Employee Recognition

Harvard Heroes

Harvard staff members, often working behind the scenes, contribute vitally to Harvard’s excellence. Harvard Heroes is an annual program that recognizes and celebrates high-performing staff from across every school and the Central Administration. These staff members have been nominated and/or selected by their peers and departments for work that that supports the mission of Harvard at the highest levels of contribution, impact and excellence by going above and beyond. 

Who can be nominated?

An individual Harvard administrative/professional, support or service and trades staff member who has at least one year of benefits-eligible service can be nominated as a Harvard Hero. Harvard coaches in the “other academic” category may also be nominated. (Faculty, post-doctoral fellows, temporary employees, students, and co-ops are not eligible.) If you have a question about the eligibility of an individual that you have in mind, please contact your local HR representative. Any Harvard staff or faculty member may nominate a staff member to be a Harvard Hero.

How do I nominate a Harvard Hero?

If you wish to nominate an employee who works at HSDM, please go to the Harvard Human Resources Information for Employees website’s Harvard Heroes page. There you will find a link to the online nomination form. The nomination period begins in March.

Service Milestones

The University provides special benefits and perks to eligible faculty and staff as they attain significant employment service milestones, such as free Harvard courses and athletic facilities membership. You can read more here.

For eligible staff members, the University also awards Longer Service Bonus Vacation Days, beginning at 15 years of service. In addition, many departments at Harvard recognize and celebrate employee service milestones at the local level.