Staff Recognition: Staff of the Week

The last few months have been pretty busy for us. We have had the privilege of being invited to talk about our staff recognition and appreciation programs at events and online gatherings up and down the east coast. 

Whenever we speak about them there are always a lot of questions about how we choose the staff we recognize, where we buy our button machines, and how much we budget for ice cream.  These are great questions, but they miss the most fundamental aspect of what we do, and that is the ‘WHY’ behind it. We of course got to talk about this at length on the day Camp Pod.  But its worth returning to it here as we discuss our “big” awards - the staff of the week.

The Why

At the heart of our staff appreciation program lies the psychological principle of Mattering. Mattering is simply the feeling of being significant, valued, and important to others. It is a concept deeply intertwined with our mental and emotional well-being, serving as a compass that guides our sense of connection and belonging.  When individuals feel that they matter, they are more likely to experience positive mental health outcomes, characterized by resilience, motivation, and a profound connection to those around them. Conversely, the absence of mattering can lead to feelings of isolation, disengagement, and diminished well-being.

Mattering is knowing that, in times of crisis or need, there is someone you can call and, conversely, being that person for someone else. At many Camps these reciprocal bonds of support and recognition forms the foundation of their thriving communities. Where (hopefully) every person feels seen, heard, and genuinely appreciated for who they are, beyond the scope of their job performance. 

Our staff appreciation program is intentionally designed to cultivate and amplify this sense of mattering among our team members. By shifting the focus from performance metrics to the intrinsic qualities of character, we aim to foster an environment where our staff feels valued not just for their work, but for their individuality, their kindness, their resilience, and their unique contributions to our collective spirit. Recognizing and celebrating these aspects of our staff underscores the message that they matter deeply—to us, to each other, and to the community we serve. Through this approach, we not only enhance our team's well-being and engagement but also reinforce the bonds that make our organization strong and resilient.

Our awards and the way they are delivered have been engineered to make the recipients and those that they work with, feel like they Matter.  Our awards are not merely a reflection of a staff members’ professional achievements or contributions.  The awards extend far deeper and we go to great length to highlight personal values and character.

The What

The Queen of Theme

Our first award is our Queen of Theme.  Each Thursday we have a theme and we invite staff and campers to dress up.  It’s fairly low key.  Or at least it was.  Then Kellan arrived and he started to wear increasingly elaborate outfits.  Then a few others up their game, then a few more. In two years, but really less than 20 days if you just count the Thursday theme days, he had started a movement.  The award got harder and harder to judge.  But the winner, or group of winners, if it was a crew that coordinated outfits are crowned “Queen of Theme.”  Each week the winners get a crown, a button, and about 30 seconds to make a speech. (More of that soon.)  The queen of theme is one of the few awards that we do not seek staff input for.  It’s Meagan and I choosing the costume that brought us most joy.  For this reason, this award is a bit of an outlier, additionally its our only award without a direct link to our core values.  But it’s a important award for it still embodies our ideals.

Guard of the Week

Each week we recognize a Life Guard of the week.  The award is peer nominated. They receive a uniform Shirt.  Identical to the other guard uniforms, except instead of just saying Guard in the red cross on the back it says Guard of the week.  They also get a blue life buoy, a preferred parking space for the following week, and a rarer than gold, Camp Cristina friendship bracelet.  But most importantly they get a button. 

The button is the same for each guard all summer, but the image changes each year.  This is the same for all buttons.

Then they have the opportunity to give a 30 second speech.

Kindness Ambassador

We had a beloved staff pass suddenly at our Y.  He was a kind man, and truly loved by everyone.  We started an award to recognize him.  We called it our Kindness Ambassador and we award it to a staff member each week that demonstrates empathy, compassion but above all kindness. The award is peer nominated.

Of all our awards this is my favorite, and not just because of its connection to Micheal. I love this award because at first people didn’t understand it.  But after a couple of weeks it became one of the most important things we do, the staff are proud of it and proud of the people that win it.  Of all our awards it’s the one that most clearly speaks to our values.  The shirt is a replica of our staff tie dye shirt (we give each staff a white version of our staff shirt so they can tie dye it and wear it on Tie Dye Fridays and remain in uniform.)  On the back it says Kindness Ambassador.  They get a button with Micheal on it, and a friendship bracelet.  Then they get to give a speech.

Counselor of the Week

Our Counselor of the Week is also a peer nominated award.  All our staff are considered counselors first, including myself and our leadership team.  It’s everyone’s primary job so there is no need to break the staff into program staff or support staff, drivers or any other subgroups.  If you work at camp in any capacity, you can be nominated (unless you are a full time exempt staff, these staff can win hardest worker but not any weekly awards).  The winner gets a Staff shirt with staff of the week on the back, a friendship Bracelet, A button with a cow on, a designated parking space for the upcoming week and then they get to make a speech.

