Evolving Long Service Awards for a Global Workforce

Recognition isn’t one-size-fits-all. And it never really was.

Long service recognition sounds straightforward on paper. You hit a milestone. You get thanked. Everyone feels good.

But in real organisations, especially global ones, it rarely plays out that neatly.

People work in different countries. Families live elsewhere. Some milestones are quiet and personal, others deserve a little ceremony. And what feels meaningful at five years doesn’t land the same way at fifteen.

This is the lens we brought to a leading global IT services company’s Long Service Awards program. Not to replace it. But to fine-tune it, step by step, as real-world complexity showed up.

A strong starting point, with room to evolve

The organisation already had a thoughtful recognition program in place.

Milestones were celebrated at the office with trophies and memorabilia. Families were included through flowers and vouchers sent home. The intent was right, and the effort was genuine.

But at enterprise scale, intent alone isn’t enough.

As employees moved across geographies and timelines drifted, the experience began to fray at the edges. Recognition arrived late. Sometimes it arrived in pieces. Sometimes it didn’t reach the right place at all.

That’s where refinement began.

Refinement 1: Making recognition easier to experience

The first shift was about reducing friction:

Manual coordination and vendor-led processes were making recognition heavy to run and inconsistent to receive. So the program moved to a portal-led flow, where employees could redeem their long-service awards directly.

The experience itself was made more intentional:

Flowers and generic vouchers were replaced with branded merchandise that employees could actually keep. Some items were personalised. Every kit came with a message meant to be shared at home, not just acknowledged at work.

What this unlocked:

Recognition became simpler. And because of that, it started feeling more personal.

Refinement 2: Making recognition feel fair, everywhere

The gap showed up around geography:

Earlier, employees outside India received local substitutes instead of the core recognition kits. The milestone was the same, but the experience wasn’t. Over time, that difference started to matter.

The program evolved to remove that inconsistency :

The same branded long-service kits began reaching employees globally, creating one consistent experience across locations. The complexity of international logistics was absorbed into the system, not pushed onto HR teams.

What this changed:

Where someone worked no longer shaped how valued they felt.

Refinement 3: Making the milestone feel complete

The final insight emerged only with use:

Office trophies often went uncollected when employees weren’t present for ceremonies. Meanwhile, home deliveries told only half the story. Recognition was split across moments and places.

The program was brought together into one experience:

Trophies, memorabilia, and branded merchandise were brought together into a single milestone kit. Junior milestones received everyday items. Senior milestones were marked with symbolic keepsakes that reflected the years behind them.

What this changed:

One milestone. One kit. One complete experience.

What changed because of it

Individually, each change mattered. Together, they changed how recognition landed.

• Recognition arrived on time.

Recognition started arriving closer to the milestone, often within days, instead of weeks later.

• Families became part of the moment.

Recognition reached home and felt shared, not like an afterthought.

• Employees engaged willingly.

With 84% participation across the programme, employees actively took part instead of needing reminders.

• HR stepped out of follow-ups.

Most kits reached employees right around the anniversary itself, without constant tracking or vendor chasing.

• The system stayed invisible.

The system carried the complexity quietly, so the moment itself could stand out.

If you’d like to see how this was implemented end to end, you can explore the full case study here.

The bigger takeaway

Long service recognition isn’t something you set up once and forget about. It needs space to evolve, not because the original idea missed the mark, but because real life keeps changing things. Roles shift. People move. What feels meaningful early on doesn’t feel the same a decade later. The strongest programs recognise this and stay flexible, refining the experience as they go.

That’s how we’ve built Mandaala’s Long Service Awards module. Grounded in a MerchTech approach, it gives us the structure to run recognition at scale while still shaping it around what matters to people and milestones that actually mean something. As we’ve seen with this program, the real work is in knowing how and when to fine-tune the experience, and that’s where the value shows up.

If you’re at a point where your recognition program, needs a rethink, we’re happy to share how we approach it.

Mandaala is the solutions arm of PrintStop India