Spot Awards - Is there a guideline for the tangible value of the award?

We were helping a client redesign their Global Recognition program and were trying to determine the values for their Spot Award program. As a philosophy, the client wanted the Spot Award to be a tool available with every people manager to instantly recognize their employees for accomplishments or measurable behaviours aligned with the Company Values. They wanted a tangible award in addition to an e-Certificate.

After a lot of deliberation, we came to the conclusion that a Spot Award of this nature should at the least enable the individual to have a cup of coffee and a snack with a colleague/friend. So in that sense the award value would have to be around Rs.200/Rs.250 in India and perhaps $10 in the US. We used the same yardstick to determine the figures for other locations.

We also considered using a range, starting from a coffee and a snack for 2 (Rs.200/Rs.250) to a meal for 2 (Rs.800/Rs.1000) at the top end of the spot award program. The manager would have discretion on the award value based on what the employee was being recognized for and the business impact of the accomplishment.

Given that this company is just beginning to invest in creating a Recognition culture, we wanted the initial program to be really simple. So we ended up making a decision that the initial Spot Award program would have a single value and in the next year, we would introduce a range of values.