Field service techs have a tough job. It’s hard to work in air-conditioned comfort when you’re sweating on the job because you’re fixing someone’s broken air conditioner. Unless it’s winter, in which case you’re freezing because you’re there to fix the furnace.
Not only are field service jobs often complicated, they can be physically taxing and come with unhappy clients anxious to get their equipment in working order. Recruiting and training can also be difficult in this field, where people with the right knowledge, skills and abilities are few and far between.
All of this means that you want to do whatever you can to retain your hard-working techs, and reward them for their efforts. But is an award for years of service something worth considering?
To keep reading, click here: Is It Wise to Give Techs ‘Years of Service’ Awards?
Another grammatically correct article about something you know nothing about. A Fitbit or Bose headphones may be something YOU crave, but not every field service tech desires to be a yuppie techie. Likewise giving cash IS NOT a wise service award. After the money is spend on groceries or beer or a fill-up for your car, you have zero memory of what you spent the “cash” on. A gift certificate, on the other hand, is an excellent service award. It can be turned in a durable good the employee actually wants and needs, such as a TV or blender. And every time the employee uses the item, he/she will remember it was provided by the employer. If you must write, do some research.
Your answer is condescending. You think you know better than a hard-working adult how he or she should spend a cash bonus. And an outside tech would spend a small windfall on beer. Nonsense!
My Fortune 20 corporation has a service awards system for all employees whether they work outdoors or not, and it treats them employees all the same. Every five years the employee may choose a gift from a catalog based on years of service, 5, 10, 15, etc. Each tier has several gifts designed to appeal to a wide range of interests. So for, say, 20 years, there might be a men’s and a women’s watch, a crystal vase, a TV, a pair of binoculars, a grill, a Bose wave radio, and a digital camera.
President or mail room clerk, everyone chooses from the same catalogue. The program is administered by a third party.
Why are you the way you are? Find another target, friend. Your diatribes are getting old here.
I like cash bonuses. Plaques and pins are dated and worthless. Who doesn’t need or want money? I personally hate gift cards and don’t use them.
Any acknowledgement of years of service is acceptable because those fields of work are physically straining on body, even though people will claim mental work is just as demanding. I would make one small suggestion for what is awarded—give the person who’s receiving it a choice of how they want to receive the gift part of award beyond the obvious to be framed document. Not everyone wants a bunch of trophies but would welcome spending money giving in a check or gift certificate.
The only negative point I have about these “gift “ awards is the recipient being forced to pay taxes while the company gets a tax deduction.
” think about what would be meaningful to your employees”
Exactly this (even if not everyone picked up on it 😉 ). If the comments show nothing else, it’s that not everyone wants the same thing. Knowing people well enough to know what they’ll find meaningful is the trick though, and I still think cash or gift cards are best if you aren’t in a position to know what specific employees want. A former boss once gave me a cordless drill as a parting gift. I still use it and I still think of him and all the repairs we did in the restaurant together when I do. Headphones? I’d have said thank you and regifted.
I’m kind of ambivalent about years of service awards. When I was younger they were great. As years started to add up, though, it felt rather like a “look how old!” announcement in an ageist working world. For those companies that choose to go that way, though, I’d recommend an Amazon gift card. Our company was on one of those attaboy “points” services that offered points for special efforts or anniversaries. While it included a nice catalog of stuff to spend points on, it was much more economical to turn them into Amazon dollars and have everything imaginable available for rewards, like the anniversary venetian blinds or lawn mowers that people picked out.