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Human Beings Need Recognition

In 1943, Abraham Maslow theorized that human beings are motivated to make decisions based on a hierarchy of needs. This hierarchy can be viewed as a pyramid, with basic physiological needs like water and food setting the foundation; then our need for safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. A core requirement in the esteem level of this pyramid is appreciation.

Human beings feel the need to accomplish things, and be appreciated and recognized for those accomplishments. In addition to feeling accomplished, we need to know that our contributions to the world are valued. Without this recognition, we begin to feel our hard work has no purpose. And without purpose, we feel unappreciated, undervalued, and unmotivated.  

What Happens in Our Brains When We Feel Appreciated

Human beings are wired to crave connection, belonging, and acceptance. When we experience appreciation and gratitude, our brains release dopamine and serotonin. These are crucial neurotransmitters responsible for making us feel ‘good,' regulate our emotions, and respond to stress. Gratitude acts as a catalyst for these neurotransmitters, and actively experiencing gratitude and appreciation allows us to manage our stress levels better.

Feeling and expressing gratitude activates several parts of the brain. Verbalizing thoughts of appreciation and gratitude activates the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for positive emotions and decision-making, as well as reward and motivation. The more we practice expressing appreciation, the more we activate these gratitude circuits in our brain. Overtime, it takes less effort to stimulate those pathways.  

Scientists also suggest that by activating the reward center of the brain, gratitude exchange alters the way we see the world and ourselves. When we give and receive ‘thank you’ notes, our brain automatically produces motivational thought patterns. This means that practicing recognition in the workplace improves employees' mental well-being, and increases their motivation to contribute value to their organization.  

The Relationship Between Recognition and Well-Being

Employee recognition promotes positive psychological functioning (PPF) and its absence worsens it. Positive psychological functioning is comprised of the positive feelings that lead to self-acceptance, personal growth, and social contribution. The absence of recognition can deteriorate an employee’s psychological health, and ultimately their performance.  

Feeling unappreciated affects not only your emotions, but also how you think and act. It’s no surprise that a lack of appreciation can influence your mental health and lead to mental illness. If others ignore what you do for them, it can feel devastating. You might start to wonder why you bother putting effort into a task, or worse, you’ll lose sight of how your work contributes value to your organization.  

In a UK study, 78% of respondents said they would work harder if they had more recognition. In that same study, 94% said that employee recognition is critical in retaining talent. The solution to keeping your employees is simple — recognize them. 

The Importance of Employee Recognition  

A study conducted on over 1800 employees found the effect of recognition is two times greater with peer recognition than with top-down supervisor recognition. The study highlights the importance of promoting employee recognition in organizations for the impact it has, not only on well-being, but also on the positive psychological functioning of the employees.

Technology now exists to make recognition accessible, simple, and impactful for any organization. Cloud-based platforms that work in browsers and mobile apps allow remote, field, and in-office employees a place to regularly share meaningful recognition.

Kudos, an employee recognition and engagement platform, harnesses the power of peer-to-peer recognition to boost employee engagement, reduce turnover, improve culture, and drive productivity and performance. Employee recognition isn’t just becoming an industry standard, it’s an essential requirement for an employee’s well-being, motivation, and performance.

It’s been almost 80 years since Abraham Maslow theorized that human beings require appreciation. The science behind employee recognition was always there, now it’s time to take it seriously and implement the recognition your employees not only deserve, but need.  

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Originally published May 2022. Last updated November 2023.

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A nomination is an official endorsement for someone to receive an award or prize. The first step in a nomination program is for the organization to determine and communicate the criteria for their program. Employees can then nominate colleagues they feel meet the criteria, with one nominee being selected as the final winner. Some organizations have employee nomination programs for awards like “Employee of the Month,” “Most Hard Working,” “Most Innovative,” and so on. While nomination programs seem like a simple solution to employee recognition, they need to work in conjunction with a more robust suite of tools to deliver results.

Nominations are a Small Piece to a Bigger Solution

Traditional employee nomination programs give employees an opportunity to tell a story about their peer’s accomplishments, and how they impact the business. Nominations can bring acknowledgement of standout achievements in a workplace where they may otherwise go unnoticed, especially by outside members of that team. They can bean opportunity to communicate expectations, or curate awards and prizes that tie-in your company values. Nominations can also deliver a morale boost, especially for those employees who win.  

Nomination programs are not without their challenges. Why only allow employees to give recognition whenever there’s an award involved? These types of programs are only one piece to a complete solution. No need to abandon your nomination program altogether, but simply include it in a deeper, more impactful employee recognition strategy.  

Nominations Do Not Reflect Consistent Recognition

For employee recognition to be effective at motivating and communicating the value individuals offer your organization, it needs to be consistent and meaningful. Nomination programs are often monthly, quarterly, or yearlong initiatives; your employees are not being nominated frequently enough to create lasting meaning. When you nominate someone for an award, you’re not directly recognizing them for their work — you’re only giving them a chance at recognition. If someone deserves recognition, they should receive it day-to-day.

When you nominate employees for an award or prize, you compare their accomplishments to someone else’s instead of celebrating and appreciating their work individually. While being nominated is considered recognition, it can cause unhealthy competition and resentment between employees. Your employees deserve to be recognized constantly, not only when an award is up for grabs.

Nomination programs build a barrier between you and the wider benefits of recognition. When your organization partakes in a nomination program, it’s usually comprised of certain award categories, which over time can become disassociated from what employees are working on or dealing with. If an organization implements an Employee of the Month program, only 12 employees will receive that recognition in a year. Also, these programs only focus on one person winning something atone time; why limit employee recognition to just one person? Recognizing teamwork or collaboration amongst a group of people is just as important as recognizing an individual.  

The Solution is in Peer-to-Peer Recognition

Using an employee recognition platform will allow your employees to be recognized regularly. Platforms like Kudos allow employees and leaders the freedom to recognize anyone, for anything, at any time. Adding a peer-to-peer recognition program to your strategy offers a more consistent and accessible motivational experience. Enabling all your employees to recognize impactful moments regularly, timely, and specifically ensures that recipients know the value they bring to the organization. No matter how small the achievement is, peer-to-peer recognition has a better overall impact on improving employee morale and engagement.

A recent Forbes study found that 66% of employees will leave their jobs because they do not feel appreciated. A strong company culture is an increasingly crucial factor for employees, and a recognition solution builds an impactful company culture where employees feel recognized and appreciated.  

An employee recognition platform does not mean leaders can no longer create employee awards or prizes, but they shouldn’t take away the chance for peers or leaders to give and receive constant recognition. Offering more nomination options by building levels of nominations with high-level prestigious, and quarterly or monthly nominations can still exist, but should be supported by regular recognition. Add more social or community nominations that bring creativity and fun to your employee recognition solution, instead of focusing on traditional nominations centered around recognizing select employees. Nominate employees for awards like “Most Likely to Be Late for a Meeting," or “MostCreative Zoom Background” and have them for entertainment or enjoyment purposes instead of just performance.  

Choosing the Right Employee Recognition Solution

Nomination programs are a small piece to a bigger solution. Giving regular recognition should become a habit within your organization and should be used as a building block to help retain talent, form healthier work relationships, and strengthen company culture.  

We know that selecting the best recognition solution for your organization can be challenging, so we’ve made it simple for you with our Employee Recognition Buyer’s Guide. Our guide gives a comprehensive overview of how to choose the right employee recognition solution for your company’s culture, goals, and budget. Remember that consistent and authentic employee recognition should always be the priority, and the awards and prizes should come secondary.

This article was originally published on TrainingJournal.com

Working toward a return to normal, however, is just as probable and effective as hoping for a return to the good old days. The reality is that a new normal is unfolding in front of us – and there’s no shortage of opportunities for organisations that are adapting to it.

At the heart of the Great Resignation there is a fundamental need that has gone largely unmet: the need for employees to go beyond simply existing in their job roles and thrive. The talent of today’s world wants to be treated well and to be recognised for their contributions. The benefits for companies that realise this and take the steps to act on this are massive in terms of employee engagement, retention, and ultimately organisational growth.  

Conversely, the organisations finding themselves bearing the brunt of the Great Resignation are often the ones offering outdated solutions to modern problems. A common one is focusing solely on compensation to solve deeper issues. When attracting talent, money is a huge part of the equation, but a strong company culture is an increasingly important choice factor. Many struggling companies overlook the importance of fostering a strong, recognition-filled work culture. Increasing compensation may be a quick fix, but if money is the primary thing keeping talent motivated, they’ll be easily lured away by better offers. But while improving company culture takes a greater commitment from leadership, it has a lasting and more substantial effect on those factors organisations worry about most today: retention and engagement.

It’s both as complex and as simple as this: The desire for fair and robust recognition in the workplace will define the future of work during the pandemic and post-pandemic. Here’s how.

Values over money

To help inspire employees to work toward a common goal, companies must have clear core values that employees know and care about. But it doesn’t stop there. Companies must also associate behaviours to these values, with leadership demonstrating these behaviours every day. With that in place, all employees should be given the tools and much needed support to recognise their colleagues when they see moments that exemplify these values. The old way of recognition was sporadic and top down, but a strong value-based culture seeks to make this recognition a daily habit among peers as well as managers.

This practice not only reinforces the behaviours that move organisational goals forward, but it makes employees feel they are direct contributors to an irreplaceable company culture.

In addition to incorporating behaviours and values in recognition, there is a slightly different connection between monetary rewards and recognition. If the recognition system is set up to be predominantly monetary, so is the employee’s motivation. Employees who feel empowered to give and receive continuous recognition in their workplace will not only feel a strengthened commitment to the organisation, but they will be incredibly difficult to poach with monetary incentives alone. Instead, they will see their everyday contributions in a far more meaningful way than they might at companies where recognition is sporadic, scarce, or nonexistent.

‍Fuel intrinsic motivation through connection

‍Motivation can come in many forms, but employers today must learn to spot the difference between intrinsic motivation and traditional motivation through rewards. Traditional incentives get people through the day, but it rarely makes them care about their work beyond a paycheck. It doesn’t motivate them enough to fully engage and innovate. It’s why a rewards-centric approach can backfire on companies where incentives can be seen as an opportunity reserved for the elite few.

On the other hand, when people feel a deep connection to the company’s values and their coworkers, their inner motivation kicks in. That’s when we see creativity, innovation, and growth unfold in the organisation. The cohesiveness and connection within teams doesn’t have to be limited to small groups either. It can be shared across the organisation by creating a space for everyday recognition that can come from anyone. A robust recognition ecosystem among teammates and managers is an invaluable catalyst in promoting a culture of trust, self-confidence, and innovation.

