How to Choose Employee Award Winners

Your office party is coming up and you've settled on an Employee Awards Show theme. You've even decided to include some funny awards to make sure the presentation isn't a drag. So how do you decide who’s going to get an award?

• First, put together a selection committee of 2-3 people who know most everyone in the office. The key is not to do this alone. You need a group to suss out the recipients’ vulnerabilities and personalities. Something you might consider hilarious, they might consider offensive.
• When choosing your award recipients, make sure you have the biggest characters in the office covered. The awards ceremony will only be as good as the winners, and an event filled with boring acceptance speeches won’t be much fun for anyone.
• Only give the funny awards to those with a sense of humor who don’t have any problem poking fun at themselves. You don’t want to turn into Michael Scott from The Office.
• It works well to make of list of those you’d like to give awards to, then find one that’s suitable from the list of options.

If you’re worried at all that your award may embarrass the winner, you can always tip that person off ahead of time. It won’t ruin the presentation. Remember, the idea is to create an entertaining presentation for the entire audience – not just to surprise one person.

Telling the winner ahead of time will allow that person to voice any objections, and will give them time to prepare a funny speech if they choose to do so. Everyone else will still be surprised and entertained when the award winner is announced, and you won’t have to worry about any potential awkward moments!

When picking awards, remember that the intent here is to have fun — not to embarrass.

For more tips, download our Funny Employee Awards eBook.