone can play. Ended up stopping once spring hits though as people want to spend time with their families/enjoy the outdoors but its great for the winter chill.

    Last thing, the company merchandise is sahweeet. Almost everyone wears Kongsberg t-shirts, coats, or fleeces one day or the other. And the coffee mugs have a picture fade into view when the cup is hot! Free coffee too with the k-cups. Best part of my morning is seeing that picture fade into view, teh coolest!
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 19
    I worked at a company that didn't do free snacks, drinks or bowling trips, they did give us nice fat quarterly bonus checks.  When the layoffs happen, I appreciate the money more than the cheap pizza and soda parties.

    "What I think the upper management is trying to do is undo the somewhat toxic studio culture that is here at the moment between the full time and contractor workers. "

    If you decide on trips and parties or anything else that happens during work hours, treat the contractors just like full time employees, pay them.  Most studios tell contractors they won't get paid during the 4 hour museum trip during work hours, so they can either stay in the office, work overtime to make up, or just get a smaller pay check that week.  9 times out of 10 the contractors will stay behind so it doesn't do anything to help full time/contractor relations.
  • Thane-
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    Thane- polycounter lvl 3
    How do you measure this? Add up the polygons of finished pieces? :) The number of shader nodes? The number of frames for finished animations? :)

    Isn't getting back (money) what you put into the *team* effort good enough? Or maybe your company is another one trying to be shaped like a pyramid scheme pay wise and these are simply carrots of a stick for . Why not just assure them they can get back what they put in, although how you would keep track. Maybe be proactive about keeping track of deserved wages increases.

    I've had the idea that "money is the root of all evil" shoved up my ass my entire life only to finally realize that, in our society where everything costs money, even just to set yourself down in the company of others for a short time as an lonely elderly person (aka coffee shop) it is perhaps the largest part of a foundation of happiness, its important and its importance has been under-rated for a long time. Just pay people what they truly contributed to the actually product/service, not what the surplus of labor dictates they will be willing to work for.
  • Kwramm
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    Kwramm interpolator
    reward people with trust and freedom
    Geezus said:
    Nothing. Personal incentives for "working hard" tend to breed a toxic studio culture, in my experiences.
    My previous studio didn't fall for the "work hard" carrot. At one time leadership had the idea to create a big bonus pool and share it with the hardest workers. People realized that the more people work hard, the fewer each of them would get, to the point where not working gained you more than participating in the rush for the bonus. It turned out that one guy got the entire bonus and that not much extra work was done at all. The plan totally backfired.

  • Biomag
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    Biomag sublime tool
    Kwramm said:
    reward people with trust and freedom
    Geezus said:
    Nothing. Personal incentives for "working hard" tend to breed a toxic studio culture, in my experiences.
    My previous studio didn't fall for the "work hard" carrot. At one time leadership had the idea to create a big bonus pool and share it with the hardest workers. People realized that the more people work hard, the fewer each of them would get, to the point where not working gained you more than participating in the rush for the bonus. It turned out that one guy got the entire bonus and that not much extra work was done at all. The plan totally backfired.


    One of the many dangers of those rewards.

    Back in my previous job there where monthly rewards for people who had the highest costs cuts from lawyer bills, most files closed and another one that I forgot. Needless to say that weren't the smartest incentitives. None of them raised the quality of work, younger employes had smaller cases with lower costs and fewer in numbers so they had no chances of winning the monthly rewards. The rewards improved nothing just gave the people motivation to screw statistics to win them or gave them the feeling of not being among the 'good' workers though often there was little they could do to improve their stats form the get go. Moral was as low as before or even worse as people got the feeling of additional pressure to keep stats up, while not gaining anything from it.

    Always keep in mind how important transparency in such things is. If people feel they have no chance in getting it the harm those rewards can cause are big. They are far from the easy solution to go with just to fix some motivation issues.

    From my experience relaxed team building events (just events people get time to talk to each other and get to know each other)  and solid communications and transparency in every day work situations do far more than any reward-system. Also as Justin Meisse said - treat same things the same way. If your contract workers are actually in a situation that is very similar to your regular workers then pay their company activities.
  • dand3d
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    dand3d polycounter lvl 12
    Thank you all for all the information and feedback. 
    I think it is saying something that the most asked for thing as a "reward" in our company is reviews on a somewhat regular basis (twice annually) for the non full time employees.
  • Drav
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    Drav polycounter lvl 9
    Bonuses for everyone when the company is doing well, and, Shares in the company for leads and key people....incentivize, make your team a part of the success. Tbh, anything less is just bullshit imo :D
  • Gaurav Mathur
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    Gaurav Mathur polycounter lvl 13
    I was among a group of onsite contractors for one of my first jobs in the game industry.  We worked hard alongside the fulltime employees.  The fulltime employees got offsite events, company-branded clothing, and other benefits.  It was demoralizing to feel like we were in another class when we were equally invested in the success of the game we were working on together.  That experience taught me the importance of treating everyone well, especially when the only difference between contractors and fulltime employees is where they're located in a project's budget.

    What's the cost of inclusivity?  More often than not, it's probably worth it for team cohesiveness to take everyone to an offsite or get everyone that project t-shirt.   :)
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