Annual Awards
The Annual Awards are presented to division staff members or teams to honor and celebrate outstanding achievements, contributions, and milestones over the course of a year. These awards recognize a person or team that has demonstrated exceptional performance, innovation, continuous improvement, or dedication to the division's mission, vision and values at an end of the year appreciation celebration.
The award categories include:
- Customer Service
- Innovation
- Continuous Improvement
- New Employee Recognition
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
- Collaboration & Teamwork
The Annual Awards program aims to inspire all of us to strive for excellence, and reinforce a culture of recognition and appreciation within the division. Additionally, this program can help foster a sense of pride among employees, ultimately contributing to overall divisional success and employee engagement.
The submission period will be open from January 6 through January 24.
Learn more about the awards below:
The award category descriptions are as follows:
- Customer Service
- Given to a person, team or unit that demonstrates excellent customer service, and consistently goes the extra mile to assist their customers
- Innovation
- Given to a person, team or unit to recognize their efforts to improve processes, products or services
- Continuous Improvement
- Given to a person, team or unit that demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement through innovation and everyday actions
- New Employee Recognition
- Given to a recently hired employee (less than one year of service) who has already made significant, positive contributions to the organization
- Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
- Given to a person, team or unit that has taken purposeful, tangible action(s) towards creating a more diverse and inclusive learning environment and workplace
- Collaboration & Teamwork
- Given to a person, team or unit that promotes collaboration within or between divisions/departments, strengthens team bonds, improves morale and engagement, and boosts productivity
Timeline of the Annual Awards:
- January 6: Submission period opens
- January 24: Submission period closes
- February 14: Award recipients notified
- March 12: Award ceremony
- Anyone from the UMD community (non-Administration included) can nominate a Division of Administration employee, unit or team of no more than 10 people.
- Nominations can include activities from outside the division
- For example, a division staff member was part of a team working on a project with the Division of Student Affairs
- If nominating an individual, they must be a regular Exempt or Nonexempt employee, have a current PRD rating of "Meets Expectations" or above, and must have worked for the Division of Administration for at least six months.
- If nominating a team, each member must be a regular Exempt or Nonexempt employee.
The review committee is made up of peers across the division who will review the nominations and will decide if the nomination is appropriate for this recognition program. After review by the supervisor of the nominee, the review committee will send the finalists to the Division of Administration senior leaders for final selection.
Submit your nomination here.
The short form contains questions that will help the review committee better assess the nomination's qualifications. There will also be an option to submit optional supporting documentation, such as photos and emails.
Each category will have between 1-4 questions related to how the nominee demonstrates excellence in that category. Providing specific examples to the category will be beneficial.
Guidance: stronger applications will have detailed answers to questions and be five sentences or more. Submitting supporting documentation, such as email testimonials, will also make the application stronger.
Approximate time to complete form: ~5-7 minutes
The Annual Awards occur once a year (typically in January) to honor and recognize division staff for their work over the course of the year. Administration Excellence is an ongoing recognition program to recognize staff at any point in the year, and usually include a specific project or work related experience.
Check out other annual awards and appreciation/recognition opportunities in our division below!
Facilities Management Appreciation & Recognition
Diverse and inclusive appreciation and recognition are central to FM's culture. FM provides a variety of resources, programs, and events to support this culture. Our appreciative programs and events are developed with input from FM staff and enable all FM to show and receive appreciation and recognition.
The Terrapin Innovation & MVP Impact Awards
The University of Maryland wants to acknowledge the amazing ideas and service of our staff through two new awards. The Terrapin Innovation Awards and the MVP Impact Awards recognize staff members who exemplify a Fearlessly Forward attitude and devote their skills and suggestions to make the workplace a better place.