Employee Years of Service Awards: The Hall of Fame and Shame

An employee gives an organization 5, 10, 20, maybe even 25 years of their career. Then their work anniversary arrives, and what do they receive? A templated email. A link to a generic catalog of knickknacks. Or, worse, a faux crystal plaque with their name misspelled.

Years-of-service awards are intended to celebrate commitment and contribution. But when recognition feels mailed-in, automated, impersonal, or disproportionate to the milestone, the celebration can miss what made the employee's achievements meaningful in the first place.

And that is a shame. A work anniversary can be a moment when an employee reflects back on what they've built, the relationships they've formed, and what their time with the organization has meant. It can also be a time to get excited for what they hope to contribute going forward.

So, to help get these important career landmarks right, let’s look at some of the ways organizations get service anniversaries spectacularly wrong – and what memorable recognition looks like instead.

For HR leaders, getting these key moments right matters beyond the employee celebration itself. A meaningful milestone can reinforce an employee's connection to their colleagues, their sense of contribution, and their relationship with the organization. Those experiences matter when organizations are working to retain talent and build stronger cultures.

Employee recognition can have a large, positive impact on an organization and its culture, especially when a sense of being appreciated is tied to career milestones. According to Gallup and Workhuman research, employees whose work milestones are recognized are 30% more likely to say they plan to stay at their organization in five years.

And because service milestones can reach employees across roles, locations, and career stages, they offer an opportunity to make recognition more consistent across the workforce.

Which service-award traditions belong in the Hall of Fame – and which need to be discontinued? Let’s find out.

HALL OF SHAME: The gift is the recognition

The fail: “Congratulations on 15 years. Here is a gift card my assistant just picked up on his way into work this morning.”

A certificate can record the accomplishment of tenure and a gift can acknowledge reaching a milestone, but neither alone tells employees why those years mattered.

HALL OF FAME: Let the reward complement the recognition

Combine the reward with notes of appreciation and co-worker stories. Acknowledge important relationships.

Give employees an opportunity to choose a reward that's meaningful to them, but don't ask for the reward to do all the work. Pair it with authentic recognition that reflects the employee's contributions, the relationships they've built, and the difference they've made. The best milestone experiences combine authentic appreciation with personally meaningful rewards.

HALL OF SHAME: “Congratulations on 10 years!”

The fail: That's it.

Generic recognition or canned messages confirm somebody remembered a date. This only denotes time of employment. There is no acknowledgement of anything the employee contributed in those years.

Technically, this is recognition. Emotionally? No.

HALL OF FAME: Specify what those 10 years meant

Replace generic congratulations with details. Get into specific impact.

• What did this person teach you?
• When did they make a difference?
• What contribution continues to make a difference?
• What's different because they were here?

Research highlighted in Workhuman's forthcoming Service Milestones and the Psychology of Tenure paper suggests that expressions of gratitude can increase recipients' sense of social worth – the feeling that their contributions are valued by others.

“Congratulations on 10 years” is a date of record.

“I still use that sales meeting tactic you taught me when I joined" is evidence of impact

Instead of this: “Congratulations on 20 years! Thanks for everything you do.”

Try this: “I still remember how you helped me navigate my first major client presentation. Fifteen years later, I use the advice you gave me whenever I'm preparing for an important meeting. You've made a lasting difference in how I work, and I'm grateful.”

Looking back can have value. Research on organizational nostalgia suggests that the way people remember their history at a company can influence how they perceive their work in the present and how they foresee what their continuing contribution will be.

HALL OF SHAME: Surprise! [INSERT Employee Name] has been here 20 years

The fail: The automated system remembers. The manager doesn't.

Forgetting an employee's anniversary is one thing. Having their manager appear surprised when the milestone arrives can make the experience feel even more impersonal. It’s easy to leverage technology to plan ahead for a Years of Service celebration, but removing personal involvement can make an important milestone feel mundane.

HALL OF FAME: Automate the process, not the appreciation

The point of better technology tools is that they can be used for the mundane, day-to-day stuff – reminders, workflows, communications. That frees people to focus on what technology can't provide on its own: personal appreciation, shared memories, and genuine human connection.

Forgetting a work anniversary isn't unusual. Workhuman research found that 33% of employees surveyed had never received service-milestone recognition at all. And 61% had never experienced milestone recognition that felt like a meaningful celebration of their work.