The How

The 4 weekly awards are pretty generic, and most camps have some sort of similar program.  But what makes our program stand out is what it’s not.

It’s not a popularity contest.  Not everyone will win an award.  Someone might win it twice, or win once per summer multiple years in a row, before someone wins it once.

It’s not to recognize a staff member that does low C grade work and then has a B+  week, and you want to reinforce their effort. It’s for the staff that are consistently awesome.  It’s for those A- and A staff that have good days every day.  Staff that are consistently on top of their game, those staff that fly under the radar, because it’s what you have come to expect from them.

It’s not something we do when its convenient. We never miss an award, rain or shine it happens. We give out these awards every Friday, and if the staff member isn’t present, we still present the award to them.  We call out their name, and bring them on stage the next week.  AND It’s the senior Camp Leadership that hand out the awards, or we invite the COO to come join us as an honored guest.  Who gives the award matters and it’s never a lower-level surrogate.

These are not awards that the leadership give out to their favorite staff, or the staff that are helpful to them.  They are peer nominated awards. We invite recommendations each week and they come flooding in by text on Thursday night. We do however make the final decision based on merit (we call it our veto as we are aware that people nominate each other so they can both win).  It took us a few months before we had weekly nominations from staff.  So there were times that we had to make the awards based on what we had seen.  It was a couple of years before we had two daily hard hat nominations every day.  But we got there.  You must do it every week till it gets traction.

The prizes are low Key.  The shirts look like everyone else’s staff shirts with a small change to the text.  The buttons look like all the others.  The prizes are important, and we know they are a little bit of a humble brag when you display them.  But that’s what the staff have shown us they want.  They don’t want to stand out from the community. They want to be first among equals so to speak.

We post each winner on social media and every week these are most shared, commented on and engaged with posts.

It’s what we do before an after we give out the awards that makes the staff feel they matter, and not just the staff that are recognized.

When we give the award to the staff member we never talk about job performance.  We talk about their character.  Meagan is brilliant at this.  I am less so.

She will start by saying this staff is …. (Kind, patient, supportive, she lists all character values they demonstrate) and then she will tell a story about how this staff showed these character values.  She will say that the person that nominated them said that they are.. (Add list of Character Values here) and then tells the story that was shared with us when they were nominated.  She will then announce the staffs name. 

People go nuts. 

Everyone is excited for them, and their reaction is genuine joy.  There is never that awkward pause before a tepid applause that might suggest people are in disagreement or surprised.  Sure, people are disappointed it wasn’t them but it’s rare.  People are happy for each other because we haven’t said they are better at their job, therefore highlighting those that are not.  We have said what makes them a great individual. 

They come to the stage, and they are humbled.  We thank them quietly for their work as we gather the prizes on stage, and they always interrupt to thank us for allowing them to do their jobs.  It’s the same every week.  Staff are given an award, and they are simply grateful to be “allowed’ to work at camp. 

We then hand them the microphone.

They give a 15 or 20 second Oscar type speech.  This started as a joke.  But now it’s perhaps the most important part of our recognition programs.  Who do they thank?  They thank their peers.  What do they thank them for?  They thank them for their kindness, their patience, their perseverance, for being there to support them, and for giving them the opportunity to work alongside them. This is the first time many of them have been recognized professionally and they use their platform to thank others.  The speeches are short, but they are beautiful, because they are authentic, kind, humble, and they are always unplanned.  They are unplanned because no one expects they would win.

We have worked so hard to make these about values rather than performance.  When we started to talk about our values, and we asked our staff to look for people modeling those values and nominate them for awards, they started to see those values everywhere.  They no longer see Jonny sitting down being lazy, they see him in conversation listening to kids.  They don’t see Julie nervous on the zipline slowing the line down, they see her showing vulnerability.   They see everyone exhibiting the values they celebrate, and this is why they never expect to win.  They see good people doing great things for others and they don’t see themselves as special.  “Its just what happens at Camp”

The beauty of our program lies not in its novelty but in its simplicity and sincerity. It demonstrates that when we choose to see beyond the surface, to appreciate the unique qualities and contributions of each individual, we foster a culture of mattering—a culture where everyone knows they are an essential part of something greater than themselves.

To recognize the power of mattering, is to understand that appreciation goes beyond accolades—it's about affirming someone's significance in the world.

Camps can make the world a place where everyone feels significant, valued, and irreplaceably important. After all, at the heart of every thriving community, is the unshakeable belief that we all matter—immensely.