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Criteria for Determining Award Items

The third in a series of articles on nonmonetary awards

Agencies are seeking innovative ways to provide recognition for their employees' achievements. As a result, there is a growing interest in the use of nonmonetary awards. Very often, these awards have taken the form of items such as certificates, plaques, or medals. In recent years, agencies have been interested in using other items ranging from silver-framed certificates and crystal vases, to televisions, theater tickets, and sports equipment. This article describes criteria for determining the kinds of items can be used as honorary awards and those which can be used as informal recognition awards.

• Honorary Awards
• Informal Recognition Awards

Honorary Awards. Many agencies include as part of their overall awards programs a traditional form of high-level "honor awards." Often, such honor awards do not use monetary recognition at all, but emphasize symbolic recognition of significant contributions and public recognition of organizational heroes. Nonmonetary 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 should also be taken to consider what the recipient might find attractive, 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 lasts only a short time. Consequently, items must not be intangible or 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 a logo on an item is one way to represent the employer/employee relationship. However, affixing a logo to an item that otherwise has no reference to that relationship (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 (e.g., an uninscribed desk globe might be appropriate for an employee who handles international matters for an agency). Further, an item that meets this criterion in one agency, because of its mission or the employee's function, 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 appropriate items and means to 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 officer. Agency officials must take responsibility for assuring that the authority granted by section 4503 of title 5, United State Code 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.

Informal Recognition Awards. 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 that might not merit the cash, time-off, or honorary awards that the agency uses. OPM has used its regulatory authority to provide for this informal kind of recognition (see section 451.104(a) of title 5, Code of Federal Regulation) as an appropriate agency use of the statutory authority to "incur necessary expense for honorary recognition." These informal recognition awards are clearly intended to recognize contributions of lesser scope that might otherwise go unrecognized. In addition, informal recognition awards typically have more informal approval procedures and presentation settings than honorary awards.

Although an agency is free to use them, the criteria for honorary award items such as "lasting trophy value" and "clearly symbolic of the employee-employer relationship" do not have to apply to informal recognition awards because the items used for informal recognition are often extremely casual and low-cost. For example, an agency may reasonably use its awards authority to purchase wrapped hard candies to fill a circulating candy jar that team members award each month to the "most improved team player," even though that candy might be quickly consumed and has no relationship to the agency mission. Further, inexpensive off-the-shelf items such as pre-printed pins, balloons, or mugs need not be eliminated as informal recognition awards simply because adding an agency logo is infeasible.

Informal recognition awards may take a wide variety of forms and the criteria for these items are extremely general:

• Informal recognition items must not exceed 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 being set Governmentwide for nominal value. Agencies are responsible for determining that amount for themselves.
• As with honorary awards, the item must demonstrate good judgement, take an appropriate form to be used in the public sector, and preserve the credibility and integrity of the Federal Government's awards program. Every item bestowed as an award reflects on the agency. Items should be chosen carefully and thoughtfully to avoid public disapproval and embarrassment to the agency.

It is important to note that some contribution must still form the basis for informal recognition and be clearly acknowledged as part of any presentation, however informal. Further, the award item must be clearly recognizable and distinguished from other items that might be used as part of a recognition event.

The next article in this series will address special types of nonmonetary awards-U.S. Savings Bonds and gift certificates.

Originally published on February 1997