What makes recognition feel meaningful to the person receiving it?
Recognition feels meaningful to the person receiving it when it's specific to what they did, sincere, timely, and delivered by someone whose opinion matters to them. "Thanks for all your hard work" is easy to say and easy to forget. By comparison, an acknowledgment such as "You stayed with that customer until the problem was solved, and they called back to say so" (an example, not a script) tells the person that someone noticed what they did.
Gallup's research on recognition describes the most effective recognition as honest, authentic, and individualized to how each employee wants to be recognized. In Gallup's data, the most memorable recognition came most often from an employee's manager (28 percent), followed by a high-level leader or CEO (24 percent). The same article reports that only about one in three U.S. workers strongly agreed that they had received recognition or praise for doing good work in the past seven days.
How someone wants to be recognized varies. Some employees value public acknowledgment, some prefer a private word, and some feel most recognized when they are trusted with more responsibility or asked for their ideas.
Why doesn't our recognition program seem to be working?
A recognition program may not seem to be working when it feels generic, predictable, or disconnected from employees' everyday experience. An employee-of-the-month award that rotates through the same people, a standard thank-you that everyone receives, or a gift card with no explanation of what it's for can all be easy to dismiss.
A program can also miss whole groups of people. Work that's visible to leadership, such as sales or a successful launch, tends to get recognized. The steady work that keeps things running, the night shift, or the person who trains every new hire may not be. If some employees never seem to be recognized, they may conclude that their work doesn't count.
The hardest case is when recognition doesn't match how people are treated the rest of the time. If employees are overwhelmed, can't get a problem fixed, or don't feel heard, a formal thank-you can feel hollow. In that situation the recognition program may not be the problem to solve first. Morale is low and I can't put my finger on why. covers how to find out what's behind it.
How do recognition and everyday feedback fit together?
Recognition and everyday feedback fit together because both depend on supervisors paying attention to the work and talking with employees about it regularly. When feedback only arrives once a year in a review, or only when something has gone wrong, it can feel like an ambush, and praise can feel like a formality.
Regular, specific feedback, both on what's going well and on what could be better, gives employees a better picture of how they're doing and makes recognition more credible when it comes. It also gives supervisors a natural moment to acknowledge good work as it happens. Some supervisors have never been taught how to give feedback well, and they may need guidance and time to do it.
Feedback also runs in the other direction. Asking employees for their ideas and acting on them is a form of recognition in itself. When employees repeatedly offer feedback and nothing happens, the process can undermine trust. We ran an engagement survey and nothing changed. What went wrong? covers what to do when that has already happened.
How do we find out what kind of recognition our employees value?
You find out what kind of recognition your employees value by asking them, and by looking at who is and isn't being recognized now. Supervisors can ask each person how they like to be acknowledged and what makes them feel appreciated at work. A broader set of conversations or a short survey can show whether employees in different departments, shifts, or roles experience recognition differently.
Look at your current practices as well. Who has received awards or public thanks over the past year, and who hasn't? Are some kinds of work never mentioned? The answers can show you where recognition is reaching people and where it isn't, before you design anything new. How do I find out what my employees actually need? covers how to ask so that people answer candidly.
The Grantibly perspective
Angelika's perspective
When employees talk about problems at work, one of the things we hear is that people don't feel valued or appreciated. We take that seriously, because how people are treated, and whether they feel valued and capable, shapes their wellbeing and whether they want to stay.
It isn't enough for an organization to say that employees matter. Those values need to be reflected in how people are treated, how decisions are made, how leaders lead, and how the organization operates.
Supervisors are central to this, and they need support themselves if they are going to support their employees sustainably. A lack of recognition is one of the issues an assessment can identify, and addressing it can improve the experience of the whole workforce.
