Stepping Up Into Leadership Roles
Challenge coins are a common part of corporate culture. You’ll be hard pressed to find many companies that don’t make use of challenge coins in their employee recognition program, or to mark milestones as years of service awards. But if you work for a company that doesn’t have a challenge coin program in place, starting one would be a good idea. However, what if you’re a part of the growing millennial workforce? Is bringing an entirely new program into your company something you feel empowered to do?
The millennial workforce consists of more than 56 million people at this point in time. And while a growing number of those employees are steadily moving up the ladder into leadership positions, a lot of millennial employees remain in positions that aren’t high enough in the hierarchy to unilaterally effect change. For those employees, if they want to bring a challenge coin tradition into their company, they’ll need a solid plan to present to the people who are responsible for making such decisions.
A lot of companies responsible for creating products that they then have to market to other businesses avoid creating marketing efforts geared towards millennials. Because they aren’t often the decision makers in a business, and because they're often seen as not having the same amount of money to spend, these companies consider such efforts to be a waste of time. Here at Signature Coins, we decided to go in the other direction and create a helpful guide for millennial employees (or any employee) to get their challenge coin ideas approved by the people who hold the checkbook.
Walk in With a Solid Game Plan
As an employee without the status needed to make decisions on your own, the only way to even begin to get a new challenge coin program up off the ground is to present your plan to the people who are responsible for making the decisions. When you get the opportunity to present your idea, you’ll want to make sure you come in with a solid game plan. Nothing dissuades the higher ups from putting money behind an idea faster than that idea being presented in a haphazard fashion.
Being prepared to make a good impression means coming into the meeting with enough information to properly make a convincing point. Often, when talking to higher ups in the business world, facts and figures will go a lot farther than appeals to emotion or logic.
Rely more strongly on some of these points when you make your argument:- Challenge Coins Increase Employee Retention — When employees feel recognized and appreciated, they are exceptionally more likely to remain within their positions. Beyond the obvious benefits of employee retention, there are also the financial benefits. The cost of employee turnover to companies is as high as 150% of yearly salary.
- Challenge Coin Designing Inspires Teamwork and Creativity — For a lot of companies, challenge coins are designed by groups. This has the benefits of increasing teamwork, inspiring compromise and getting employees to utilize the creative sides of their brain, which carries great benefits in general problem-solving skills.
- A New Challenge Coin Program Doesn’t Have to be For Employees — While the benefits of challenge coins on a company’s workforce are clear, this isn’t the only use of challenge coins. If there’s a way to convince your employer of the value of challenge coins in a customer-facing initiative, then maybe that’s the better way to go. Along those lines, feel free to point out how challenge coins can be used to re-engage inactive clients, or how effective they are in company branding.
Combatting Certain Objections
Even with all of the benefits of a challenge coin program laid out, there can still be objections and hurdles to jump. When it comes to replying to these objections, a little inside information can go a long way.;
-
A Challenge Coin Order is Too Expensive — When you partner with Signature Coins, our highly trained and friendly sales team is always ready to make suggestions in an attempt to keep the cost of your order down. In addition to those efforts, a lot of companies get their employees involved not only in the design of their coins, but in payment as well. By collecting a small amount from everyone interested, the overall cost of the order is mitigated significantly.
- We’ll End Up With Too Many Coins — You’ll actually be surprised by just how quickly the coins get distributed. In particular, if you get a team of people involved in the design of the coin, they’re far more likely to work hard to earn one. Also, along with keeping costs down, we allow for minimum orders of as few as 50 coins.
- We’re Too Small For Challenge Coins — While it’s true that Fortune 500 companies often make use of challenge coins, smaller businesses are also a part of the challenge coin game. No matter how big or small your company is, the benefits of challenge coins can be experienced by all.
Go Forth and Conquer
For many young people in a company, the act of reaching out to upper management and presenting an original idea can be frightening. But as we see more and more millennial employees climbing the corporate ladder, it’s become clear that they have what it takes to do the difficult thing. Therefore, it’s the least we can do to help this group of employees have what they need to continue moving in a positive direction.
The information and advice found here might not automatically result in approval of your challenge coin plan, but if you walk into a presentation ready to make your case in this fashion, you’ll have a higher chance of success in the long run. If there’s anything further we can do, or any other information you feel would help you to make the most effective case, don’t hesitate to reach out and ask.