A generational challenge that’s here to stay

‍In 2021, 48% of American workers actively looked for jobs. We are facing a historic challenge of retention and recruitment. The pandemic is one factor, but the causes of the talent drought go deeper than that, and the effects are not going away once we are through the worst of it. Millennials make up the majority of today’s workforce in the United States, and they are unafraid to leave a bad workplace for a better one, with 21% reporting that they switched jobs in 2021. For employers and HR leaders, retention efforts are more critical than they have ever been. Holding on to talent is not only important because it helps organisations innovate and grow, but having a constantly understaffed organisation raises the risk of employee burnout, which directly translates to a negative employee experience.

A strategic, values-driven approach to culture increases employee engagement, happiness, and performance, but the benefits go beyond that. Word gets around about great culture at an organisation, and recruitment efforts suddenly become easier for HR. With Gen Z changing jobs 134% more now than they did in 2019, the talent pool is open – and looking for better work prospects.  

As the internal culture improves, and employees begin to feel like they are truly a part of the company, it naturally leads to an excellent client and external stakeholder experience.

No looking back

‍It’s time for a new approach to recognition – one that helps organisations and employees adapt to today's reality. For companies looking to learn crucial lessons from the pandemic, rather than hoping for a return to the old ways, the path to sustained success involves investing in a recognition-centric culture where all employees feel connected and valued. In other words, embodying ‘the future of work’ is actually just answering the call of the present day.

This article was originally published on HR.com

Employee recognition is an age-old practice dating back to the Industrial Revolution when employers sought to make employees more efficient at work. While much has changed since then in terms of management styles, organizational structures, and workplaces (the last one especially, given the last two years) – many organizations still haven’t adapted their recognition practices to meet changing employee expectations, relying instead on dated, rewards-focused, infrequent recognition for a select few employees.

Employee recognition is a powerful tool that, when used correctly, leads to better employee engagement, improved organizational performance, and reduced turnover, among many other benefits (Gallup).

So, how can you modernize employee recognition at your organization this year?

As Muni Boga, President and CEO of Kudos®, a popular employee recognition platform, put it, “it’s not as simple as getting your managers to check recognition off their to-do lists – it’s about building a culture of recognition, where recognition has a deep-seated place in your organization.

Ideally, its value is understood by your people so that it can flow freely and frequently across all areas of your workplace.”Here are some key things to consider when building your strategy:

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1. Peer-To-Peer Is Here to Stay

Historically, employee recognition used to be the responsibility of leaders and managers, or what many know as a top-down approach. Managers would highlight “top performers,” leaving many employees feeling passed over and unappreciated. On the other hand, enabling and encouraging peer-to-peer recognition allows for the democratization of recognition. This approach is not unlike 360 performance evaluation that boomed in the last two decades.

When employees of all levels are empowered to recognize – and receive recognition from – colleagues in all directions (up, down, laterally), organizations see increased employee engagement, reduced turnover, and improved productivity. A study quoted by Gallup found that 66% of employees agreed with the statement, “If I get recognition, I would also like to give others recognition,” the impact is exponential.

Studies have shown that teams that share recognition often create oxytocin responses in their team members, which was strongly correlated to more productivity, innovation, and better work enjoyment ratings.

2. Get Into the Habit of Recognition

We’ve all experienced the effects of the Great Resignation. In the 2021 Bureau of Labor Statistics report, the overall turnover rate in the US was 57.3%, but that number drops to 25% when considering only voluntary turnover. That still means a staggering 1 in 4 employees left their job voluntarily in 2021.

Interestingly, studies show that globally, only 1 in 4 employees report receiving recognition in the last week. The urgency to build recognition into daily life at work is evident. Gallup believes that shifting the dial and moving from 1 in 4 having received recognition, to 3 in 5 would deliver employers a 28% improvement in quality of work and a 31% decrease in absenteeism rates.

Another significant trend here is revisiting milestones and anniversaries.

With such high turnover rates in the market, employers should celebrate anniversaries from the first year, recognizing loyalty and hard work. Anniversaries can also be used as a retention tool, incentivizing employees to stay with bonuses at each annual milestone (please, no mantel clocks – see next point).

3. Personalized and Inclusive Rewards

While recognition itself carries many benefits, it often comes hand-in-hand with rewards. The days of rewarding employees with wildly expensive company pens are gone (or at least, they should be). More and more organizations have realized that historic one-size-fits-all approaches no longer cut it; this is evident through the prevalence of flexible work schedules, remote work, and discretionary health care spending accounts.

You hire employees for their unique skills and individuality – why aren't you factoring that into your rewards strategy? One way to do this is to allow employees to choose gift cards for popular retailers or vouchers for local businesses of their choice. This approach is simple, yet it tells your people that the reward is truly for them, which has a more significant impact.

4. Play the Game

Who says work and fun don’t mix? Gamification is an incredibly efficient but sometimes forgotten lever that you can use to encourage engagement in building your culture of recognition. Some friendly competition can help kick-start a sustainable habit of free-flowing recognition in your organization. Gamification expert Yu-Kai Chou shares dozens of gamification examples for you to sift through here.

This is why many modern recognition platforms have leaderboards for both recognition received, and recognition sent to spark everyone’s inner competitor. This philosophy isn’t new – the age-old employee of the month award is a great example. The difference is, when the person sharing the most recognition is the one crowned, everyone wins.

5. Promoting Hard Work

Sometimes, the best way to recognize someone is by presenting them with the opportunity to take on more responsibility via a well-deserved promotion. Publicly acknowledging dedication and hard work via a promotion can lead to higher employee retention and engagement. It shows employees that their efforts will be rewarded, and their careers can flourish with your company (Forbes).

There are many benefits to internal promotions beyond morale, such as reduced recruitment costs and less downtime in open roles. As we migrate to more distributed workplaces, identifying top performers may not be as easy as it once was. A recognition platform can be a great tool in this instance, allowing the organizational leaders to easily see who is receiving consistent positive praise from peers at every level.

6. HR Analytics

You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Most HR professionals know by now that employees don’t leave companies – they leave managers. Keeping a pulse on employee-manager relationships can be tricky, but recognition can serve as a lens into your employee experience at all levels. Some of the most sophisticated recognition platforms provide dashboards that illustrate who is giving and receiving recognition, who stands out, and who might be left behind.
Analytics can also help HR leaders demonstrate the value of recognition to their finance and leadership teams to secure the budget they need to develop a robust program.

As Muni Boga from Kudos explains, “the ROI of employee recognition can be significant in terms of recognition’s ability to improve absenteeism and turnover. An organization’s bottom line can dramatically improve not just in terms of those metrics, but also through the impact of those metrics on your organization’s productivity and innovation. Today, in a world where ESG and DEIB measurement is necessary and needed, recognition also plays an important role in illustrating social impact and inclusion.”

In 2022, an employee recognition strategy is a must-have. Building a culture of recognition is not a simple task, but it pays big dividends if it’s approached in the way your employees want.

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Each time you receive recognition or gratitude, your brain releases a chemical called serotonin. This chemical helps regulate your emotions and enhance your mood. Appreciation positively impacts your personal world, as well as your professional one.

Recognizing and appreciating your employees should be a year-round priority, but sometimes you need to go above and beyond. This Employee Appreciation Day, March 4, make sure you have a plan to celebrate your team.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. "What would make you feel appreciated?"

This day is about celebrating your employees. Give them an opportunity to express what would make them feel appreciated. There are many tools to distribute surveys to your employees. Plan to send the survey well before Employee Appreciation Day, so that you can plan the day around the responses.  

2. A simple thank you still goes a long way

Thanking your employees for the simple things they do every day has a great impact on your organization. Try celebrating each employee for their unique contribution to the team by sending personalized notes. Remind your employees that they are valued, and that their work does not go unnoticed.

3. Invest in their personal time

Let your employees pursue their passions by giving them a paid afternoon off. What better way to appreciate your employees’ dedication than allowing them some much-needed time off to relax, be with their family, or take an extra-long weekend? 

4. Cover their transportation costs

Some organizations don’t consider the sheer cost of commuting to work. Some employees can spend up to $5,000 annually just transporting to and from work. You may not be able to cover all transportation costs, but you could reimburse your employees for bus and train passes or offer them a paid parking pass.

5. Go public with your appreciation 

Don’t just celebrate internally – tell the world you appreciate your employees. Work with your marketing team to build a plan for spreading the recognition on all of your social media platforms.

6. Have a virtual lunch or happy hour

We know that showing appreciation in a work-from-home environment can be a struggle, but you can still host virtual lunches or happy hours with your employees. Send pre-paid Uber Eats gift cards to your employees and celebrate together virtually.

7. Set up remote team building activities

Dedicate an afternoon for planning remote games. This is a great way to promote virtual team building, while giving your team the opportunity to bond outside of work.There are many online games you can play to make remote socialization creative and engaging.  

8. Create custom awards

Work with your Human Resources team to create internal awards to honour your employees. These could be awards like Employee of the Month or Best Team Player. Go the extra mile and create customized engraved trophies for the winners.

9. Be creative with rewards

Coffee mugs, t-shirts, and customized pens don’t send a genuine message of appreciation to your employees. Instead, give your employees options to choose from – not everyone wants a gift card or free food. Discover how to meaningfully reward your employees by offering multiple choices.

10. Update their work-from-home equipment

When was the last time you checked in on your employees' work-from-home equipment? Do they have everything they need to be productive and successful? Show your appreciation by ensuring their equipment is up to date and reliable. A new standing desk, new chair or better monitor could demonstrate your gratitude to your employees.  

Appreciation should be built into your culture – not just set aside for one day out of the year. If you’re wondering how to incorporate ongoing employee appreciation, here are some solutions to investigate:  

11. Invest in an employee recognition platform

One of the most common reasons employees’ leave their jobs is because they feel unrecognized. Meaningful recognition allows employees to see their organization’s values in action and feel appreciated for their contributions. Employee recognition solutions, like Kudos®, make it easy for managers and peers to recognize employees regularly.

12. Celebrate birthdays, milestones, and anniversaries

Don’t let these moments go unnoticed. Your employees deserve recognition on birthdays, anniversaries, and each milestone in between. Simply sharing an e-card for team-members to sign   

13. Update your company values

It might be time to review your organization’s values to ensure they still align with your employee’s. Forbes research finds that more than 50%of employees will leave their jobs if company values no longer align with their own. Lead by example and incorporate recognition into your brand’s core values.

14. Offer more flexibility

83% of employees feel more loyal to their employers if flexible work arrangements are available to them. This can include working from home, flexible hours, part-time options, and paid leave. Start focusing on results and deadlines, instead of how many hours your employees work.  

15. Encourage your leaders to check in frequently

Appreciate your employees for the dedication and time they invest in the company. It’s important to give your employees the opportunity to open-up about any stress or burdens they’re feeling. Teams perform better when members believe their leaders respect and appreciate them.

Don’t shop for a product. Shop for a solution.

Employee recognition is a key pillar of your overall business performance. Finding the right tool to keep employees engaged can be overwhelming, so we’ve created an Employee Recognition Buyer’s Guide to help you make the best decision.

Our guide is a comprehensive overview of how to choose the right employee recognition solution for your company’s culture, goals, and budget. You are the expert on your needs and what makes your workforce unique. Complete with self-assessment worksheets, ROI calculations, platform evaluation checklists, and so much more, this guide will help you find the perfect partner.

What is a Buyer’s Guide?

A buyer’s guide helps customers make purchasing decisions. Our guide will simplify each step so you can make the best decision for your organization’s needs. We’ve broken it down into 5 simple sections:

1. Employee Recognition Overview
2. Organizational Needs Assessment
3. Tips on Key Stakeholders, Timeline, and Budget
4. Platform Evaluation Worksheet
5. Building Your Business Case

1. Employee Recognition Overview

Employee expectations have changed. Today’s leading organizations understand that money, time off, and rewards are no longer a primary driver in a desired workplace. Today’s employees expect meaningful and memorable recognition. The focus has shifted to building a strong culture through engagement, shared values, and performance-centered recognition. Our guide will walk you through the impact of employee disengagement and the benefits of a formal recognition program.

2. Organizational Needs Assessment

There are many great employee recognition solutions on the market; it’s up to you to determine which one is right for your business. Our guide includes a self-assessment worksheet to help you decide which platform best suits your organization’s needs. Each answer to our strategic questions will identify the main problem you need solutions for. Our self-assessment exercise contains insightful topics like:

• HR Challenges and Pain Points: Are you experiencing higher employee turnover than usual? What have your employees shared in recent exit interviews?
• Your Current State: What are you currently doing to engage and recognize your employees? How are you measuring success?
• Values and Culture: What changes would you like to see in your organization’s culture?

3. Tips on Key Stakeholders, Timelines, and Budget

Many important factors go into selecting a recognition platform; key stakeholders, timelines, and budgets just scratch the surface of what to keep in mind. Our guide will help you answer all these questions, and more:

• Implementation and Support: What does the onboarding process look like? Will you have continued support before and after your purchasing decision?
• Integrations: Is the platform capable of integrating with your existing technology?

Who are the key stakeholders in my organization?

Deciding on an employee recognition platform impacts many parts of your organization.It’s important to identify who your key stakeholders could be in the decision-making process. In our guide, you will find key takeaways to consider when reaching out to your stakeholders about an employee recognition platform. It’s important to remember your HR team will have different questions and concerns than your CFO or CEO.

When should I launch my employee recognition program?

Our guide includes all the questions and topics you should discuss with your key stakeholders about a timeline. Whoever you choose to partner with will help you develop a realistic plan – including us. Kudos has a team of dedicated Onboarding Specialists who can assist you in all aspects of your program launch.

How should I budget for an employee recognition program?

Building a budget can be difficult – that’s why our guide includes important factors to consider when evaluating quotes from different employee recognition platforms. For more solutions on building your budget, you can also read our article on budgeting for employee recognition.

4. Platform Evaluation Worksheet

Our included worksheets make it easy for you to compare different platforms and ultimately find the right solution for your organization. You’ll be able to measure ROI, the cost of disengagement, and use detailed checklists to keep track of the various features each platform offers.

5. BuildingYour Business Case

Even if you’ve selected a platform that satisfies all your organization’s needs, you’ll need a compelling presentation and business case for your executive team. We included a simple, but informative framework for successfully presenting your solution to stakeholders. These suggestions will help you create a convincing business case to win over your executive team, so you can move forward with your purchasing decision.

Successful organizations understand that employee recognition matters more than ever before. You’re already on the right track to creating a positive impact on your organization’s culture, and we want you to find the right solution. Make your decision easier by downloading your free copy of our Employee Recognition Buyer’s Guide today.

This is part 3 of our 3-part “Making the Case” series, dedicated to helping you make a business case for employee recognition in your organization. Make sure to check out part 1 (Budgeting for Recognition) and part 2 (Calculating the ROI of Employee Recognition).

You've done your research, determined that recognition is an excellent solution to some of your organization's biggest pain points, and found a vendor you like (hopefully Kudos®).

It’s time to pitch to your leaders to get approval.  

While this can be a nerve-wracking process, it's also an incredible opportunity to showcase your knowledge and expertise and impress your leaders with a solid business case.

In this article, we share a simple framework that will help you make a case for an employee recognition platform. That said, the framework presented can be used for virtually any business proposal.

Prefer Video? The content in this article is covered in a recent webinar you can access for free on-demand here. By accessing the on-demand webinar, you’ll also be able to download your customizable pitch deck.

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Tip: Give an early preview of your pitch to a key stakeholder and get their advice and feedback. This does two things: (1) It allows you to address some issues that might come up before the larger presentation, and (2) it converts that stakeholder into a friendly face so that during the main presentation, they will already be on your side and may even jump in to answer questions from other stakeholders in the room.

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Now let’s jump into the 8 steps you’ll need to cover to successfully make the case.  

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1. Mission: Create context and define the problem

Capturing the attention of your audience is critical. The key to doing this is clearly explaining your mission and the purpose of your pitch. Lead with the business need, define what you’re proposing and why you’re proposing it.  

Creating a mission statement for the initiative is a powerful way to do this. In the context of employee recognition, you could say, “my goal as an HR leader is to build a thriving culture based on measurable results. To achieve a thriving culture, we must reduce turnover, increase engagement, improve performance, and provide the tools for a more inclusive and happier culture.”  

Another great way is to connect your pitch to your company’s core values. For example, you could state that although your organization values innovation, your employee recognition practices are stuck in the past.

Finally, a powerful way to set the tone for your presentation is to tell a story. Share a personal experience or anecdote that will resonate with your audience while showcasing the reason behind your proposed initiative.

2. Current State: What’s the cost of doing nothing?

When covering your organization’s current state, it’s crucial to create a sense of urgency.

Clearly illustrate that things are changing beyond the control of the company, and there will be winners, and there will be losers. This sets the stage for your leaders to want to be winners, and that not addressing these outside forces will cause the business to become less competitive unless they find a way to navigate these shifts effectively.  

Another important component of this is the cost of doing nothing.

In the second article from this series, we present how to calculate the cost of absenteeism, turnover, and disengagement.  

Using hard data like those numbers is a great way to demonstrate where you are today, where you want to go and how you’ll measure success. Comparing your organization to your competitors using benchmark data is also a great way to capture your executive team’s attention.  

Clearly describe how the problem presented affects the business and impedes corporate success. Bring in actual data from your organization. When you finish this section, your audience should be convinced that doing nothing is not an option and should be eager to hear your proposed solution.

3. Future State: What does success look like?

What exactly are you hoping to achieve? How will you measure success with your proposed solution?

These are questions you need to answer in this section of your presentation.  

Another way to approach this section is to consider what outcomes you’re looking for and the drivers that can get you there.

What is the one most important thing that your manager or company could do to make a meaningful and far-reaching positive impact? In the case of employee recognition, you want to demonstrate that you’ve considered all possible options (or drivers) but have determined that recognition is the best solution to achieve your organization’s specific goals.  

Describe the approach you’re proposing and the known benefits of that approach.

4. Solution: How will you make this happen?

Now is the time to make your specific strategic recommendation. You’ve answered what will get you there; now it’s time to answer how.

This is where you propose your preferred vendor.

When recommending a vendor, it’s essential to show that you’ve compared various solutions to make the most strategic choice for your organization.

For employee recognition software, make sure to show that you’ve compared important features, including: Price per user, Rewards Markup, required integrations, support, analytics, mobile application, are rewards optional?

Show that you’ve done your homework, identified the most important qualities in a vendor, reviewed multiple options, and have a decision matrix that led you to your recommendation.

This Buyer’s Guide is a great resource; it includes an employee recognition vendor comparison checklist.

5. Cost: What budget needs to be allocated to this?

Once you recommend a concrete solution, the next thing you’ll need to address is the cost.

When approaching cost, a good starting point is to share benchmarks. For example, for modern employee recognition programs, the key cost benchmarks are:

• Low: Under 1% of base salary
• Average: 1-3% of base salary
• Above Average: 4-10% of base salary

Next, present the actual cost of your proposal. Our budgeting spreadsheet is an excellent tool for this step. Following the spreadsheet will ensure that you consider all inputs such as your employee count, whether you’ll be including rewards and additional fees. Using the spreadsheet will allow you to show that you’ve compared vendors based on the total cost of ownership and are presenting the actual cost difference between your proposed solution and its competitors.

6. Financial Benefits: What’s the Impact?

Demonstrating the bottom-line impact of your proposal is often the most impactful part of the presentation.

The good news is that the financial benefit or ROI is undeniable with the right metrics when it comes to employee recognition platforms.

The ROI formula itself is relatively straightforward, and many of the required metrics should be readily available to you (e.g., turnover rate, engagement survey results, and absenteeism rate). You can see a step-by-step walk-through of how to calculate ROI here.

Beyond the ROI, demonstrating that your chosen solution has worked for other organizations is a powerful way to further support your case to a risk-averse executive team.

Examples you can use include:

• Case studies
• Client testimonials
• Awards won
• Product Reviews

7. Action Plan: How do we make this happen?

A vital component of a business proposal or business case is to present what your solution will look like in practice.

Make sure your presentation identifies the internal champions (likely yourself) and that you have buy-in from the most critical stakeholders for this initiative, for example, in the case of employee recognition, the CHRO, or Head of People (if that’s not you).

Ask your preferred vendor for an implementation plan and timeline so you can accurately predict and plan for a suitable go-live date.

8. Decision: Don’t forget to ask for Approval

This part is the simplest but most often overlooked step. After working through your presentation, and answering any questions along the way, don’t forget to ask for permission to proceed with the initiative.

If your executive team indicates that they need more time to make their decision, make sure to immediately schedule another time to ask for the decision again.

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Reminder: The content of this article is covered in a recent webinar you can access for free on-demand here. By accessing the on-demand webinar, you’ll be able to download a customizable pitch deck.

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Final Advice

Equipped with accurate budgeted costs, a persuasive ROI, along with a compelling and easy-to-follow presentation, you’ll be well on your way to getting the approval you are looking for to move forward with your plan.  

Remember that if you are confident and committed to your proposal, you’ll foster confidence within your executive team. They want a reason to say yes; it’s up to you to make the case.  

CLIENT PROFILE

Company Name: Cultural Vistas

Industry: Non-profit Organization

Head Office: Washington, D.C. & Berlin

Kudos Champion: Laura Gross, Director of Administration, People + Culture

Key Takeaways:

• Culture is a strategy (good cultures can overcome change)
• Systems create consistency (monthly awards give employees something attainable to work toward)
• Employees care about more than just salary (they want to support a global mission and vision through shared values)
• Employee recognition through Kudos® is a valuable employee benefit

Changing the World Through Experience

The American non-profit organization, Cultural Vistas, believes, "understanding our evolving world is the first step toward changing it." This philosophy is the driving force behind Cultural Vistas' work.

They facilitate internships, professional exchange programs, and services for visitors to the U.S., American students, and professionals seeking experiential learning opportunities abroad.

Founded in 1963, Cultural Vistas offers over 30 unique exchange programs and partnerships with more than 130 countries. They believe that international professional experiences create more informed, skilled, and engaged citizens. They equip the next generation of global leaders to solve complex challenges by connecting lives to exchange knowledge, values, and perspectives.

This challenging, but rewarding vision requires a team of passionate and hardworking employees to fulfill. Before the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Cultural Vistas had offices in Washington, D.C., New York City, and Berlin, with board members and stakeholders worldwide.

In an interview with Laura Gross, Director of Administration, People + Culture at Cultural Vistas, she said, "generally, a lot of people on our staff have lived abroad or grew up abroad, speak other languages, and are very curious about the world. They understand the value of interacting with different people's perspectives and ways of life and have a broader understanding of how to connect with other people."

A Global Shift

Unsurprisingly, when the pandemic hit in 2020, all exchange programs were frozen due to international travel bans leading to a halt in global movement. Like many organizations worldwide, all Cultural Vistas’ employees transitioned to working from home. Laura and her team were faced with the challenge of maintaining employee engagement within their fully remote workforce.

Laura said, "as a non-profit, we don't have the highest, most competitive salaries; we need to find other ways to add value for our employees." This is a common trend – Cultural Vistas is not alone in the struggle. Salaries at non-profits are often not competitive with those offered by private-sector corporations.

The stakes for maintaining the passion and drive that brought employees to Cultural Vistas in the first place are much higher, given today's competitive job market. Fostering a culture that celebrates the mission and vision that attracted employees to their roles is imperative now more than ever. Recognizing the impacts of employees' individual and collective efforts is also critical to keeping employees happy in their non-profit roles.

Embracing Change and Recognizing Achievement

With culture and employee engagement top of mind, the team at Cultural Vistas focused on fostering a virtual environment just as enriching as their previous office life. Above all, they wanted to keep employees happy and passionate about the cause.

The social committees of each office quickly merged into one powerhouse committee; made up of employees from all departments and levels, holding weekly meetings that anyone could contribute to. This resulted in a variety of virtual events, ranging from art classes to trivia nights to pet show-and-tells.

But of course, beyond social cohesion is another critical aspect of engagement – employee recognition. That’s where the platform Kudos came in.

Kudos is an employee engagement, culture, and analytics platform that fosters peer-to-peer recognition, values reinforcement, and open communication. We help organizations boost employee engagement, reduce turnover, improve culture, and drive productivity and performance.

Cultural Vistas decided to implement monthly awards using data from Kudos to help their employees see the impact of their contributions. Each month, three people are awarded:

1.   The person who received the most recognition messages on the Kudos platform

2.   The person who sent the most recognition messages on Kudos

3.   The person who was recognized on Kudos for displaying the most qualities related to Cultural Vistas corporate values.

The last award is perhaps the most powerful and something unique to the Kudos platform. Every time someone sends a recognition message to a colleague on Kudos, they also select which qualities the person they’re recognizing has displayed. These qualities are directly tied to the organization’s values – something essential for non-profits that often have unique and distinct values and missions.

And, of course, the rewards offered within Kudos don’t hurt.

Laura explained that because of the challenge of competing with the private sector for talent, the casual financial incentive of Kudos points helps. In Kudos, employees earn points that they can redeem for gift cards or other custom rewards chosen by the organization. A typical employee will earn hundreds of dollars a year in rewards through Kudos.

It’s a program they are proud of.

“We’ve added the Kudos platform into our official benefits offerings,” Laura said. “It’s promoted and discussed in offer conversations as both a cultural and financial inventive.”

The Vistas are Bright

"In a surprising twist, a global pandemic that jeopardizes the future of our entire field has also boosted staff morale," Laura said. "Before the pandemic, there were three distinct office cultures, based on geography. Now that we're all working remotely, it's equalized the experience of being an employee at Cultural Vistas – we all have collaborated so much more organically and naturally than before."

Recent Pulse surveys indicate that the number one thing the employees like about working at Cultural Vistas is the team – a great sign that the effort is working. Simply put, "a happy community of people is good for business," Laura said.

"Our staff is a passionate, dedicated, really hardworking group. They care a lot about their participants’ experiences abroad, but they also care a lot about their coworkers’ experiences. And, they work together as a team. There's a lot of shared drive and passion. It's a really great group of people to work with."

So, while the competition to attract and retain top talent may forever be a challenge for non-profits like Cultural Vistas – they can still compete with higher-paying for-profit counterparts by operating in a nimble and employee-centred way.

With a strong culture and emphasis on employee engagement through tools like Kudos®, the right employees will feel at home at Cultural Vistas – no matter where they are on the globe.

Summary:

Employee turnover is on every HR leader’s mind these days as people leave their jobs at an unprecedented rate. So, what’s going on? And what can organizations do to curb this costly trend?

How Employee Recognition Can Fight the “Great Resignation”

It’s all over the news – employees are leaving their jobs in droves. HR Leaders are struggling with unprecedented rates of turnover and a competitive war for talent.

"This Great Resignation is due to employees rethinking what work means to them in a post-pandemic world."

And it’s true; the numbers are truly staggering. Gallup recently reported that 3.6 million Americans resigned in May 2021 alone, leading to a record-high number of unfilled positions. This was in all job categories across all industries. They’re calling it the Great Resignation. NPR explains that this Great Resignation is due to employees rethinking what work means to them in a post-pandemic world, how they are valued, and how they spend their time.

Some are leaving to avoid returning to the office, having enjoyed the flexibility remote work brought to their lives by eliminating lengthy and stressful commutes. And of course, some turnover can be attributed to people who waited for things in the world to calm down before making a job change.

But HR professionals are witnessing another interesting trend emerge from this wave of departures.

The people who are leaving are disengaged. In fact, Gallup found that 74% of people looking for a new job today, post-pandemic, are disengaged, “It's not an industry, role, or pay issue,” Gallup’s team says, “it's a workplace issue.” Employees are first and foremost now seeking a workplace that meets their needs in terms of flexibility but also one that makes them feel valued and appreciated.

Retention matters

Simply put, when employees leave, it costs a lot.

The actual financial cost of turnover varies by role and industry. Still, the general rule of thumb is that replacing workers requires one-half to two times the employee's annual salary. This includes the cost of time, money, and resources it takes to offboard, recruit, and onboard.

HR professionals and leaders also need to consider the opportunity cost of recruitment, interviews, and onboarding. When employees take time away from their roles to interview, prepare offers, and train, they take efforts away from their jobs and projects and initiatives that could help generate income for the organization.

What’s more, saying goodbye to high-performing long-term employees means letting go of valuable historical knowledge, which often helps with onboarding new employees and providing excellent customer service. By the same token, when employees have long-term relationships with clients, their departure can be disruptive and sometimes jeopardize a client relationship, in some more severe cases.

Finally, turnover can affect morale and culture through resentment of the time spent on recruitment and onboarding, close friends leaving, and a constant inflow of new colleagues. Long-term relationships between colleagues foster trust, respect, and support, which directly impact employee engagement. Research consistently shows that when employees have friends at work, they perform better, and the culture improves.

Does more money and rewards motivate people to stay?

In short, no.

In Gallup’s most recent report on the so-called great resignation, they found that, on average, it takes more than a 20% raise to lure most employees away from a manager they feel engaged with. In contrast, the same study found that it takes next to nothing in terms of salary increase to lure away a disengaged worker. Another staggering study by Deloitte revealed that only 8% of businesses feel their rewards programs are effective at retaining talent.

It’s a job seeker market right now, which means the harsh reality is that most people in your organization could go elsewhere for more money if they wanted to - so what makes them stay?

Why recognition is the answer

“The single greatest advantage in the modern economy is a happy and engaged workforce.”

Recognition leads to happy employees and better business results. Happy employees are more productive, creative, and supportive of their colleagues, but most importantly, they are more likely to stay. As Harvard Business Review (HBR) put it, “the single greatest advantage in the modern economy is a happy and engaged workforce.”

Performance-wise, HBR found that more than 40% of employed Americans feel that they would put more energy into their work if they were recognized more often.

In terms of retention, Robert Half found that 66% of employees would quit if they didn’t feel recognized – for millennials, that number jumps to 76%. Similarly, a study by SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) found that 79% of millennial and Gen Z survey respondents said an increase in recognition and rewards would make them more loyal to their employer. The study did find that giving financial recognition (in the form of casual rewards) to the two youngest generations at work provides these workers with a greater sense of personal fulfillment and helps boost employee retention.

Gallup also surveyed a similar group and found that Millennials engaged at work are 64% less likely to change jobs in the following 12 months. Given that by 2025 Millennials will make up three-quarters of the workforce, the need for robust employee engagement strategies and management is urgent to fight this unprecedented wave of resignations.

What an effective modern recognition program looks like

According to Josh Bersin, today, most recognition programs out there focus on tenure (over 85%). At first glance, that makes sense - reward people for staying, but it’s not the most effective way to use recognition to improve retention of good employees. The U.S. Bureau of Labor’s latest report indicates that the median years of tenure for employees 25 and older is 4.9 years, and 2.8 years for employees aged 25-34. This means that if your recognition program is based on years of service and starts at year 5, around half of your employees (and even more for millennials) will never experience any form of formal recognition.

Instead, your recognition program should be tied to what's important to your organization, your values, and your goals. High-performing employees will not respond to programs based on tenure where “everyone wins.” As Gallup put it, “seeing awards for mediocre work will only signal to your stars that your organization is not for them.” Evidently, the world has changed, and your recognition program needs to evolve too.

But exclusive programs only for high performers aren't the answer either.

That's why Kudos's employee engagement and recognition platform has four distinct levels of recognition built-in, based on both performance and contribution. Employees can be recognized with a “Thank You” for an act of kindness or selflessness, all the way to an “Exceptional” for significant accomplishments and initiatives with a deep impact on the organization. Modern recognition programs provide transparency and are accessible for everyone from day one.

Final Thoughts

The Great Resignation is another unexpected challenge that the 2020 pandemic presented for HR professionals. Not only are HR departments and organizational leaders working on planning what the future of work looks like (back to the office, fully remote, hybrid), but now they are also facing the added challenge of recruiting and retaining talent. Creating a culture around recognition with a partner like Kudos is a simple and highly effective way to give today’s employees what they need to stay.

Given their extensive research in the space, Gallup believes, “reversing the tide in an organization requires managers who care, who engage, and who give workers a sense of purpose, inspiration, and motivation to perform. Such managers give people reason to stay.”

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HR Professionals in healthcare organizations have a complex portfolio of responsibilities. They serve an incredibly diverse group of employees in a wide variety of job functions.

From nurses and physicians to janitors and administrative staff, every employee in a healthcare organization is essential; they all directly affect the patient experience through the care and effort they put into their job.

One way today's HR professionals in healthcare can facilitate an excellent patient experience is by ensuring that their organization's employees are engaged. While employee engagement has many facets, one often overlooked opportunity for health care organizations is employee recognition. Incredible work is being done every day in healthcare and sharing those successes through a platform visible to all can significantly improve employee engagement.

But is the implementation of a formal recognition platform worth it for healthcare organizations? The data and studies show that it is definitely a worthwhile investment and is, in fact, critical to organizational, employee, and patient health.

Here are six specific reasons why healthcare organizations need to prioritize employee engagement through recognition:

1. Healthcare Workers are Burnt Out

Burnout has always been a prominent issue for healthcare workers, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, this issue was especially prevalent. The typical burnout worsened during the pandemic and even led to many healthcare workers reporting feelings of psychological distress. That said, even before the pandemic, a 2016 study by the ECRI Institute found that burnout was a problem for most healthcare workers.

One proven way employers can work to reduce burnout is through recognition. If employees feel seen for their work and appreciated for their efforts, they may feel less inclined to "prove themselves" by working unnecessarily long hours or choosing not to take time off.

2. Engaged Employees are Less Likely to Leave

Turnover is a costly threat to many healthcare organizations today. Beyond the financial cost of turnover (estimated at 33% of the employee's annual salary), there are significant effects on morale and the workload of the remaining employees. When colleagues leave, employees have to say goodbye to a friend, cover their responsibilities and shifts, and train new hires. These effects can create a cycle of turnover, which creates a heavy financial and emotional burden for organizations.

Employee engagement directly affects the likelihood of an employee staying longer. A study reported by Harvard Business Review found that only 17% of highly engaged hospital workers were interested in other employment opportunities versus 43% of the disengaged group. What’s more, Deloitte reported that companies with cultures of recognition have 38% less turnover.

3. Improved Employee and Patient Safety

A study by Gallup revealed that employee engagement directly impacts the number of accidents on the job. The more engaged the employee is, the more likely they are to follow safety protocols and subsequently experience fewer accidents. Recognizing employees for safety will also encourage others to adhere to those same practices.

But even more interesting is that the same Gallup study discovered that engaged employees who operate more safely contribute to enhanced patient safety. Gallup saw a 15% increase in patient safety in the groups studied when their health care team was highly engaged.

4. Reduced Patient Deaths

A common indicator of the quality of medical care at a health care organization is the rate of patient deaths. In a study of over 200 hospitals, Gallup compared patient outcomes to possible contributing factors. The study found that nurse engagement is the No. 1 predictor of mortality across hospitals.

Given these results, it is clear that employee engagement truly is life or death in hospital settings, especially for nurses. The American Nurses Association compiled the following list of activities that encourage nurse engagement, and recognition landed first.

1. Acknowledge the Work
2. Provide Support from Leadership
3. Foster Empathy and Trust
4. Support Teamwork
5. Encourage Work/Life Balance
6. Communication

"Nurse engagement is the No. 1 predictor of mortality across hospitals."

5. Improved Organizational Performance

Organizations with highly engaged employees consistently perform better from an operational and business standpoint. One example of this is improved NPS scores or, for hospitals in the US, higher Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores.

A study in HBR found when organizations saw improvements in their HCAHPS scores for patient experience or employee engagement, the average patients' global ratings of their care improved.

As Charla Garcia, the CHRO at UMHRO, put it in a recent interview with Kudos, "Patient satisfaction is our ultimate measure. We have a saying, "Happy employees equal happy patients." Because we focus on supporting our staff, they are free to support our patients. The local community then does an amazing job of supporting us in return.”

6. HR Administrators Love it!

By prioritizing and streamlining recognition, HR Administrators can benefit from a consistent, transparent, and equitable program, and employees are happier. CFOs appreciate the cost controls built-in, and given the benefits previously mentioned, HR has to spend less time managing unhappy employees, turnover, and security incidents.

What’s more, recruiting top talent is easier when your organization has a reputation for being a great place to work. Basically, a focus on employee recognition helps HR Administrators excel at their roles and contribute to their organizations in a meaningful way.

The points above outline just how critical employee engagement and recognition are for today's healthcare organizations. Luckily, there are employee recognition platforms like Kudos that are designed to serve the unique employee population in healthcare organizations.

Kudos' unique platform allows employees to give and view recognition through a web browser, mobile app, or kiosk (Kudos TV) – a flexible option that is inclusive and accessible.

But don't take it from us, here is what longtime client University of Missouri Health Care had to say:

"We found Kudos and we have never looked back. Their platform stood out over the rest of our options for a variety of reasons – but mostly because it checked every single one of our boxes. It wasn't just a delivery mechanism for rewards – it was the whole recognition package. We finally have data on our recognition efforts, and it's been so helpful in our employee engagement efforts. It is a perfect fit for our industry and culture – the mobile app has been such a game changer for us. Most of our employees do not sit at a desk all day. They are on the move and now they can recognize each other and redeem their points from anywhere. Kudos has single-handedly removed so many barriers to recognition.

We are so happy with our decision to partner with Kudos for our recognition needs."

Kaci Drennan, MPA
HR Communications Consultant
University of Missouri Health Care

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Client Profile

Company Name: Saxton Horne Communications

Industry: Marketing, Advertising

Head Office: Sandy, Utah

Kudos Champion: David Blain, President

Key Takeaways:

• Culture is a strategy (good cultures can overcome bad times)
• Systems create consistency (from manual and once a year to online and all the time)
• Live your values (from words on a wall to everyday actions) 
• Measure what you want to manage, and listen to your team (from assuming all is good to knowing where you need to focus) 

“We want Kudos back!” How a Utah advertising agency listened to their employees and built the culture of their dreams

“That’s the most fun I’ve had all day!” is what David Blain, President of Utah-based advertising agency Saxton Horne Communications, wants to hear from his clients after every meeting. Blain also loves to hear: “I want to work at Saxton Horne; you guys have more fun than anyone!” The latter is arguably much harder to achieve and has been on Blain’s mind, and to-do list for years.

Saxton Horne Communications is part of the LarryH. Miller Group of Companies, which includes more than 80 businesses located throughout the western United States. The Larry H. Miller Group of Companies has subsidiaries in automotive, entertainment, finance, auto insurance, real estate, health care, and philanthropy. What began as a single car dealership in 1979 run by Larry H. and Gail Miller, has grown into one of the largest privately-owned companies in the United States. The group’s primary mission is “To Enrich Lives,” and their vision is simple — to be “the best place in town to work and the best place in town to do business.”

About five years ago, Blain and his team sat down to develop a plan to take the agency’s culture to the next level, in part to live out that broader vision.

A culture of recognition is one where everyone’s contributions are celebrated and appreciated regularly.

“The conclusion that we came to was that you could just let culture happen and be what it is, or you can intentionally create it,” said Blain. “And we decided that we were going to create a culture of recognition.”

As a first initiative, the team decided to start Thank You Week. The idea behind Thank You Week was to celebrate Saxton Horne’s people over the course of a week every year. They would bring in lunch everyday and give everyone Friday afternoon off.

The thoughtful recognition component was even more powerful; every day, employees were asked to write five thank you cards to someone they didn’t typically work with. Every morning of Thank You Week, employees would come in to find thoughtful notes on their desks.

Another year, the leadership team wrote a thank you note to their colleague's spouses and significant others, thanking them for supporting their partner in what they did for the company. 

The Saxton Horne team experienced the power of recognition every year during that week, and soon realized that they needed to expand the initiative beyond just 5 days per year. David Blain knew the solution — he called Kudos. He knew about the Kudos platform during his previous work with an organization that used it. He recognized that to build the culture he wanted, he needed a robust system in place to create a great, measurable culture.

Sometimes, implementing new software can raise brows. Still, Kudos was welcomed with open arms by the Saxton Horne team. The energy and sentiment of Thank You Week recreated daily through recognition messages, flowing between employees and leadership. 

There were even some unexpected benefits of Kudos:

• Foster inclusion through the built-in analytics
• Outline the frequency of recognition between employees
• Observe patterns, like who might be looked over or left out

Then, in the early spring of 2020, The COVID-19 pandemic hit

Unsure of what would happen to their business, David laid off staff, reduced salaries, and cut costs wherever possible — all with a heavy heart.

Unfortunately, that meant software programs like Kudos had to go.

And while the guilt of layoffs and salary cuts weighed heavily on management as the whole world watched the pandemic escalate, something unexpected happened at Saxton Horne.

While everyone on the team was working remotely, there was one resounding message coming from staff to David and the leadership team: “Bring Kudos back.” And that’s precisely what they did. 

“Before our hiatus,” said Blain. “We didn’t entirely recognize how important Kudos was.” The pause from Kudos showed David and the team at Saxton Horne that everybody loved the platform.

“You want to see if something works? Take it away and see what happens,” joked Blain.“We took away Kudos, and they protested — that told us it was worth a lot.” 

Essentially, the culture of recognition designed by the company’s leaders was lacking without Kudos.

Now back in action, Kudos is the responsibility of Saxton Horne’s “Culture Club”

The club was formerly known as the party committee before David heard Boy George’s Karma Chameleon on his way to work one day and was immediately inspired to change the name. The Culture Club’s mandate is simple — build culture. Made up of people from each department in the agency, they are responsible for managing and implementing all culture initiatives, including managing and running programs through Kudos. 

The impact of Kudos has been significant, especially with the majority of the company working remotely. While other tools are used strictly for business purposes, Saxton Horne uses Slack and Kudos as connection points for the team. Most Kudos recognition messages are sent through Slack using the Kudos integration.

“Just like Kudos was an extension of Thank You Week, it’s also an extension of the connection our team would experience in the office. It creates the conversational, non-formal culture that we want,” said Blain.

And as for the famous Thank You Week that started it all? It’s still going strong, and this year, assuming the pandemic continues to improve in the U.S., it will coincide with many Saxton Horne employees returning to the office. 

This article is the fifth and final piece in our 5-part Employee Engagement and Culture Checklist for 2021 Series:

• Part 1: How to Build Your Employee Engagement and Culture Checklist: 4 Must-Haves in 2021
• Part 2: Reassessing, Refocusing, and Reinforcing Culture in 2021
• Part 3: 6 Ways to Live by Your Organization’s Core Values in 2021
• Part 4: Communication & Remote Work in 2021: Assess Your Skills

Employee recognition is a continuously evolving space that has come a long way. Back when, most employees spent their entire careers working for one company and annual bonuses seemed to meet employees' recognition needs. Today, employee expectations have changed, and the organizations that want to remain successful are actively working to address these new expectations.

In today’s HR departments, you’ll find culture specialists, total rewards managers, employee experience architects, and even chief happiness officers all dedicated to improving employee experience. What’s more, today’s c-suite is discussing employer brand, employee engagement, and stakeholder capitalism regularly.

Employee recognition is an essential piece of today’s HR puzzle - especially if your employees have recently reported a desire for more or better recognition in a survey or if you are experiencing high levels of turnover, poor performance, and employee burnout.

Here’s a simple overview to help you get to know the recognition space today and how you can make your employees and colleagues feel proud of their contributions at work.

Why is Recognition Important?

Recognition is vital to today’s workforce. Recent data collected by Gallup found that praising and recognizing employees can positively affect employee well-being and your organization’s bottom line. The report found that 66% of respondents trusted their colleagues more when they felt sufficiently praised. Adequately praised employees also produced better results and were more productive. A study on the importance of recognition found that today’s most progressive organizations use their recognition programs to consistently reinforce key behaviors and outcomes necessary to drive business success.

According to Forbes, recognized employees are “more satisfied, perform better, are more productive, and they’re more likely to engage with the rest of the team.” The Forbes piece explained that acknowledging employees for individual contributions reduces stress, absenteeism, and attrition. The previously quoted Gallup study found that employees who receive recognition also demonstrate increased collaboration through reduced self-protecting behaviors, such as information hoarding.

What we see at Kudos is that a good frequency and quantity of recognition, when all team members are sending between 3 to 5 messages per person per month, creates a culture of appreciation that leads to higher engagement.

Deloitte has identified five market factors that make recognition especially important and relevant today:

1. Unstable economy: recognition is typically more cost-effective and has a longer-term impact than expensive salary increases and bonuses.
2. Need for greater agility: through recognition, organizations can retain employees and attract top talent.
3. Flattening organizational cultures: recognition serves as appreciation for strong performance when promotions aren’t possible or the norm.
4. Technology: Technology facilitates transparency, collaboration, and knowledge sharing, and that has become the expectation for today’s employees. Organizational recognition programs should fit that mold.
5. Millennial Workforce: Millenials are the largest generation in the workforce, and they expect and demand more feedback than previous generations.

The ROI of recognition and employee engagement runs deep, but one of the most noticeable benefits to organizational culture and the bottom line is improved employee retention.

Employees who feel that they’re not adequately recognized at work are 3x more likely to quit in the next year, according to Gallup. Deloitte also reported that companies with cultures of recognition have 31 percent lower voluntary turnover. Another Deloitte report (The Talent 2020 Survey) found that recognition is among the top three most effective non-financial factors for retention.

When is Recognition Appropriate?

The timing of recognition matters. For recognition to appear authentic, it should be shared as close to the event or activity being recognized as possible, which means recognition should be given frequently. According to Gallup, fewer than a third of workers have received praise from a supervisor in the last seven days. In fact, Gallup's Chief Scientist Jim Carter has stated, "Recognition is a short-term need that has to be satisfied on an ongoing basis - weekly, maybe daily."

In organizations with cultures of recognition, significant accomplishments and small favors are recognized often and freely. Praise and gratitude are both critical components of recognition and should be shared equally. Beyond that, inclusivity is key. Everyone's contributions, regardless of their role, should be acknowledged if the impact is meaningful; this fosters belonging and improved employee morale.

Both individuals and groups should be recognized to maximize the benefits. When interviewed by Gallup, David Grazian, the Director of Corporate Taxation at Granite Construction, Inc., shared that publicly recognizing entire departments can improve the department's reputation within the organization while also helping you "get more resources" when you need them.

At Kudos, we have found that while group recognition is important, one-to-one recognition has more impact on affecting an individual's performance, sense of belonging, and engagement.

Finally, recognition doesn't just need to come from the top-down, i.e., manager-to-employee; recognition should flow to-and-from employees at all levels, which is what's known as peer-to-peer recognition. In fact, in some cases, the Society for Human Resource Management found that employees prefer to be recognized by their peers over their managers or superiors because their recognition feels more genuine.

How to Give Meaningful Recognition

How you deliver your recognition can make a difference in the impact it will have.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Be specific: Avoid dropping a generic, "Great job!" Instead, focus on what specifically the person did to earn the recognition and, when possible, how it advanced the individual or team towards a goal, and or demonstrated how to live a core value, and or advanced a company goal.
2. Be transparent: If someone contributed to a team effort, make sure you specify exactly what they did in order to give them the credit they deserve. Also, include why you are recognizing an individual to show your sincerity.
3. Recognize the effort, not the outcome: The goal of sending recognition is to encourage and reinforce positive behavior in your organization. By recognizing the work and thought that went into an accomplishment, you are not only providing meaningful recognition to the individual but also signaling to the broader organization what type of effort gets recognized.
4. Make it meaningful: Recognize when it truly is warranted, using the two points above as a guide (specificity and transparency). Gallup explains that “if everyone wins, no one wins” and that a recognition approach where everyone gets a turn regardless of the quality of their work can breed “resentment and, ultimately, cynicism.”
5. Organizational values and mission: Tying recognition back to organization’s goals can make an employee feel like their contributions matter to the organization’s success. In fact, Human Resources Today’s definition of Employee Recognition mentions this exact point “Employee Recognition is nothing but the acknowledgment of an individual or team for their hard work, efforts, and accomplishments that go with the organization's goals and values.”

Here are some templates to help you get started:

Finally, it's all in the delivery. To enjoy all the benefits of recognition discussed above, like increased productivity, employee engagement, and reduced turnover, the delivery method must be effective. Luckily, as employee expectations have changed, so has technology. Where recognition used to be more at the individual manager’s discretion and generally hidden from the rest of the company, organizations who want to build a culture of recognition have implemented employee recognition platforms to streamline the process and create more transparency and accountability surrounding who is receiving recognition and how often. The recognition platform leaders provide a system that facilitates peer-to-peer recognition driven by values and visible to the entire organization – and robust analytics to track and measure success.

Points are not the point. Today, recognition is often confused with rewards, specifically points that employees can use toward gift cards or other perks. While rewards are a fantastic tool to reinforce performance and contribution, they are not interchangeable with recognition and certainly don’t have the same long-lasting impact on employee engagement. In a Gallup study, money or financial reward ranked fifth as the most memorable form of recognition, after public and private praise, positive reviews, and added responsibilities. Simply put, if points are the central element of a recognition moment, that is a reward program, not a recognition program.

In 2021, recognition is a critical component of any organization's human resources strategy. The ROI of recognition is undeniable. With hybrid workforces as the new normal, having a plan for employee engagement regardless of geography should be top of mind for every c-suite. And if it isn’t, we challenge you to add it to your next management team meeting agenda to start the conversation.

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Originally published April 2021. Last updated November 2023.

The positive impacts of recognition are undeniable. According to Gallup, organizations that recognize and praise employees see a boost in individual employee engagement, productivity, and retention.

Many companies have initiatives in place to recognize or reward employees. These initiatives are typically manual and focus on length-of-service, nominations, and spot awards. Traditional methods are time-consuming for Human Resources(HR), lack impact and reach, and do not translate well in remote working environments. Even more, they aren’t cost-effective or scalable. By far, the largest issue with these antiquated programs is that they do not offer any measurable insights on engagement. Based on these shortcomings, you may want to consider investing in a modern employee recognition software system.

Given the many software options, you might be wondering what choice best suits your company. Here are the top factors you should consider before choosing your next employee recognition program:

1. Consider Your Company Objectives and Goals

Is your primary goal to align your teams’ efforts to the organization’s goals and drive performance?

Are you hoping to reinforce the company mission, vision, and values to amplify your organization’s unique qualities?

These wishes can only be granted by actively engaging with your team, and giving each member positive feedback. People working in your organization have different skills and habits. You have to understand individual skill sets to meaningfully recognize each team member – this is key to an effective employee recognition program.

Your employee recognition software should emphasize and inspire behaviour that matches your company's core values, mission, and vision. It should further serve your employees' needs, so consider if the nature of their work encourages participation with the software.

Questions to ask:

• What devices or media do my employees have access to daily (For example, computers and smartphones)?
• Do most of my employees use an internet-connected device as part of their daily work?

2. Compatibility with Your Other Systems

Choosing an employee recognition software that integrates with some or all your existing software has several benefits. Firstly, it reduces the amount of time your HR or people team spend administering the system. Secondly, it can greatly drive adoption within your organization.

There are three broad categories of integrations that you want to look for:

User Provisioning: These types of integrations usually hook into your existing HR software, like Automatic Data Processing Inc. (ADP) or BambooHR. Plus, they save time by automatically keeping your employee data synced between all your systems.

Single-Sign-On: These integrations make it easy for your employees to log into your employee recognition software. With Single-Sign-On, they don’t need to remember or create a brand-new username and password combination.

Productivity: A client favourite at Kudos®. These integrations enable your employees to send and receive recognition from their existing software (like Microsoft Teams, Outlook, orSlack) without logging into the employee recognition software. Productivity integrations have a big impact on adoption within many organizations.

Make a list of your various software solutions, and work with your vendor to identify which integrations are the best fit.

Questions to ask:

• What software does my organization use?
• Are integrations an important factor in our employee recognition strategy?

3. Recognition or Rewards?

Everyone loves a reward, but when your employees say they want more recognition at work– they don’t mean more rewards. They want meaningful, memorable recognition for their work.

Look fora solution that emphasizes quality recognition above rewards. This way, your chosen solution drives valued behaviours and is less prone to manipulation by its users.

In addition to software subscription fees, some software vendors profit on commission from the rewards your employees redeem in their software. This reduces the overall impact of your investment.

Questions to ask:

• Are rewards required or are they optional?
• Does the vendor mark-up rewards or make money by selling points?

4. Prioritize Security

Organizations have a responsibility to protect the personal information of their employees.Your software provider should have policies in place that show their commitment to enterprise-level security. Vendor security audits will be quick and smooth if you work with vendors that have a track record for meeting the demands of enterprise data security requirements.

Questions to ask:

• Is there someone dedicated to security and privacy oversight?
• What third parties are used in delivering the services. What oversight or monitoring is provided over these parties?
• What independent assurance do you provide over your security and privacy practices?

5. Choose a Scalable Employee Recognition Software

Will the software you choose accommodate the growth of your business? If you plan to expand your recognition program to divisions or business units in other countries or regions, choose a platform that can provide service to those areas and in those languages.

And remember to factor in the future costs of rewards as you expand the program through your organization.

6. It Should Be Fun

Your employees will be eager to interact with your new and exciting program, so your chosen vendor should provide detailed launch plans.

With millennials turning 40 this year, a large part of the workforce is ready to interact with social programs. To appeal to this generation of employees, choose a software with social recognition activities such as liking and commenting. Employee recognition can also support inclusion in your organization – if you roll out the program in the right way.

The Right Employee Recognition Software Is a Resource for Your Business

Relationships between teams and people in your organization can improve when you use the ideal employee recognition software. With the number of programs available, do your due diligence on each software option. It should have a straight forward process of recognition and the latest software features for improved efficiency.

Ensure that your software vendor is reliable. Partnering with a provider who has industry-leading knowledge of employee recognition programs will be a resource for you.

Now that many teams work remotely, traditional work celebrations are not always possible. Even so, work anniversaries are still an excellent opportunity to celebrate your employees.

Boost team morale, happiness, and retention by simply recognizing employees for their work.

If you’re looking for remote-friendly ways to celebrate your team members’ big milestones – keep reading.

Here are five creative work anniversary ideas.

1. Recognize Team Members Publicly

At companies with more than a couple hundred employees, writing personalized notes for individual achievements is not practical. At this point, many companies look for ways to streamline the recognition process – usually publicly and in real-time.

Publicly recognizing your employees creates an opportunity for the entire team to join in the celebration. There are plenty of ways to do this, but here are a few examples:

• Virtual Parties: Hosting a celebration over a video conferencing platform, like Zoom, is a safe and fun way to recognize your employees’ milestone. The kind of party you host is up to you. Try a virtual happy hour, or hire a magician or comedian to perform on-screen.
• Peer-to-Peer Recognition: An employee recognition software like Kudos® helps you publicly show appreciation for employees and their contributions. Plus, it eliminates the manual work that typically makes years-of-service awards so time-consuming. Each employee’s milestone is posted in Kudos on their special day, making it easy for everyone in the company to send their well-wishes. Each milestone can be accompanied with a certain number of points. These points can be redeemed for a Kudos Reward or a custom company reward.
• Social Media Posts: Publicly celebrating employees on your company's social media pages is a great way to show appreciation – it doesn't get much more "public" than that. We just suggest checking with individual employees before posting to make sure they're comfortable with it. Recognition through social media can also benefit your brand image, because you can demonstrate to the world how much you care for your team.

At Kudos, we take a hybrid approach with our employees. Everyone receives a KudosAward® on their work anniversary – with tons of comments and congratulations from the rest of the team. But we also like to do a little something extra and hold a monthly virtual “Birthdays & Anniversaries” party – just to get everyone together for a little fun.

Pro Tip: If you’re using Kudos, your managers will receive automated reminders about employees who are about to celebrate a milestone or birthday. Use Kudos to get a head start on your planning.

2. Provide a Virtual Career-Planning Session

In 2020, the average worker changes jobs around every four years. There are many potential reasons for this – better pay, more amicable boss, shorter commute. Oftentimes, employees get bored and simply want to embark on a new adventure.

But here's the thing – employee turnover is expensive. Replacing quality workers every few years isn't a great way to build a high-performance culture, let alone a successful company.

Try scheduling a virtual career-planning session, to meaningfully recognize milestones in your employee’s career.

In these sessions, employees can learn about levelling up in the company, new roles that might interest them, and potential income-boosting opportunities.

In doing so, you send a clear message that your company values the personal and professional growth of their employees.

3. Create a One-of-a-Kind, Personalized Piece of SWAG

Instead of giving your employees a generic, one-size-fits-all piece of SWAG, consider personalizing your gift. Name the person you’re rewarding and call out the values and qualities they display on the job. This level of personalization reminds your team members why they’re valued in your organization.

Pro Tip: In Kudos, you can easily identify the qualities and values that are highest in each employee’s KQ.

4. Support an Employee-Chosen Charity

Your employees also have personal values and causes they want to help further. That's why supporting an employee-chosen charity is one of the best work anniversary ideas out there.

Recognize, support, and help your teams make the world a better place by donating to a charitable cause on their behalf.

5. Provide a Book of Memories

Forget the glass trophies and autographed photos of your CEO – when an employee has reached five, ten, or more years of service, they’ve probably created a lot of great memories. The thing is, over time a lot of those great moments become hazy. Same goes for the feelings of success and joy attached to those memories.

Remind them. Create a memory book for your employee and remind them of all the valuable moments you’ve shared.

If you’re already using Kudos, then you have an advantage here. Pop over to your employee’s Kudos profile and look for any “Impressive” and “Exceptional” Kudos message received by the employee – those make for great memories. Next, hop into Albums and find any photos from company events with your all-star employee in them. You’ve now established a treasure trove of content for a meaningful book of memories.

Once you’ve designed your book, deliver it virtually via PDF or ship it directly from the printer to your employee’s home. For extra credit, have your employee pose with it during your next virtual team party.

Celebrate Your Team in Meaningful Ways

Work anniversaries are important milestones and should be celebrated. We encourage you to get creative and really make this moment special for your team members. Whether you celebrate them publicly or offer to support their favourite charity, the sentiment will be appreciated.

Texas' Uvalde Memorial Hospital may have a small HR team, but they're helping to rack up some big achievements, like placing on Modern Hospital’s “100 Best Places toWork” three years running and scoring in the 90th percentile on employee engagement surveys. How do they do it?

We’ve got the answers in this interview with Charla Garcia, the CHRO at UMHRO. It’s a condensed and edited version of our very entertaining webinar featuring Charla in conversation with Tom Short of Kudos. Read on for Charla's tips on creating a better workplace and keeping teams happy and engaged in their work — even when problematic situations arise.

How were you able to raise your employee engagement score from the 67th percentile nationwide to the upper 90th percentile?

First, a new CEO was brought in who had a completely different philosophy than the previous executive. He came from a nursing family, so he was very relationship-oriented, which led us to start asking our staff, "Do you have the tools and equipment to do your job?"

When we received 'no' responses, we worked hard to remove the barriers our staff were facing so that they could better serve our patients. Everything became easier after that.

Our staff began to open up more because we were having frequent conversations. They began to ask for the things they needed because they knew they could, and they brought up process issues so that we could become more efficient.

Once our employees were taken care of and felt safe expressing their ideas, our hospital's level of patient care went up as well.

Tip: Engage your staff in meaningful conversations and ensure they feel safe giving you honest answers about their work experiences.

What goals and/or metrics have you put in place to measure employee engagement?

Patient satisfaction is our ultimate measure. We have a saying, "Happy employees equal happy patients." Because we focus on supporting our staff, they are free to support our patients. The local community then does an amazing job of supporting us in return.

In fact, the community has supported us so well, we were able to raise five million dollars to build a new cancer center in our area!

But it's important to remember that there's a difference between employee engagement and employee satisfaction. When employees already like what they do, HR just has to remove barriers. I can streamline communication and invest in better tools for my staff. But I can't make them love their jobs.

Tip: Always measure patient (or customer) satisfaction as this is the best way to gauge the effectiveness of your employees.

Have the “top 100” rankings and other accolades you've received helped in recruiting or provided any other benefits to your team?

It has! We actually just hired a very experienced OR tech from San Antonio. These kinds of professionals are very hard to find in our small town and we usually have to train up our own OR techs, (AKA scrub techs).

During the orientation process, I showed this professional the accolades our hospital has received and examples of our staff's teamwork and camaraderie. At the end, he asked for a copy of the presentation so that he could show his wife why he wanted to move away from the big city and work at Uvalde Memorial Hospital.

It's so important to be aligned with the values of the organization you're employed by. When you believe in the mission of your company and know that you'll be treated with respect by management and your colleagues, engagement is much more natural.

Tip: Working to create amazing employee experiences can actually help your organization recruit top talent. So, don't be afraid to promote your successes in this area!

How do you build community and what have been some of your most successful employee engagement initiatives?

We do a lot of community activities that involve our whole families. We also do Hospital Week where we invite the community into the hospital to teach them about what we do. We try to make it really fun and let them see our air ambulance transportation and EMR bus.

This helps the community realize how advanced our hospital equipment is and how talented our staff and physicians are — even though we're a very small town.

Of course, we also do the dunk tank! We ran a contest to see who would get put in the dunk tank – our hospital's CEO, CFO, COO, or me, the CHRO. The whole hospital got really into it and couldn't wait to see who would get dunked.

It can be very beneficial to host events and activities that are fun and not necessarily business related. It allows people to get to know each other better. 

Tip: Employee engagement initiatives that involve family members can be advantageous and help build community within your organization.

Was it difficult to get leadership buy-in for all the employee engagement initiatives you've implemented?

In 2004, a new CEO took over who was the catalyst for these initiatives. In 2015, our current CEO took control of the organization and just wanted to support what we were already doing. So, for the most part, it hasn't been difficult to get leadership buy-in.

But I will say that leadership first opposed us using Kudos, just because they thought we were fine doing everything by hand. We were eventually able to convince them to give the software a try by highlighting the announcement feature in Kudos, which allows us to get important information to each of our employees in a timely manner.

Kudos has been a tremendous tool for us! It's so easy to use and it's a lot of fun watching our staff tag each other, make jokes, wish each other happy birthday, and recognize their colleagues in a public forum for exceptional work.

Tip: An employee engagement tool like Kudos can help you create a winning company culture that your staff is excited to be a part of.

What's your experience been like when measuring employee engagement versus satisfaction, and how do you demonstrate success in these areas?

The questions on our employee surveys speak to both engagement and satisfaction. For example, we ask questions like:

• How is your relationship with your team? 
• How much do you like what you do? 
• Do you have the tools and equipment that you need?
• Do you receive timely communication?
• Do you know your senior leaders' vision? 
• Do you feel like senior leadership can be straightforward and honest?

We always ask our employees to be completely honest in the surveys because that's the only way that we can improve our organization.

Tip: Survey your employees on a regular basis and empower them to answer your questions as honestly as possible. Then use their feedback to improve.

Do you have specific advice for someone just starting their journey to a more engaged and satisfied workforce?

First, listen to the people doing the work. If you're in a management position, you need to be open to hearing their voices and acting on their input. Clear communication is the foundation of employee engagement and satisfaction.

The worst thing you can do is say you'll do something, and then fail to do so. When this happens, your team will stop giving you their opinions, communication will come to a standstill, and engagement and satisfaction levels will plummet.

Second, reward and recognize the successes your team has. It's the little acts of kindness that show everyone else how important your staff is to your organization.

Tip: The little things matter! Simply listening to your employees and recognizing their hard work can go a long way.

Crafting excellent employee experiences that both engage staffers and leave them feeling satisfied is crucial. Fortunately, doing so isn't rocket science. By listening to your team and recognizing them for their contributions, you'll be able to build a winning organizational culture that people are excited to be a part of.

You know a quality employee recognition program will do wonders for your company.

But how do you get leadership on board; especially if they’re looking closely at ROI? It's not always easy to show the connection between positive company culture and a boost in a company's bottom line.

Share these eight stats on the numerous benefits and immense value that an employee recognition program can provide.

Let's dive in.

1. 82% of employees are open to new opportunities

According to Job SeekerNation, a big portion of your team is either actively looking for anew job, or at least open to the idea of working for a new employer. That is bound to include some heavy hitters within your organization. Good leaders want to do everything possible to keep their valuable team members on board–starting with introducing an employee recognition program.

2. Employee turnover can cost organizations anywhere from 16% to 213% of the departing employee's annual salary

Replacing employees isn't cheap.

The costs of advertising for open roles, screening resumes, interviewing candidates, and training new team members really add up. And we haven't even factored in the loss of productivity and employee morale your company will experience when an employee decides to move on.

According to PeopleKeep, it can cost 16% of annual salary to replace low-wage workers and 213% of annual salary to replace highly-educated executives. This translates to anywhere from $3,328 to $213,000 dollars on average.

3. Companies that focus on employee experience rather than perks have 4x the average profits of those that don’t

A proper employee recognition program that boosts team engagement won't just help you save money — it will make you more of it.

According to a Harvard Business Review study, companies that are committed to providing top-notch employee experiences rather than simple perks were able to increase annual profits by an average of 400%.

Many of the participating companies who achieved these amazing results were 25% smaller than those who didn't. This leads us to believe that when employees engage with recognition programs, they are more productive and innovative.

4. Happy employees take 10x fewer sick days than unhappy ones

The Wall Street Journal says that when employees are happy and enjoy their work, they are much less likely to call in sick. Additionally, Happy employees stay with your company twice as long and focus for twice as much of their on-the-clock hours.

Simply recognition can make anyone’s day. Introduce an employee recognition program to your employees and bring a smile to their faces.  

According to Gallup, when compared with business units in the bottom quartile of engagement, those in the top quartile see:

5. 70% fewer safety incidents

Nobody wants their employees to suffer an injury. On less personal terms, maintaining a stellar safety record is crucial to the success of your company. Organizations that don't maintain safe working environments are subject to bad press, low employee morale, and the extra expenses caused by on-the-job injuries.

Take a practical step toward reducing harmful accidents by prioritizing employee engagement.

6. 17% higher productivity

Companies with engaged employees are, on average, 17% more productive than companies with disengaged employees.

Imagine how many more projects you can complete with better engagement.

Recognition programs improve engagement; engaged employees are more productive; productivity is directly related to greater job satisfaction and revenue.

So, are you still doubting the benefits of a recognition program?

7. 20% higher sales

If your leadership is still not convinced, consider this: recognizing employees can increase sales up to 20% according to Gallup.

Engaged employees close more deals because they're willing to work harder, and they care more about the customers they serve — leading to repeat business.

8. 21% higher profitability 

Productivity and employee satisfaction has extraordinary impacts on your company’s bottom line.

A proper recognition program successfully engages employees and increases profitability by 21%.

Wrapping Up

A proper employee recognition program boosts productivity levels, team morale, and profit. In every aspect, employee recognition programs serve your company’s best interest.

Diversity and inclusion programs, and the progressive thinking behind them, are essential to organizations – influencing their values, culture, policies, and procedures. While the diversity side of these programs deals with who gets hired and why, the inclusion side is about creating and maintaining workplaces where every person feels welcome, safe, and valued for who they are. Both are vital, but here we will look at the inclusion side.

Our thesis is simple. While often overlooked, a recognition program can help organizations make important strides in creating an inclusive workplace.

Here’s how:

Give everyone the power to be heard

One of the great innovations and insights of modern recognition programs has been to democratize recognition by making it peer-to-peer. This is a major advancement from the previous “top-down” style, which only gave voice to senior managers with narrow criteria for workplace recognition.

When you democratize recognition, everyone has a voice: your team decides which actions, tasks, accomplishments, attitudes, and values get recognized. Recognizing diverse viewpoints not only creates a more innovative culture, but also spreads a feeling of empowerment to a wider range of people.

When everyone is heard, everyone feels valued.

Promote a diverse range of qualities and values

Your core values are the pillars of your company’s culture. An effective recognition platform leaves room for companies to customize the values and behaviours they want to see from their teams.

For example, a list of qualities could include: attentive, communicative, compassionate, creative thinking, execution, gratitude, intentional, positive, supportive, teamwork, timely, passion, professional, accountable, and agile.

Having a wide range of qualities to choose from encourages us to think more broadly about the qualities and values that matter to us. This leads to more people getting recognized for more actions – spreading the feeling of belonging more widely across the company. And perhaps more importantly, we are inspired to appreciate and value the different strengths and capabilities that make us all individuals.

Encourage values and actions that increase a sense of belonging

A well-designed recognition program can also lead team members to think and act in inclusive ways. Recognition in a business can be thought of as coming in two forms: appreciative and performance based. Both are important, but appreciative recognition is often overlooked. That said, a well-designed recognition program can help an organization find balance.

Appreciative recognition honors team members for everyday actions. Delivering someone’s documents when we go by the printer could earn someone recognition for being “Attentive.” Making sure everyone is heard at meetings would be “Compassionate” and “Supportive.” Contributing to group activities in a video call: “Teamwork.” Raising morale with a well-timed joke: “Positive.” Especially when shared, these simple gestures are the building blocks of an inclusive culture.

Of course, recognition is a great way to support and encourage team members who are consciously supporting a respectful, compassionate, inclusive, and diverse workplace.

Get data that helps you know how to improve inclusion

Recognition platforms typically include dashboards, reports, leaderboards, and the ability to see the messages people are sending. The most important benefit is that you can see if any individuals or groups are being left out, and take action.

You can also see and track which values people in your organization are living and expressing. For example, if you see a lot of recognition for qualities like compassion, positivity, support, and teamwork, you’re probably on the right track to encouraging an inclusive workplace. If all the recognition being sent in your organization is for more performance-based qualities, you might have some work to do.

Make connections you might not normally make

When you actively encourage recognition and make it easy – as recognition platforms are designed to do – you are more likely to see people connecting with others outside of their inner circle. This is especially valuable in the era of remote work, where a recognition platform can supplement the usual “physical” interactions that you expect around the office.

Along with your other initiatives, we think you’ll find a recognition program a powerful tool in creating and maintaining an inclusive workplace. Every team member should feel welcome, and valued for who they are.

More: What COVID can teach us about diversity and inclusion

We had the honor of having Cornell Verdeja-Woodson, a DiversityBusiness Partner for Google Cloud, as a guest on our Work From Home Showpodcast. Cornell has a very original and thought-provoking take on what the remote work era can teach us about privilege and diversity and inclusion. Hear the podcast. Read the blog.

Employee Appreciation Day is right around the corner, on March 6, 2020. Your team deserves to be recognized for the hard work they do for your company, so if you forget to celebrate them on this day, you might have a few unhappy campers on your hands!

While we believe that employee appreciation shouldn’t be relegated to a single date, here are some tips on how to make this Employee Appreciation Day memorable for your whole team.

7 ways to celebrate your employees

1. Extended lunchtime: Give your team an extra-long lunch break to relax, recharge and feel appreciated. Better yet, pair this idea with one or two of the following for an extra special Employee Appreciation Day event.
2. Handwritten thank-you notes: Write personalized notes to each of your team members detailing the impact of their contribution to the organization. To make it a game, type the note in code and have your team try to break it together.
3. Awards: Create awards for each member of your team. They can highlight professional and organizational accomplishments. Or they can be more creative and fun and showcase your company culture. Who would win for "Top Coffee Connoisseur"?
4. Boardgame tournament: Ask your team to bring in their favorite board game and spend part of the day having some well-deserved fun. You could even start a team tournament to encourage a little healthy competition.
5. Thankover: What's a Thankover? Throughout the day, use your office speaker system to play celebratory songs and thank your employees for their efforts. This is a great way to acknowledge individual accomplishments in a fun, public way.
6. Out-of-office activities: If you really want to have a good time, take your team out for an afternoon or evening adventure. What you do is completely up to you and the makeup of your staff. A few ideas include bowling, laser tag, and karaoke.
7. Charitable Giving: Which causes and charities do your team members support? How about making donations on their behalf? This idea has two benefits: you show your appreciation for your team and you make the world a better place. It’s win, win!

These ideas are just the tip of the iceberg. If you sit down and think about it for a minute, we're sure you'll be able to come up with a ton of amazing ideas. Once you do, let us know about them in the comments!

Employee Appreciation Day best practices

Knowing how to celebrate your team on Employee Appreciation Day is one thing, actually doing it effectively is another. Be sure to keep these three best practices in mind as you gear up for your big celebratory event next week:

• Appoint an employee appreciation ambassador (or a group of folks) who will be in charge of organizing your company's celebration plans.
• Make sure your managers are on board with your plans and are willing to participate. This will encourage and engage the entire team.
• Survey your employees once your celebration is over so that you can gather feedback and build on your success in future years.

How Kudos makes Employee Appreciation Day better

While planning an epic Employee Appreciation Day celebration might sound like a lot of effort, it's definitely worth it! Recognizing your staff's contributions with a fun office party can boost engagement, which has been proven to reduce turnover and improve performance.

Plus, a platform like Kudos will enable you to plan your event quickly and easily. Here's how our platform can help:

Get the word out

Kudos makes it a piece of cake to get the team on board. Here are a few tips:

• Create a document and post it in Pages to provide full details of the initiative — include details like a schedule of the day, any special events and instructions.
• Let the team know! Use the Kudos announcement widget to notify the team of Employee Appreciation Day. Continue to push out announcements in the days leading up to your event.
• Add the day and event to the calendar. Create an event so it shows up on the wall, in the calendar and has the details the team needs.

Other communication formats

• Posters: Create your own fun posters to post in the image widget or print off and post in common staff areas.
• Photo albums: Commemorate the occasion by posting photos of the day with an appreciation message and upload them to Albums on your Kudos site.
• Kudos banners: Update the theme of your Kudos site with an Employee Appreciation Day banner.
• Desktop wallpaper/screensaver: Create a desktop/screensaver for the day so your team can feel appreciated the moment they turn on their computer.

Recognize your employees

Employee recognition is Kudos' bread and butter. So, our platform includes many ways for management to recognize employee achievements, and for employees to reward and celebrate the accomplishments of their coworkers.

During your Employee Appreciation Day celebration, you can use Kudos to award your team points. If you use rewards on your Kudos site, they can then redeem their points for physical rewards like gift cards or other benefits like a half-day off or a better parking spot.

Kudos also has real-time feedback capabilities. This feature can be used pre-event to get answers from your team regarding questions like who's the "Top Coffee Connoisseur?" Then you can award Kudos points to the winner, as we mentioned above.

Make the most of Employee Appreciation Day

Employee Appreciation Day is right around the corner. But don't worry, you now know how to celebrate your team effectively and ensure they feel valued for the hard work they do. