September 2, 2025

Fe Award of Excellence: Recognition Revitalized

For decades, Olympic Steel’s Fe Award of Excellence has recognized employees for performing flawlessly in the areas of Safety, continuous improvement, expense reduction and customer satisfaction. While those recognition objectives still apply, there are new features to the program beginning 3Q2025.

On the periodic table, “Fe” is the symbol for iron, the most common element on Earth. At Olympic Steel, Fe is the symbol for Flawless execution – our way of recognizing employee excellence in helping our Company grow safely and profitably.

 

We’ve recognized employees each quarter for many years for improving processes, saving money/reducing waste or expenses, performing flawlessly for internal or external customer, and for reducing Safety risks. The program will still recognize this kind of stellar employee performance, but with a few key changes:

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

Before nominating an employee or a group of employees for their flawless performance, ask yourself the following questions:

 

  • Is the accomplishment outside the scope of the employee’s normal job duties?
  • Did the project or initiative improve safety or reduce risk to employees?
  • Did the project or initiative save the Company money? Can the savings be applied to other locations?
  • Did the project or initiative increase productivity or improve a process/efficiency?

 

If you could answer yes to two or more of the questions above, then you likely have a project to nominate someone for! To further clarify eligibility, here are a few more details to consider:

 

  • ELIGIBLE: Employees CAN nominate themselves.
  • ELIGIBLE: Safety projects and complete poka yokes (even if the poka yoke is awarded the Most Impactful or Most Innovation Award – it’s still eligible for an Fe Award)
  • ELIGIBLE: Maintenance employees are eligible for an award if the work they contributed was outside the normal scope of their job and was their own idea/concept.
  • NOT ELIGIBLE: General Managers and higher are not eligible for Fe Award recognition.
  • NOT ELIGIBLE: Projects completed as part of a certification program or higher education class requirement. Examples included but not limited to Lean Six Sigma projects (Green Belt/Black Belt), Undergraduate or Masters Program projects, professional certification projects.

 

READY TO NOMINATE?

We’re in the first cycle of the new process – nominations are due Friday, December 19. Projects and initiatives completed from July to December 2025 will be considered. Winners will be announced in the 1Q2026.

 

Visit the Fe page on IamOlympicSteel.com for more program details, a few previous winner stories and the link to nominate. And, if you have any questions or concerns, reach out to the Fe Award Program Coordinator, Ellyn Wilson, at x19655 or Ellyn.Wilson@olysteel.com.