What Are Team Recognition Letters?

Team recognition letters are formal letter documents made to give a message of thanks or show some appreciation for a specific team doing a job well done. And it is commonly used in a job setting where recognition is worth giving to a team performing well in business. The letter is naturally prepared by the manager, leader, or boss with a brief message of gratitude to the staff members who did a great service or outstanding performance.

Gallup reported that only one in three American employees feel that they were recognized for their performance in a company.

Why Is a Team Recognition Letter Important?

Indeed, it is easy to say thank you to a group of employees who did exemplary service at work. But when a formal document is presented such as a team recognition letter, it makes a huge difference. That way, there is actual proof that a manager thanked a specific team of workers in the form of a letter. And in case you are wondering why team recognition letters are essential, here are some of the top reasons:

Works as a Professional Award Certificate

That positive feeling of satisfaction one receives when given an award certificate can be felt when you and your coworkers earn a team recognition letter. A team recognition letter is as important as other honorary awards and trophies because they symbolize success. It is more than just a piece of paper since the message behind a simple thank-you message from an executive can make any employee’s day sunny. And that rewarding feeling may opt the recognized team to keep up the great work, which is what managers would want.

Impacts More than One Person

Compared to an employee recognition letter or any other individual recognition letter, team recognition letters mark the easiest way to show gratitude to a number of people in an organization. This is a good opportunity to hit two birds with one stone rather than just thanking one person in a department. However, every member of a team is worth mentioning in the letter to make sure everyone is actually recognized. Prove in the letter that a group deserves to be congratulated and that they are actually recognized.

Inspires Others to Work Harder

Team recognition letters don’t simply concern the team being thanked for. It can also inspire the other teams who did not receive one to actually work harder. That way, they will get recognized in the long run too. Just like certificates of appreciation, team recognition letters are given to those who actually deserve them. And whether the chance to get recognized is to implement teamwork, show excellent skills, perform productively, or any other criterion, whatever it is will inspire other teams to work on it.

Shows How a Manager Cares

You can’t forget that a team recognition letter is beneficial for the manager’s reputation. The fact that the executive, manager, or anyone who wants to recognize a certain team took the effort to make the letter in the first place displays just how much they care for their teams. It would be bad to keep on forcing employees to do well that when they actually do the job excellently, they weren’t be recognized at all. Hence, show that you care for a team’s outstanding performance and award them with the letter.

Involves More than Job Recognition

Indeed, team recognition letters play a huge role in the job setting. However, team recognition letters can also be used for all sorts of purposes rather than just work-related setups. For example, you can prepare a team recognition letter for a sports team that trained effortlessly and won a series of competitions. Another example is to congratulate a group of students who performed excellently in class. Thus, don’t label recognition letters for work only as they can be considered performance recognition letters in general.

What Makes a Complete Team Recognition Letter?

Knowing what a team recognition letter is is not enough. You have to familiarize its common elements until making the letter itself becomes easier for you in the long run. Although team recognition letters may look and contain different details from one example to another, its standard elements would consist of the following:

Company Letterhead: The company letterhead marks the beginning of the team recognition letter. It refers to the stationery printed on the letter that identifies the business name and its brand. Expect the company branding to be present on the letterhead such as the name of the company, address, contact number, website, business logo, and the company’s own staple colors.Date of Writing: The date of writing refers to when the team recognition letter was written. And the complete schedule should be jotted down such as the day, month, and year. This part is essential so anyone who checks the letter knows if the letter was just recently made or at a very long time already.Statement of Recognition: Never forget the official statement of recognition. This section is where you truly point out that you recognize the team because of what they have accomplished. Otherwise, simply inputting the team name in a letter without the words “thank you” or “congratulations” would make anyone who checks the letter confused as to what its function is for. And this part can be written in one to three sentences only, as long as it is specific.Name/s: In most cases, the team recognition letter simply mentions the group name to be grateful for. But if there is still enough room in the document, it is much better to mention every single name of the team members in your message. That way, you can individually thank each member, and being mentioned shows how much you care for the rest of the members rather than just generalizing them as a group.Purpose of the Letter: While it is clear that the intention behind making a team recognition letter is to thank a group, you can’t forget about specifying what you are thankful for. So are you recognizing a team for their complete attendance, outstanding performance, overall teamwork, or any other purpose? An official statement of purpose would help specify this portion in your team recognition letter.Background Information: Expect your letter to have a paragraph and to further expound on certain details mentioned there, provide the background statement as well. Background information can cover the list of specific achievements the team has done, some of your personal feedback about the team, or perhaps a message of inspiration so the group continues to maintain their excellent performance.Signature: Last but not least, provide your name and signature at the very bottom of the page. This part is also crucial because not having any signature could mean that the team recognition letter isn’t confirmed. It could be a fake. Hence, the official signatures of whoever is in charge must be visible in the letter as proof that they made the letter and that its details are accurate.

