Custom Years of Service Pins

Creating a Years Of Service Award Program With Custom Pins

A service pin is a lapel pin awarded for reaching a tenure milestone. Most are built as a series: one piece of artwork, usually your company logo, reissued at each milestone with something changed to mark the level — the metal plating, a gemstone, or the year stamped on the face. Employees wear the newest one and keep the rest.

If you already have a years of service award program in place, then you already know what types of custom lapel pins you need and how many of each you need. However, if you’re new to ordering custom years of service lapel pins, we can help you get everything you need for your years of service award program.

For starters, you need to know what anniversaries you want to celebrate with your employees. You could have a pin crafted for every anniversary year, or just for big milestones like 25 years, 40 years and 50 years.

It’s also important to know how many of each pin you need to buy. Chances are that a lot more people will be celebrating one year of service than there will be celebrating 50 years of service. We’ll help you order enough of each pin and find unique ways to differentiate the lapel pins representing various years of service with a company.

Custom Made Years of Service Pins for Your Team

First things first, what milestone anniversaries will you be celebrating with your team members?

We’ve noticed that a lot of companies start at the five-year mark, however, since the average time that workers are spending at the same job is only 4.6 years, it’s a good idea to start sooner. Three years of service pins are a good place to start, but why not start even sooner with one year of service?

Recognizing your employees for their hard work and loyalty boosts morale and helps your staff feel accepted and accomplished. Providing recognition awards earlier could lead to more of your team members wanting to stay past the average 4.6 years.

Whether you choose to start at one, three, five or even 10 years of service with your custom pins, the next thing to do is create a design. Almost every service pin series we help design is centered on a company logo or an emblem that means something special to the team — the logo is what makes the pin recognizable across the whole program, and it is the one element that stays put as the tiers change. If the award you have in mind isn’t tied to tenure at all — a sales result, a retirement, a training course — our employee recognition pins page covers those programs instead, and our corporate lapel pins page is the place to start if you are still deciding which programs to run.

While the artwork is similar for most award pins, the design elements often change to reflect the degree of experience or level of achievement. For example, a lapel pin created to celebrate one year of service might be plated in high polish gold, while the corresponding design created to celebrate five years with the company is plated in antique gold and has a ruby red gemstone included in the design.

Gemstones are a popular design option included in a series of years of service lapel pins. The gemstones correspond to different levels in the years of service award program. Another popular option is to change the metal plating of the pins. We offer high polished and antique variations of copper, silver and gold plating, as well as black metal and iridescent metal plating.

Choosing Your Tiers: 1, 5, 10, 20 and 25 Year Pins

Nearly every program we quote lands on some version of the same ladder. A 1 year pin or 3 year pin at the bottom catches people before the average tenure runs out. 5 year and 10 year pins are the workhorses — the tiers you will reorder most often, and usually the first two a company builds. 15 year and 20 year pins start to justify a plating change or a first gemstone, since fewer people reach them each year.

The 25 year pin is where most companies spend real money. It is the milestone employees talk about, so it is worth making it visibly different from the tiers below it: high polish gold instead of antique, a larger size, a stone, or a presentation box. 30, 35 and 40 year pins follow the same logic in smaller quantities, and a handful of our customers run a 50 year tier they order a dozen at a time.

You do not have to build the whole ladder at once. Plenty of programs start with three tiers and add the rest as people reach them, and because we keep your artwork on file, a tier added three years from now still matches the ones already handed out.

Pricing and Presentation Options

Whether you need a set of pins for an employee of the month program or an entire series of years of service pins, the cost of lapel pins is based on unit price or the price per pin in an order.

Unit price is based on the size of the pins you need and the number of pins you need to order. Upgrade options like gemstones, metal plating, cut outs and others will increase the price of your pins as well, so the best way to get an accurate pricing quote is to contact our sales team. We’ll prepare a free pricing quote for you based on the type of lapel pins you need.

Another upgrade option that a lot of people like to include with their years of service pins is a special presentation option. An employee recognition pin awarded in a velvet presentation box makes a big impact. We also have velvet bags and acrylic cases. These presentation options are not required but they are an excellent means of creating a meaningful and memorable presentation for your years of service pins.

No matter what you choose, pricing quotes, artwork and revisions are always free. Once you place your order, standard production takes 3.5–4 weeks; shipping is additional (free, typically a few days).

Ordering Lapel Pins from the Best Custom Pin Maker Online

Here at Signature Pins, we strive to make the process of designing and ordering custom lapel pins as quick and easy as possible. We will take care of the design and manufacturing process, and all orders come with a 100% quality guarantee. On the rare occasion when defective products are delivered, we will replace them at no additional cost to you.

Shipping to the continental United States is free on all orders. Standard production takes 3.5–4 weeks; shipping is additional (typically a few days). What are you waiting for? Reach out to us today to get a commitment-free pricing quote and a free proof of artwork for your years of service pins.