Recognising staff performance and loyalty doesn’t need to cost the earth – just ask SSP and Rail Gourmet. They’ve achieved real success with personalised pens that reward attendance and long service.

Leighmans.com has been providing both businesses with engraved pens for several years. The pens are handed out annually to long serving members of staff, and employees who have 100 per cent attendance records. The schemes have been so successful that the pens are now highly collectable items and seen as a real mark of recognition.

Darren Leigh, managing director of Leighmans, said: “SSP and Rail Gourmet are both big businesses, employing thousands of people. Despite the relatively low cost of the pens, used to reward long service and attendance, they really create genuine value amongst employees.”

Leighmans started working with food travel experts, SSP, in 2009. The business operates in more than 150 travel locations across the UK, including airports and railway stations. It represents brands such as Starbucks, Marks & Spencer and Burger King.

SSP runs an employee benefits system which rewards long service after five years, and running up to 40 years in five year increments. At five years, employees receive a chromed and engraved Cross pen; this is then repeated every five years until they hit 20 years, at which point they are given an engraved pen and pencil set. If they remain with the business for 40 years they get the ultimate reward – a ten carat gold engraved pen and pencil set.

Over the past year, the business has handed out more than 40 pens to people who have worked with them for 20 years or more.

UK Head of HR at SSP, Louisa Hogarty, said: “Having recognised long-service on an ad hoc basis prior to 2009 it is great to now offer a keepsake item to every qualifying employee which can be used every day and is appreciated by all.”

Leighmans has been working with rail catering experts, Rail Gourmet, since 2010. It deals with all aspects of rail catering and works with Virgin, Eurostar, First, Southern and Southwest Trains, amongst others. The business, which is part of the SSP Group, employs a similar recognition programme to that of SSP, but is simply based on attendance records.

The Rail Gourmet HR team looks at attendance records and awards employees who have a 100 per cent record with an engraved Cross pen. The pens have Rail Gourmet engraved on one side, and the employee’s name on the other. This year alone they handed out more than 330, based on 2011 attendance figures.

Darren Leigh continued: “What this shows is that businesses don’t need to spend thousands of pounds recognising loyalty and building relationships with their employees. What staff value is the personal touch.

“By ensuring people’s hard work and dedication are recognised, companies can create loyalty and build up that all important relationship with the team. This means that people stay with the business for longer and, ultimately, everyone benefits.”

Bury-based Leighmans has been providing high-end gifts and gadgets for clients, including SSP, Rail Gourmet and Deutsche Bank, for a decade.

As well as offering a range of 100,000 products, all of which can be fully branded, the promotional gifts specialist also provides clients the opportunity to create custom-made corporate gifts by its in-house designer, who is available for bespoke commissions.

For more information, visit www.leighmans.com