How to Write a Flawless Team Recognition Letter

Are you ready to create your own team recognition letter? Don’t worry because you will use templates in the process and be guided in just a few steps. So to make a flawless team recognition letter, please follow these easy steps:

Step 1: Search from Our Collection of Sample Team Recognition Letter Templates

As seen above in this article, you have loads of team recognition letter samples to choose from. Select any template of your choice and edit its content afterward. That way, you need not create detailed letters from scratch so you can surely save time with sample templates. Options run from an employee recognition announcement sample, sample letter of recognition for outstanding performance, sample letter of recognition for coworker, down to other team recognition write-up examples.

Step 2: Complete the Team Recognition Letter’s Inclusions

From the company letterhead, date of writing, statement of recognition, down to the signature, ensure that your team recognition letter has the important elements, as discussed earlier. It is through these elements that your letter serves its function anyway. But if you think you can add more inclusions to the letter, then so be it. The standard inclusions discussed earlier are just for the average team recognition letters; hence, there is room to add more relevant elements to your letter.

Step 3: Follow Standard Business Letter Format

Just like any business letter, you should be mindful of the letter format where you have the date, address, sender’s details, receiver’s details, subject of the letter, salutation, introductory statement, body, complimentary close, and signature. Remember that even though the intention is good that you are to say thanks to a certain team that gave an astounding performance in the document, it is still a formal letter in the first place. And not knowing the standard letter format would be bad for your brand so review your letter’s layout and content carefully.

Step 4: Make Fact-Checking a Habit

Speaking of reviewing your letter, take time in fact-checking your team recognition letter’s details. The moment you miss inputting a team member’s name, err in the group name’s spelling, or come up with any tiny mistake that affects the letter’s credibility, you already produced a failure of a letter. So even though it is easy to make a letter or produce a letter using a template, your main concern is to avoid getting wrong with its data.

Step 5: End the Message on a Positive Note

At the end of your letter, it is expected you wrap up your message such as restating the statement of recognition. But most importantly, mind the tone of your letter and make sure you write on a positive note. It would be awkward to recognize a team without any optimism or life in your letter’s words anyway. Hence, add a bit of positiveness to your letter such as how personal letters are meant to be written. Showcasing genuine congratulations to a team is the right way to handle this.


FAQs

What are the types of team recognition letters?

There are many types of team recognition letters and they simply differ according to the purpose of the team recognition letter. But the three most common examples would be the team recognition letter for exemplary performance, the team recognition letter for attendance, and the daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly team recognition letter.

What should team members be recognized for?

What to recognize from a team really depends on the criteria. It could refer to the team’s quality of work, personal initiative, teamwork, leadership, adaptability, attitude, improvement, or key milestones.

What are some common recognition phrases?

Here is a list of recognition phrases you can use in a team recognition letter:

  • Thank you very much.
  • I sincerely appreciate…
  • Please accept my deepest thanks.
  • I cannot thank you enough.
  • You have my deepest gratitude.
  • I am eternally grateful.
  • Words cannot express how much…

A simple document such as a team recognition letter may be easy to make but how it impacts an employee’s life can make a huge difference. After all the sweat and hard work given by a team to achieve the deliverables assigned to them, the least you could do to keep them engaged, motivated, and appreciated is a genuine message of congratulations using a team recognition letter. Similar to a thank you letter, write team recognition letters in an organized, compelling, and sincere way. And you’ll be guided with that using our premade collection of sample team recognition letter templates. Download now!