What do a core value award winner, newly promoted manager, and employee reaching their five-year mark all have in common? They have all experienced major employee milestones! And, they likely have a story to tell about it. 

As a culture communicator, fostering a culture of employee recognition has never been more important to your organizational health. The best employee recognition examples always feature stories. Employees chosen as storytellers feel recognized by being featured. And when shared internally across the company, employee spotlights reinforce key culture elements that bolster employee engagement. 

Don’t know where to start? Luckily, employee milestones such as anniversaries and promotions are like blinking, neon signs pointing to the best employee stories. 

Here’s why: 

• Inflection points make for great stories. Employee milestones are great opportunities to reflect on their experience working at your organization. 
• Storyteller selection is a breeze. Set reminders for major anniversaries and quarterly awards and your calendar will identify the storytellers for you.
• Timely and timeless. Employee stories created around a milestone are timely content that talent will be excited to share, amplify, and engage with. But when the milestone passes, what the story says about your culture will still be true and can be repurposed across your other talent-facing channels all year long. 
• Engage multiple audiences. These employee spotlights communicate a culture of recognition to current team members. And, they show culture in action for prospective candidates. 

In this post, we share three common employee milestones, and how you can celebrate them with employee spotlights: 

Employee Milestone #1: Workplace Anniversaries

Whether an employee has been at your organization for one or 30 years, workplace anniversaries are opportunities to recognize a team member and say “thank you” for the impact they’ve made on your organization. When creating an employee spotlight around an anniversary, ask storytellers for their favorite memories, proudest moments, and how they’ve experienced growth during their time at your company. 

Here at Stories Inc., we took this approach to celebrating Christian’s four-year anniversary. 

In this video, Christian shares how he’s been able to grow his skill set during his four years at Stories. And, he shares a memory from a favorite day that took place on a client video shoot.

Pro tip: use photos from over the years as broll footage. They add visual interest, while staying on-theme! 

Employee Milestone #2: Celebrating Promotions 

Promotions are great career inflection points to create employee spotlights. In addition to recognizing the milestone, the employee spotlight reinforces your company’s commitment to fostering growth internally. Win-win. 

One way to celebrate an employee promotion is to share the story behind the career move. In this employee spotlight created by AstraZeneca, Kiersten shares how a mentor encouraged her to “go for the big job” when making the shift into sales.

This spotlight celebrates Kiersten’s career milestone, highlights a woman’s path to leadership, and provides inspiration for countless other AstraZeneca team members who may be considering making a bold career move.

Another way to celebrate an employee promotion is to ask the storyteller to reflect on their career thus far. Here at Stories, we recently celebrated Anna Lippe when she was promoted to Director of Customer Success. To commemorate the milestone, we asked Anna to reflect on the biggest lessons she’s learned in her five years as a content strategist uncovering employee stories. 

The employee spotlight became a highly engaging blog post and was used to celebrate Anna’s new role inside and outside the company. 

Pro tip: After a promotion, many employees find themselves working with new teams, individuals, or clients. These employee spotlights are also great ways to introduce the team member in their new position. You can see how Stories did this on LinkedIn! 

Employee Milestone #3: Award Winners

Whether it’s employee of the month or a quarterly sales award, award winners can provide excellent insight into what it takes to be successful in your organization. Use employee spotlights to celebrate the milestone and reinforce key culture concepts throughout your workforce. 

In this employee spotlight, Dell Technologies recognizes Tiffany for winning the Co-Site Leadership Award for Employee Resource Group of the Year. In the spotlight, Tiffany shares what participating in the Black Networking Alliance has meant to her career. 

Towards the end of the video, Tiffany also shares a story of a time where she felt especially encouraged as a Black Woman at Dell. In addition to being used for employee recognition, this employee spotlight could also be used to support ERGs and highlight the inclusive culture at Dell Technologies.

What Employee Milestones Will You Celebrate?

Want to learn more about creating employee spotlights for employee milestones? Download our guide, How to Create Employee Spotlight Content, and schedule time with the Stories Inc. team to explore a project of your own!

Download our guide to shining a light on your employees.