We all belong to many communities. Your community at work is different from the one in your neighbourhood, and probably different from the ones in your industry, your city, your associations and so on. Communities draw us together around different sets of ideals and values which make them unique and distinct. So how do we know what values are shared within a community? Often we communicate those values through the things that we choose to recognize and celebrate within a specific community. What is held up and recognized as important? This recognition highlights a shared value within the community and enables us to move forward together.
Within our community at Eclipse Awards, some of the things that we value are good food, healthy eating and reducing our carbon footprint. So to celebrate and encourage these things, we launched the Brown Bag Award Program. The idea behind the Brown Bag Award is to encourage our people to think about their meals, cook more, and bring healthy food to eat at work. We want to discourage a stressful and rushed drive somewhere at lunchtime to eat fast food. This saves time, money and gas, while also reducing our carbon footprint. Plus, it shouldn't be too hard to eat lunch on the green roof.
Our program started in October. Every 2 months, we'll select the staff member that has eaten at work the most times, and we'll award that person with a $300 bonus and the prestige of victory. If there is a tie, the prize will be split. We've made it fun and the competition is already heating up...who will win it? Time will tell. But just by launching this recognition program, we've already taken a step to communicate some things we value at Eclipse Awards.