Honorary Awards and Informal Recognition Awards FAQs
Agencies are authorized to grant honorary awards and informal recognition
awards to recognize their employees' performance. Some frequently asked
questions about honorary awards and informal recognition awards include:
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What is an honorary award? |
An honorary award is a gesture of respect
given to an employee to recognize his or her performance and value
to the organization. Honorary awards are generally symbolic. Many
agencies include as part of their overall incentive awards programs
a traditional form of high-level, formal "honor awards."
Often, such honor award programs do not use monetary recognition at
all, but emphasize providing formal, highly symbolic recognition of
significant contributions and publicly recognizing organizational
heroes as examples for other employees to follow. They typically involve
formal nominations, are granted in limited numbers, and are approved
and presented by senior agency officials in formal ceremonies. The
items presented, such as engraved plaques or gold medals, may be fairly
expensive to obtain. However, they are principally symbolic in nature
and should not convey a sense of monetary value. In other, more routine
situations, many honorary awards are provided to commemorate the presentation
of cash or time-off awards. As mementos, such nonmonetary honorary
award items may not be particularly expensive; indeed, they may be
of only nominal value (e.g., simple certificates in inexpensive frames,
lapel pins, paperweights). Nonetheless, all items used as honorary
awards must meet specific criteria. |
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Are there special criteria
for honorary awards? |
Because honorary awards represent symbolic
formal recognition, items presented as honorary awards must meet all
of the following criteria:
The item must be something that the recipient could reasonably
be expected to value, but not something that conveys a sense of
monetary value. A basic principle of symbolic awards is that their
primary value should be as a form of recognition and not as an
object with monetary value. If monetary recognition is intended,
the agency should use the explicit authority provided by Congress
to grant a cash award. Care also should be taken to consider what
the recipient might find attractive, gracious, and complimentary.
The item must have a lasting trophy value. An honorary award
that is intended to have abiding symbolic value loses that value
if it does not have a lasting form. Consequently, items must be
neither intangible nor transitory, such as food or beverages.
Vouchers and tickets to events, while technically tangible themselves,
do not meet this criterion because they are intended to be redeemed
for something that does not have lasting value.
The item must clearly symbolize the employer-employee relationship
in some fashion. Affixing, imprinting, or engraving an agency
seal or logo on an honorary award item is an obvious way to meet
this criterion. However, putting a logo on an item that otherwise
has no connection to the employee's work (e.g., a child's toy
or sporting equipment) would not meet this criterion. In some
cases, adding such a seal or logo might not be practical or necessary
to meet this criterion (e.g., a plain desk globe might be
appropriate for an employee who handles international matters
for the agency). Further, an item that meets this criterion
in one agency, because of its mission or the employee's job, might
not meet it in another agency (e.g., a desk globe would not be
appropriate for an accountant in an agency with no international
programs). Consequently, each agency is responsible for determining
whether items meet this criterion.
The item must take an appropriate form to be used in the public
sector and to be purchased with public funds. Some items may meet
the other criteria, but still not be appropriate. For example,
it would not be appropriate to purchase a firearm as an honorary
award, even to recognize a law enforcement official. Agency officials
must take responsibility for assuring that the authority to "incur
necessary expense for honorary recognition" is used in a
manner that shows good judgment and preserves the credibility
and integrity of the Federal Government's awards program.
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What are informal recognition
awards? |
Informal recognition awards are a type
of award that may be given to recognize performance that, taken alone,
does not merit a larger award, such as cash, time-off, or an honorary
award. Agencies are finding that they can effectively and efficiently
achieve many of the goals of a recognition and incentive award program
by providing more frequent, timely, and informal recognition of employee
and group contributions. The Office of Personnel Management has used
its regulatory authority to provide for this form of recognition at
section 451.104(a) of title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, as an
appropriate agency use of the statutory authority to "incur necessary
expense for honorary recognition." Because these informal recognition
awards are intended to recognize contributions of lesser scope that
might otherwise go unrecognized, they are subject to fairly general
criteria. |
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What criteria do informal
recognition awards have to meet? |
Items used effectively and efficiently
as informal recognition award items are often extremely casual and
low-cost. In addition, informal recognition awards typically have
more informal approval procedures and presentation settings than honorary
awards. However, it is important to remember that some contribution
must still form the basis for using an informal recognition award
and be clearly acknowledged as part of any presentation, however informal.
Items presented as informal recognition awards must meet the following
criteria:
The item must be of nominal value. The value of the award should
be commensurate with the contribution being recognized. These
awards recognize contributions that would not ordinarily merit
formal recognition. No exact dollar value is set as nominal. Nevertheless,
agencies are expected to use good judgment and remember that nominal
generally refers to a low monetary value.
The item must take an appropriate form to be used in the public
sector and to be purchased with public funds. Some items may be
inexpensive but still not be appropriate. Agency officials are
responsible for determining that the items used as informal recognition
awards demonstrate good judgment and preserve the credibility
and integrity of the Federal Government's awards program.
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Can agencies give employees
merchandise items as awards? |
In some limited circumstances merchandise
items could be used as an honorary award or informal recognition award.
Merchandise may be used for awards purposes if and only if the item
meets the criteria for an honorary award or an informal recognition
award. Agencies need to be aware that the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) considers merchandise to be a taxable fringe benefit that must
be taxed on its fair market value. Further questions on taxable fringe
benefits should be directed to the IRS. |
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Can an agency give a gift
certificate as an award? |
Agencies may present such certificates
and vouchers if they are being used as informal recognition awards.
Merchant gift certificates should not be confused with cash surrogates
(which are vouchers or checks that can be easily and widely redeemable
for cash, not merchandise). Gift certificates usually are given when
the intent is to give some thing but let the recipient make the final
choice. Merchandise certificates cannot meet a cash surrogate's criterion
of being easily negotiable because of limitations on where, how, and
for what they may be redeemed. Gift certificates fail to meet the
criteria for honorary awards because they convey a clear monetary
value and cannot be characterized as symbolizing the employer-employee
relationship. Consequently, the only circumstance where a gift certificate
may be used to recognize an employee contribution is as an informal
recognition award, which may not exceed nominal value.
Agencies also need to be aware that the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) considers gift certificates to be taxable fringe benefits
that must be taxed on their fair market value. The face value of
a gift certificate would be considered its fair market value. Further
questions on taxable fringe benefits should be directed to the IRS.
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Can savings bonds be given
as an award? |
The Office of Personnel Management has
determined that U.S. Savings Bonds have distinctive, positive qualities
that make them appropriate recognition items. Despite the fact that
U.S. Savings Bonds clearly convey a sense of monetary value, a savings
bond must be considered a form of honorary award since it is a
Federal contract that must be purchased and held for a minimum of
6 months before it can be redeemed. Its "failure" to
meet the honorary award criterion regarding a sense of monetary value
need not preclude its use. The other criteria are met since its minimum
6-month holding period gives it some lasting value, it certainly can
be considered symbolic of the employee-employer relationship for any
Federal employee, and it is appropriate to the public sector. Consequently,
the Office of Personnel Management has concluded that a savings bond
may be used as an honorary award. When of nominal value, a savings
bond also can be used as an informal recognition award since it meets
the required criteria. We consider savings bonds to be a special case,
however, and expect that all the criteria for using items as honorary
awards and informal recognition awards will be applied in other cases.
Agencies also need to be aware that the Internal Revenue Service
(IRS) considers savings bonds to be taxable on their fair market
value. The cost of a savings bond would be considered its fair market
value. Further questions should be directed to the IRS.
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Frequently Asked Questions