Major milestones should not be administrative events but human moments.

Plan ahead and make the recognition visible to the people who matter – peers, managers, leaders, and others who have been part of the employee’s journey.

HALL OF SHAME: The solo-anniversary

The fail: HR triggers a calendar reminder. The current manager sends a congratulatory note. Done.

Except a 15-year career probably involved dozens of impactful contributions to the business and hundreds of connections with people. You’ve built genuine relationships across departments. Those people are key characters in your work history.

Don’t mark a service milestone by having a manager read a scripted message at a team meeting. Relationships are part of what makes a career meaningful, and they deserve a place in the celebration.

HALL OF FAME: Invite the people who were actually part of the story

Bring the community: Former managers. Peers. Direct reports. Mentors. Project partners.

As Workhuman’s upcoming Service Milestones and the Psychology of Tenure paper suggests: “Don't just ask who should congratulate this person. Ask who helped make these years what they were.”

Meaningful milestone experiences tend to involve more than a single touchpoint.

As the Service Milestones paper points out, among employees whose milestone experience included only one component, 31% described it as meaningful; among experiences involving six or more components, about 87–90% did. Yet peer messages and memories appeared in only 21% of milestone experiences.

The takeaway isn't to chase a magic number of components. It's that meaningful milestones tend to be more than transactions: they create a sense of occasion and bring other people into the experience.

The challenge for HR is knowing whom to invite, especially when an employee has spent years working across teams, departments, and locations. Workhuman's Work Circles technology helps solve that problem by identifying meaningful workplace connections and inviting relevant colleagues to contribute to milestone celebrations. The result is an experience shaped by the people who were part of the employee's journey.

Those shared stories also give organizations a richer picture of the contributions and relationships that have shaped an employee's career, making visible aspects of work that traditional HR records often miss.

HALL OF SHAME: Same anniversary. Same celebration. Every time.

The fail: Year 1. Year 5. Year 10. Year 25.

What do you get at each work anniversary? Same catalog. Same process. Same milestone structure. Same experience everywhere.

Worse yet are those familiar moments of forced fun. “Another anniversary cupcake party? Don’t you remember half of our team is gluten-free?”

HALL OF FAME: Give employees some agency

Give employees meaningful choice in how they're rewarded and recognized. Build in enough flexibility to account for different cultures, locations, work environments, and employee preferences while maintaining a consistent program.

Your 25-year anniversary probably shouldn't feel like everyone else's 25-year anniversary. And it certainly shouldn't feel like a repeat of your fifth or 10th anniversary.

Not everyone wants a public celebration, a commemorative gift, or the same kind of reward. Some employees would love a gathering with colleagues. Others would prefer personal messages they can revisit privately. And when it comes to rewards, what feels meaningful to one employee might have little relevance to another.

Give employees a say in how their milestone is celebrated and what they receive. A consistent program doesn't have to mean an identical experience.

HALL OF SHAME: See you again in five years!

The fail: Recognition shows up for the anniversary and disappears for the next five years.

HALL OF FAME: Make milestones part of an ongoing culture of recognition

Years of Service recognition should not be the only opportunity to let someone know their time at an organization has value. How do you acknowledge an employee’s value during the years between work anniversaries? A milestone reward works best as part of an ongoing recognition program in which employees have consistently been seen and valued.

Connect employee milestone recognition with everyday appreciation so you're celebrating not only the length of time someone stayed at a company but the impact they had during that time.

So, what separates a Hall of Fame service milestone from a Hall of Shame moment?

Before your next service milestone, ask:

• Will the employee hear specifically how they've made a difference?
• Are the people who shaped their career invited to participate?
• Can the employee choose a meaningful reward and celebration experience?
• Does the milestone connect to an ongoing culture of recognition?

An employee's career can't be captured by a number on a certificate. It's shaped by the projects they helped bring to life, the challenges they navigated, the people they mentored, and the relationships they built along the way.

The best service milestones bring those stories together. They give employees an opportunity to see the difference they've made and remind them that their contributions are part of something bigger.

Because the most meaningful work anniversary isn't simply a celebration of how long someone has stayed. It's a celebration of everything they've made possible.

Ready to build a Hall of Fame-worthy Years-of-Service program? Discover how Service Milestones® from Workhuman helps organizations turn career anniversaries into meaningful celebrations of contribution, connection, and shared success.