U.S. Office of Personnel Management - Ensuring the Federal Government has an effective civilian workforce

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GSA's Giraffe Award

Have you stuck your neck out lately?" asks General Services Administration (GSA) Deputy Administrator Thurman Davis. In December 1996, GSA began a new award program the Giraffe Award to encourage employees to "stick their neck out" in the interest of doing GSA work better, faster, easier, cheaper, or smarter. Davis hopes to get everyone involved in improving organizational performance, the work environment, and customer service.

• A Simple Process
• Recent Award Winners
• For More Information

A Simple Process. The award is a replica of a giraffe approximately seven inches tall on a wooden base that recipients can place on their desks. Employees have been notified of the Giraffe Award program through an employee letter and by GSA Intranet Insite and are encouraged to nominate colleagues. Nominations are sent to Davis who reads them all and makes the final selections.

Davis wants to encourage employees to speak up and hopes to find employees who have done something unusual or who have taken some risk to make improvements within the agency. The program is open to all employees regardless of grade or position. "All the suggestions won't work and that is OK," says Davis. "At least the employee is suggesting something to improve the work process." According to Davis, the Giraffe Award program has been well received throughout the agency.

Recent Award Winners. As of late January 1997, Davis had received over 200 nominations and had personally presented over 20 Giraffe Awards. One award winner is an employee in a GSA field office who was attempting to have an office redecorated for a tenant. The office was located in a leased building and the landlord was not cooperating with the GSA request to redecorate. The employee finally issued an ultimatum to the landlord that if the redecorating was not done, GSA would contract for the redecorating and deduct the cost from the rent. When the landlord continued to refuse to decorate, GSA called in a contractor to do the work and the cost of the redecorating was deducted from the rent. The employee was given a Giraffe Award for taking charge of the situation and providing good service to the customer/tenant.

Another employee was rewarded for having the courage to challenge the GSA Administrator in a meeting. The employee did not agree with the position that the Administrator took on a specific issue. By taking the risk to speak out, the employee caused the issue to be revisited to make sure the Administrator's position was correct.

A third award recipient was an employee who championed the organization of a unique conference for GSA senior executives. The conference was designed to help the participants envision the future of the Agency as well as ways in which they can prepare individually and collectively to meet new challenges.

Davis plans to give future Giraffe Awards throughout the year as he travels to the various GSA regions and wants to encourage an environment where employees are willing to "step out" without the fear of criticism or failure.

For More Information. For further information about the Giraffe Award, contact the Deputy Administrator's Office at 202-501-1226.

Originally published on February 1997.