EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION IS MORE THAN AN HR PROGRAM— IT HAS A PROFOUND IMPACT ON AN ORGANISATION’S WORKPLACE CULTURE AND BOTTOM LINE.

Employee recognition has a strong influence on an organisation’s workplace culture. Research on 10,000 employees in 12 countries shows that organisations who have a great culture are:

• 54% more likely to have employees that are Promoters on the standard NPS scale
• 53% more likely to have highly engaged employees
• 29% more likely to have employees innovating and performing great work
• 27% more likely to have increased in revenue last year
• 25% more likely to have growth in team size in the last year

By creating a great workplace culture employees want to engage with, you’ll see an improvement in business results. Employee recognition touches every aspect of your company culture and your employee experience—from recruiting, to engagement, productivity, innovation, and retention.

ATTRACTING TALENT
A global survey of 200,000 job seekers asked employees to choose the most important attributes in a new job from a list of 26. The number one attribute was that their employer or manager showed “appreciation for my work”. This was followed by good relationship with colleagues, good work-life balance, and good relationships with leaders. Attractive salary came in at number 8.

Gallup agrees: “In today’s war for talent, organisations and leaders are looking for strategies to attract and retain their top performers while increasing organic growth and employee productivity. But in their search for new ideas and approaches, organisations could be overlooking one of the most easily executed strategies: employee recognition.”

There are 6 aspects of workplace culture that make organisations a magnet for talent:
• Purpose (connecting employees to your organisation’s reason for being)
• Opportunity (providing opportunities to grow and develop)
• Success (employees innovating, doing meaningful work, feel like they are part of a winning team)
• Appreciation (feeling valued and appreciated for unique contributions)
• Wellbeing (employees’ physical, social, emotional, and financial wellbeing)
• Leadership (good leaders who are mentors and create a sense of camaraderie)

Research shows that recognition significantly impacts all 6 of these areas. Recognition can help your organisation be an attractive place to work.

ENGAGEMENT
Unfortunately, employee engagement is still not high. A 2017 Gallup report shows 51% of the workforce is not engaged, and 16% are actively disengaged. The good news? Research shows that when employees feel appreciated, engagement improves.

32% increase in employee engagement when employees feel appreciated.

26% increase in employee engagement when employees give appreciation.

Employees who receive strong recognition are more engaged overall and in 4 different areas: having a sense of drive and determination, feeling connected to the company, having strong work relationships, and understanding how their work makes a difference.

Organisations may underestimate the power of recognition on employee engagement. Quantum Workplace’s analysis of the Best Place to Work organisations found that the question “If I contribute to the organisation’s success, I know I will be recognised” is a top driver of engagement but is also one of the 5 lowest scoring areas for organisations. And the O.C. Tanner Institute also found that informal recognition programs are the least utilised programs by companies globally but deliver the highest engagement outcomes.

EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY, INNOVATION, AND GREAT WORK
Recognition also has a drastic impact on how employees work. When asked “What is the most important thing your manager or company currently does, or could do, to cause you to produce great work?”, recognition not only came in as the top answer, but was as high as the next three answers combined.

Employees who recieve strong recognition are:

33% more likely to be proactively innovating.

2x generating 2x as many ideas per month and 2x as likely to be highly innovative.

And employees who receive strong recognition are more likely to be working at 80% capacity or higher.

Employees also said recognition for going above and beyond would encourage them to be innovative and productive more than a 5% salary bonus.

IMPROVED LEADERSHIP
Employees who receive strong recognition have a strong relationship with their direct managers (87%) compared to those who receive weak recognition (51%). Employees also said recognition for ongoing effort would improve their relationships with leaders more than a 5% salary bonus.

RETAINING EMPLOYEES
Research shows when employees feel appreciated at work, they are more likely to stay at an organisation and less likely to leave for another job. When asked if they would leave their current job for a job with another organisation with a similar role, pay, benefits, and location, employees who feel appreciated were less likely to take the other job.

According to Gallup, employees who do not feel adequately recognised are twice as likely to say they’ll quit in the next year.

In some instances, just having an employee recognition program can make an impact. Companies with a simple service award program retain employees for 2 more years than companies without – 4 more years if that program is excellent.