Check out our top 20 ideas for funny employee awards! Get some inspiration for fun new employee recognition awards you can apply in your own company. Real life examples, practical tips and best practices included!
Looking for more creative and fun ways to recognize your employees than handing out the “Employee of the month” certificate?
You’ve come to the right place. 🙂
In this blog post, you’ll find some great, innovative and humorous ideas for employee awards your employees will actually love receiving!
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Employee recognition is the key to employee satisfaction.
Recognizing your employees boosts office morale and keeps employees motivated and engaged.
Employee awards are a common part of employee recognition programs.
Unfortunately, most employee awards ceremonies are...well, just plain boring.
How about turning them into fun, enjoyable event everyone at the office will love? 😍
All you need are practical planning tips and a list of funny employee award ideas. 💡
So let’s get started! 🙂
Funny employee awards are a simple, yet effective way to make employees laugh and feel appreciated. If done right, that is.
Here are the 5 key tips that will help you plan and give your funny employee awards in the right way:
Start with your company culture when creating funny employee awards.
Each company has a unique company culture and values. Make sure that your awards reflect them!
What do your value in your employees? Do you have specific office norms? Jokes? Start there.
You can also create a funny award theme that relates to your line of business.
For example, if you’re in healthcare, “Diagnosis: Awesome” or “Diagnosis: Farsightedness” could make great awards.
Be attentive and thoughtful with your funny employee awards. ⚠️
You need to be sure that your funny awards will entertain your employees, not embarrass them. Never make fun of your employee’s race, religion, sex, national origin or something similar.
Instead, focus on their quirky traits they are aware of and take lightheartedly. Still, be careful. Always consider an individual employee’s temperament and sense of humor.
Employees who often make jokes at their own expense might be more open to jokes than others.
Involve your employees in the brainstorming of your funny employee awards. 🧠
Once you create a list of funny employee awards, send it around your office. Ask your employees to nominate their colleagues and vote for them.
You can also ask your employees to suggest additional funny employee award categories. Turn it into a fun, inclusive office tradition!
Make an event around your funny employee awards. Your awards ceremony can be as grand or as modest as you like.
For example, you can throw your own Oscar party. Set up a red carpet outside the meeting space and have one of your employees posing as a paparazzi photographer as the guests arrive. Dress code? Glamourous of course! 💃 🤵
Your company culture is laid back and casual? Then host your funny award ceremony at the office, with a couple of snacks and drinks, one Friday afternoon.
Hand out prizes and/or trophies to your funny employee award winners. 🏆
The prizes don’t have to be expensive. The point is to have a good time and laugh, not to give out valuable awards.
Go to a dollar store and pick out a variety of low-cost items related to the award itself.
For example, a keychain flashlight can be a great award for your employee whose positive attitude shines even in the darkest of times.
We have rallied a few best real-life examples of companies doing the funny employee awards right. Check them out:
Before the end of each year, everyone at Enplug nominates and votes for one another for the Enplug Awards.
This award game was established the first year that the company was started and it’s been a fun tradition ever since.
The Enplug awards range from “Most likely to have 10 kids” to “Most likely to give you a ride home from jail”.
So simple, yet so funny - I love it! 😍
Take a look at a few more examples of their funny employee awards:
A gold spray painted toilet brush might sound a bit weird as an employee award - especially if given to a retiring CEO.
But when you put in the context it actually makes a hilarious employee award! Namely, there was a purpose in the gift sense this individual truly appreciated a clean restroom.
Kudos to the whole team and their CEO for a great sense of humor! 😄
OfficeTeam company has created a funny employee ward system on the theme of the Most Embarrassing Moments at Work.
Their employees were awarded for:
Getting locked in the office,
Going into the ladies’ bathroom by mistake,
Answering the phone using the wrong company name,
Sending a job offer to the wrong candidate,
Wearing bathroom slippers to work while in a rush.
They give out this type of employee awards because they believe that humor can help their employees recover from uncomfortable situations. And they swear it works! 🙂
An OfficeNinja’s author shared her experience of working for a company with a “You Rock” award. The fun thing is that the “trophy” was an actual rock!
Employees would award it to one another every month in recognition of exemplary support and teamwork.
The author says this tradition was a simple and nice way to show appreciation for a colleague’s work.
This example also illustrates how the trophy (in this case, a rock) can be a fun way to express your company’s personality (this company was outdoorsy).
Check out these 20 creative, funny and thoughtful employee award ideas:
Duct tape 🛠️
Award for being able to fix just about anything
Mission impossible 🎯
Award for achieving the impossible
The office prankster 😂
Award for causing uproarious laughter at your office
Always in a meeting 📅
Award for an employee who is always in a meeting
Office DJ 🎵
Award for a person in your office who always plays the (loudest) music
The Bermuda Triangle 📐
Award for owning the mysterious desk where things go in and never return
Punny 🤓
Award for that very special employee who always makes clever puns and wordplay
Pen stealer ✏️
Award for the employee who is always walking off with other people’s pens
The Picasso 🎨
Award for an employee who is always doodling something
Super snacker 😋
Award for the employee who's snacking, snacking, snacking all the time
The caffeine addict ☕
Award for the employee who is inseparable from their cups of coffee
Busy bee 🐝
Award for the employee who doesn't even have time for this award
Space-time continuum ⏲️
Award for the employee who is always late for meetings - even those they organize
Always hungry 🍽️
Award for an employee who is always looking for something to eat
Human Wikipedia 🧠
Award for an employee who has all the answers and facts in their sleeve
The angry bird 🤬
Award for an employee who gets easily upset and is always scowling
The early bird 🐦
An award for an employee who thinks that being on time is too late
Supply chain 📎
Award for an employee who always seems to need a stapler, tape, a hole punch or yet another batch of paper clips
Neatest nook 🗃️
Award for the employee who keeps the cleanest desk or cubicle in the office
Ping pong master 🏓
Award for the employee who is a table tennis champion of your office
If you want to create custom certificates for your funny employee awards, I suggest a free designing tool Canva.
Canva offers many different types of certificate templates you can customize in just a few clicks! You can change colors to match your company’s branding style, add your logo, etc.
Here is an example:
And that’s a wrap. 🙂
We covered everything you need to know to introduce a new, fun tradition in your company.
You learned:
➡️ Practical tips for planning your funny employee awards ceremony
You discovered:
➡️ Real-life examples of companies making the most out of funny company awards
And I hope you got inspired by:
➡️ 20 funny employee award ideas!
Now go on and start having fun with your employee awards. 😁
