Employee Recognition and Acknowledgement

WHAT

The TVA Employee Recognition Program recognizes outstanding contributions made by employees or teams of employees. The program includes the following categories:

Organization Recognition Programs - These include organization-wide annual and spot recognition programs.
Functional Recognition Programs - These programs recognize the achievements of employees in specific functional areas.
Length-of-Service Awards - These awards recognize employees for their years of service..
External Recognition - TVA pursues recognition for the outstanding achievements of its employees through participation in external award programs. Information about external award opportunities is published on the External Awards Opportunities matrix . Human Resources Information Services coordinates all external award nominations except Energy awards. Energy award nominations are coordinated by the corporate administration office.
Illness and Death Acknowledgements - These include flowers, floral arrangements, and/or bereavement trays sent due to death or major illness of a TVA employee or member of their immediate family, or external customers; and incidental expenses associated with a job related injury or death. Expenditures for in-lieu-of-flowers contributions made on behalf of an employee should be treated as a contribution and handled in accordance with Business Practice 21, Contributions . (Refer to Principles & Practices, Benefits Practice 3, Leave , for definition of family member.)

Activities appropriate for employee recognition include:

Official non-routine employee meetings or infrequent working lunches/dinners when necessitated by unusual business needs.
Organization, group, or team recognition events and awards, unless authorization for such events is suspended based on TVA's current business conditions (cash awards not permissible).
Recruitment and interviews with candidates for employment.
Recognition of TVA employees upon their retirement, appropriate to their TVA tenure, unless authorization for such events is suspended based on TVA's current business conditions (including attendance by honored employee's immediate families and/or special guests).
Bereavement services and related events.

Activities not appropriate for employee recognition include:

Personal recognition events such as Boss's Day, birthdays, shower gifts, etc., not otherwise covered under TVA Practices or Policies.

WHO

All employees

WHY

TVA wants to recognize and acknowledge employees and teams of employees on a regular basis and to make other TVA employees and the communities TVA serves aware of their dedication and contributions.

HOW

ORGANIZATION RECOGNITION PROGRAMS

Each organization develops a recognition program with specific eligibility criteria and communicates the program's requirements, nomination process and results to employees.

FUNCTIONAL RECOGNITION PROGRAMS

Corporate functional program managers have TVA-wide responsibility for developing and publicizing specific program requirements in areas such as Quality, Safety, or Wellness. Line organizations develop recognition programs that comply with these requirements and communicate them to their employees.

LENGTH-OF-SERVICE AWARDS

Employees are honored for every five years of TVA service. There is no nomination process for these awards. The Employee Service Center coordinates acquisition of service awards for employees.

EXTERNAL RECOGNITION PROGRAMS

TVA recognizes the talent of its employees and is committed to nominating employees for external recognition opportunities. Human Resources Information Services solicits, screens, and submits nominations for TVA. Employees must follow their organizational award processes identified on organizational websites and coordinate their external award nominations with HRIS. The Executive Vice President, Human Resources, makes nominations of TVA employees or programs to external organizations with one exception. Energy Award nominations are submitted by the Executive Vice President, Administration.

External nominations of individuals who have working relationships with TVA employees or programs, but are not TVA employees may be made by program managers. However, organizations are not required to submit the nominations through HRIS or the Executive Vice President, Human Resources.

APPROVAL REQUIREMENTS

Pre-approval by the Chief Executive Officer is required for any events or expenditures costing $5,000 or more. Pre-approval by an officer reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer is required for any events or expenditures costing more than $2,000 but less than $5,000. Pre-approval by an officer (Vice President or above) is required for any events or expenditures costing more than $500 up to $2000. Officers may delegate approval authority for events or expenditures costing $500 or less to senior managers. No further delegation of this authority is authorized.

Requests for funding falling outside this business practice require the approval of the Chief Executive Officer.

All employees who have the authority to approve expenditures are required to participate in training on TVA's policies in this area.

DISCIPLINARY ACTION FOR ABUSE

Employees who violate the requirements of this Business Practice or implementing control procedures are subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination, in accordance with TVA's Employee Discipline policy.

ACQUISTION/PAYMENT OF EXPENSES

TVA provides various credit cards to employees for use in paying expenses (see the Principles & Practices, Business Practice 3, Credit Card ).

The VISA Gold credit card is the preferred method of acquisition/payment of expenses. As a general rule, at restaurants and similar events, the highest ranking TVA official in attendance should charge the expenditure to his/her VISA Gold credit card. Approval of expenses will occur as a part of the normal credit card approval process. Additionally, TVA's Expense Reimbursement System (ERS) may be used to obtain reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses obtained using the travel card by any TVA employee authorized to make purchases.

Prior approval by the Controller is also required when payment is requested by sub-voucher (Form TVA 4161). These requests result in actual payments made by Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), preferably, or by U.S. Treasury check or Agent Officer checks. (Note: Checks must meet waivers provided by Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996.) The employee making arrangements to provide services should check with his or her supervisor or approving officer, if necessary, to determine which payment method is most appropriate. Evidence of compliance with approval requirements should be included with the sub-voucher. Convenience Checks may also be used, but only if the merchant/service provider is not a Visa merchant or cannot accept payment via electronic funds transfer (ETF)--ref CFO-SPP-13.9.1

ROLES

All Employees

Nominate employees or teams of employees for recognition.
Be aware of illness or death events of fellow employees.

Managers and Supervisors

Recognize employees for accomplishments above and beyond normal expectations.
Recognize illness or death of TVA employees or their family members.

Human Resources Information Service

Develops and maintains TVA's Employee Recognition Program.
Publicizes opportunities for employees or teams to participate in external recognition programs.
Solicits, screens, and submits nominations or entries for external recognition.

RESOURCES

Managers and Supervisors
Human Resource Representatives
Human Resources Information Service

This practice is based on Board action of January 4, 1993.

Last Revised 10/2006