Years of Service Awards People Wear: A Fine-Jewelry Program With a Stone for Every Milestone (2026)

A lot of years of service awards still look the way they did a generation ago: a lapel pin with a small stone, handed over at the all-hands and in a desk drawer by Friday. Keep the idea and change the object. One company-mark pendant, ring or charm, with a lab-grown diamond added at 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years, is something people put on in the morning.

I run my own fine-jewelry brands as well as Grandior. When a people team gets in touch about an anniversary program, the first four questions barely change. Is there a minimum? No. Can each piece carry a name? Yes, they're made one at a time. Can it come in our box? Yes. Who owns the design? You do, once the CAD is paid.

What are years of service awards, and why make them jewelry?

Years of service awards mark an employee's work anniversaries, usually every 5 years. The traditional version is a lapel pin with the company mark and a stone added at each milestone. Very few people wear lapel pins to work anymore, which is why so many of them never leave the box.

Jewelry keeps the ladder and fixes the drawer problem. A pendant, a signet-style ring or a bracelet charm with the company mark gets worn on an ordinary Tuesday. Each milestone adds a stone or moves up a metal, so the piece itself says how long someone has been with you. Nobody has to bring it up.

It suits the employers who run long tenure programs: hospitals, universities, law and accounting firms, and mid-size companies where people stay for decades. It also gives your recognition program something people can see, which a line on a total rewards statement never will.

How does a stone-per-milestone ladder work?

You approve one design and change only the stones and the metal at each tier. The CAD is drawn once with settings for up to five lab-grown diamonds. At 5 years the piece has one stone. At 10, two. By 25, every setting is filled.

Here is an example ladder. Treat it as a starting point, not a menu. Your program can use different metals, stone sizes or steps.

There are two ways to run it. Some companies give a new piece at every tier, so a long-serving employee ends up with a small set. Others give a charm at 5 years and add one per milestone, so a single bracelet fills up over a career. The second costs less per milestone. The first makes a bigger moment.

Metal matters for daily wear. Vermeil is a thick layer of gold over sterling silver; solid gold is gold all the way through. Our guide to gold vermeil vs gold filled vs plated explains the difference. Every diamond is a certified lab-grown diamond and is labelled lab-grown on the card and certificate.

What do US tax rules say about years of service awards?

As of October 2026, the IRS lets an employer exclude a length-of-service award from wages only if it is tangible personal property. IRS Publication 15-B (2026) says the exclusion does not apply to cash, cash equivalents, gift cards, gift coupons or gift certificates. Vacations, meals, lodging, event tickets, stocks and bonds are out too.

Jewelry is tangible personal property, which is why it fits the rules for years of service awards. Publication 15-B adds three conditions:

• It is given for length of service or safety achievement.
• It is awarded as part of a meaningful presentation.
• It is given in a way that does not create a significant likelihood of disguised pay.

The statute adds a timing rule. Under 26 U.S. Code § 274(j), an item is not treated as a length-of-service award if it is received in the employee's first 5 years of employment, or if they received one in that year or any of the prior 4 years. A 5-year ladder fits that spacing, but ask your adviser how it applies to an award given exactly at the 5-year mark.

The preselected-choice exception is worth using. Offer two or three approved designs at a tier, say a pendant, a ring and a charm, and let each person pick. It is the same idea as an award catalog, just with your own mark on every option.

What about Australia and New Zealand?

Different rules, and both countries tax gifts to staff through fringe benefits tax. In Australia, where long service leave already makes tenure a talking point, the ATO's minor benefits exemption can apply when a benefit's taxable value is under AUD 300 and it would be unreasonable to treat it as a fringe benefit, as of October 2026.

In New Zealand, the IRD lists free gifts and prizes as unclassified benefits. As of October 2026, its FBT limits page says FBT applies only above NZD 300 per employee per quarter for quarterly filers, and only while all such benefits stay under NZD 22,500 over 12 months. Fine jewelry often costs more than these amounts, so ask your accountant.

How does ordering work when anniversaries trickle in?

You order each piece as the anniversary comes up. No minimum, no stock bought in advance, and no box of unclaimed 15-year pendants when someone leaves at 14.

1. Design once. Send your logo or mark and we draw the CAD, from $55 per design or $250 for a detailed mark. You own the CAD once it is paid. See custom jewelry manufacturing.
2. Approve samples. Order a sample to check quality in the metals you plan to use. Every later piece is checked against that approved sample before it ships.
3. Send a list monthly or quarterly. Pull the upcoming service anniversaries from your HRIS and add tier, metal, engraving, ring size if needed and the shipping address.
4. We make and pack each piece. Every order is dispatched within 7 days of confirmation. Engraved and custom work can take longer; timelines are confirmed per order.
5. It ships to the employee or the office. Tracked and insured, to 20+ countries. Delivery time varies by country and prevailing conditions.

Each piece goes out in your company's box with your card and a certificate naming the milestone. The employee never sees Grandior. If you want a full branded line beyond awards, see private label jewelry.

What makes a good retirement gift for employees?

The last tier of the piece they already own, or a piece that closes the set. A signet-style ring with the company mark, a pendant with one larger lab-grown diamond, or a charm engraved with start and end years all work.

Retirement gifts may not count as length-of-service awards for US tax purposes, so ask payroll how yours is treated. And hand it over in person if you possibly can. A meaningful presentation is part of the IRS test for service awards, and it is the part people remember.

For gifts to clients rather than staff, read our guides to luxury corporate gifts and client appreciation gifts.

How do you keep a 25-year program consistent?

Keep the CAD and the approved sample as the standard, and check every new piece against them before it ships. Pieces are cast, set, polished and finished in partner workshops in India. Stones are matched within each piece, and metal is hallmarked where the destination requires it.

Then write the standard down: metal and karat per tier, stone size and count, engraving font and depth, and finish (high polish or satin). Whoever runs the program in ten years, probably not you, should be able to reorder from that one sheet. Our guide to the low MOQ jewelry manufacturer model explains why ordering one piece at a time still suits a program like this.

Next step

Send a brief with your logo, your milestone steps and roughly how many anniversaries you hit each year. Prefer to start from something ready? Browse the lookbook, or book a call and I'll help you set the tiers.