Employee of the Year Awards

The one award a company gives once a year, and what makes it look the part

Short answer

An employee of the year award is the top individual award a company gives, presented once, usually at a year-end event. Because it is given to one person, it is the place to use a fully custom piece: a shaped, layered acrylic award built around your logo, or a larger wood plaque, with the winner’s name and a specific citation. We make them singly, with no minimum order, and send a design proof for approval before anything is produced. Many companies add a perpetual that records each year’s winner.

Layered acrylic award with a clear mountain-profile backing plate and a red and black cut-out X

Why this award should not look like the others

On an awards night with ten or fifteen presentations, the audience should be able to tell which award is the big one before a word is said. If employee of the year is the same piece as the department awards with a different line of text, the night loses its peak.

There are three reliable ways to set it apart, and the best awards use more than one:

  • Size: noticeably taller or wider than everything else given that night.
  • Construction: more layers, a shaped outline, or a metal element where the other awards are a single printed panel.
  • Uniqueness: a design used for this award only, and kept the same every year so that it becomes recognizable inside the company.

Fully custom work is where this happens. Custom awards shows what can be built from scratch, and corporate awards covers how the top award fits into a wider program.

Ways to build the top award

Fully custom award icon

Fully custom award

Shaped and layered in acrylic around your logo, printed in full color, on a wood or acrylic base. One design, kept for this award alone.

Wall plaque icon

Large wood plaque

A formal option for companies that display awards on a wall. A printed acrylic face carries the logo, the name and a longer citation.

Custom acrylic award icon

Perpetual plus keeper

A perpetual in the lobby gains a plate each year, and the winner takes home their own award. The record stays with the company.

What to put on it

The award name, the year, the winner’s name, a citation and the company. The citation is what separates this award from a monthly one: a year gives you enough material to say something real.

Employee of the Year
2026
Daniel Reyes
For leading the warehouse move without a single missed shipment
Company Name

Ask the winner’s manager for the citation, and ask early. It is the line most often written the night before, and the one the winner will read most often afterward. Two lines is enough. A job title is optional; it dates quickly and many people would prefer the award to outlast the role.

Employee of the year wording has a full set of examples, including how to split permanent wording from the wording that changes each year.

Finalists, runners-up and department winners

If the company names finalists, decide whether they receive something. A finalist award that is clearly related to the main award, smaller and simpler but in the same design family, makes the shortlist feel like an achievement and not a near miss.

  • One winner only: a single custom piece. Simple, and all the attention goes to one person.
  • Winner and finalists: one large award and a set of matching smaller ones. Order them together so the artwork is consistent.
  • Department or site winners feeding one overall winner: a matched set for the departments, with the overall award a step above. Semi-custom awards keep a set like this uniform.

If the winner is chosen from the year’s monthly winners, the two awards should look related. Employee of the month awards covers the monthly side.

Presenting it

Employee of the year is normally the last award of the event. Keep the winner’s name off the printed program if it is a surprise, and brief whoever is handing it over on how to pronounce the name and which way up the award sits in its box.

If the winner is not known until shortly before the event, tell us when you request a quote. Ask whether the design can be approved first with the name to follow, so the only open item is one line of text.

How to present an award gives the presenter a structure, and how to write an award nomination helps the people putting names forward. All the guides for company buyers are in the Recognition Library.

Employee of the Year Awards FAQs

What is a good employee of the year award?

One that is visibly a step above every other award the company gives: larger, more dimensional, and in a design reserved for this award. It should carry the winner’s name, the year and a specific citation.

Should employee of the year be a plaque or a freestanding award?

Either works. A freestanding custom award stands out more on stage and on a desk. A plaque suits companies where awards are hung on office walls. Choose by where the winner is likely to keep it.

Can you make just one award?

Yes. There is no minimum order, and a single custom award for one winner is a normal order.

What if we do not know the winner yet?

Tell us when you request the quote. The design can usually be settled first, and we will tell you how late the name can be supplied against your event date.

Should we keep the same design every year?

Usually yes. An award that looks the same each year becomes recognizable inside the company, and past winners’ awards stay part of the same series. The design can be reordered with only the name, year and citation changed.

Do you make awards for finalists as well?

Yes. Finalist awards are normally smaller, simpler versions of the main award, designed and ordered together so they match.

Racer in a helmet raising both arms as gold confetti falls under stage lights
ONE AWARD, ONCE A YEAR?

Let us design it around your logo

Send your logo, the award name, the year and the citation if you have it. We will design the piece and send a proof before anything is produced.

Include the date of the event and we will quote against it.

Request a Quote