Honorary
Awards and Informal Recognition Awards FAQs
Agencies are authorized to grant honorary awards
and informal recognition awards to recognize their
employees' performance. Some frequently asked questions
about honorary awards and informal recognition awards
include:
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What
is an honorary award? |
| An honorary award is
a gesture of respect given to an employee to
recognize his or her performance and value to the
organization. Honorary awards are generally
symbolic. Many agencies include as part of their
overall incentive awards programs a traditional
form of high-level, formal "honor
awards." Often, such honor award programs do
not use monetary recognition at all, but
emphasize providing formal, highly symbolic
recognition of significant contributions and
publicly recognizing organizational heroes as
examples for other employees to follow. They
typically involve formal nominations, are granted
in limited numbers, and are approved and
presented by senior agency officials in formal
ceremonies. The items presented, such as engraved
plaques or gold medals, may be fairly expensive
to obtain. However, they are principally symbolic
in nature and should not convey a sense of
monetary value. In other, more routine
situations, many honorary awards are provided to
commemorate the presentation of cash or time-off
awards. As mementos, such nonmonetary honorary
award items may not be particularly expensive;
indeed, they may be of only nominal value (e.g.,
simple certificates in inexpensive frames, lapel
pins, paperweights). Nonetheless, all items used
as honorary awards must meet specific criteria. |
 
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Are
there special criteria for honorary awards? |
Because honorary
awards represent symbolic formal recognition,
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 also should
be taken to consider what the recipient
might find attractive, gracious, 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 does not have a
lasting form. Consequently, items must be
neither intangible nor 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, imprinting, or
engraving an agency seal or logo on an
honorary award item is an obvious way to
meet this criterion. However, putting a
logo on an item that otherwise has no
connection to the employee's work (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 to meet
this criterion (e.g., a plain desk
globe might be appropriate for an
employee who handles international
matters for the agency). Further,
an item that meets this criterion in
one agency, because of its mission or the
employee's job, 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 whether items
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 official. Agency officials
must take responsibility for assuring
that the authority 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.
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What
are informal recognition awards? |
| Informal recognition
awards are a type of award that may be given to
recognize performance that, taken alone, does not
merit a larger award, such as cash, time-off, or
an honorary award. 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. The Office of Personnel Management
has used its regulatory authority to provide for
this form of recognition at section 451.104(a) of
title 5, Code of Federal Regulations, as an
appropriate agency use of the statutory authority
to "incur necessary expense for honorary
recognition." Because these informal
recognition awards are intended to recognize
contributions of lesser scope that might
otherwise go unrecognized, they are subject to
fairly general criteria. |
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What
criteria do informal recognition awards have to
meet? |
Items used
effectively and efficiently as informal
recognition award items are often extremely
casual and low-cost. In addition, informal
recognition awards typically have more informal
approval procedures and presentation settings
than honorary awards. However, it is important to
remember that some contribution must still form
the basis for using an informal recognition award
and be clearly acknowledged as part of any
presentation, however informal. Items presented
as informal recognition awards must meet the
following criteria:
- The item must be of 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 set as nominal. Nevertheless,
agencies are expected to use good
judgment and remember that nominal
generally refers to a low monetary value.
- The item must take an appropriate
form to be used in the public sector and
to be purchased with public funds.
Some items may be inexpensive but still
not be appropriate. Agency officials are
responsible for determining that the
items used as informal recognition awards
demonstrate good judgment and preserve
the credibility and integrity of the
Federal Government's awards program.
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Can
agencies give employees merchandise items as
awards? |
| In some limited
circumstances merchandise items could be used as
an honorary award or informal recognition award.
Merchandise may be used for awards purposes if
and only if the item meets the
criteria for an honorary award or an informal
recognition award. Agencies need to be aware that
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers
merchandise to be a taxable fringe benefit that
must be taxed on its fair market value. Further
questions on taxable fringe benefits should be
directed to the IRS. |
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Can
an agency give a gift certificate as an award? |
| Agencies may present
such certificates and vouchers if they are being
used as informal recognition awards. Merchant
gift certificates should not be confused
with cash surrogates (which are vouchers or
checks that can be easily and widely redeemable
for cash, not merchandise). Gift certificates
usually are given when the intent is to give some
thing but let the recipient make the final
choice. Merchandise certificates cannot meet a
cash surrogate's criterion of being easily
negotiable because of limitations on where, how,
and for what they may be redeemed. Gift
certificates fail to meet the criteria for
honorary awards because they convey a clear
monetary value and cannot be characterized as
symbolizing the employer-employee relationship.
Consequently, the only circumstance where a gift
certificate may be used to recognize an employee
contribution is as an informal recognition award,
which may not exceed nominal value. Agencies
also need to be aware that the Internal Revenue
Service (IRS) considers gift certificates to be
taxable fringe benefits that must be taxed on
their fair market value. The face value of a gift
certificate would be considered its fair market
value. Further questions on taxable fringe
benefits should be directed to the IRS.
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Can
savings bonds be given as an award? |
| The Office of
Personnel Management has determined that U.S.
Savings Bonds have distinctive, positive
qualities that make them appropriate recognition
items. Despite the fact that U.S. Savings Bonds
clearly convey a sense of monetary value, a
savings bond must be considered a form of
honorary award since it is a Federal
contract that must be purchased and held for a
minimum of 6 months before it can be
redeemed. Its "failure" to meet the
honorary award criterion regarding a sense of
monetary value need not preclude its use. The
other criteria are met since its minimum 6-month
holding period gives it some lasting value, it
certainly can be considered symbolic of the
employee-employer relationship for any Federal
employee, and it is appropriate to the public
sector. Consequently, the Office of Personnel
Management has concluded that a savings bond may
be used as an honorary award. When of nominal
value, a savings bond also can be used as an
informal recognition award since it meets the
required criteria. We consider savings bonds to
be a special case, however, and expect that all
the criteria for using items as honorary awards
and informal recognition awards will be applied
in other cases. Agencies also need to be aware
that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) considers
savings bonds to be taxable on their fair market
value. The cost of a savings bond would be
considered its fair market value. Further
questions should be directed to the IRS.
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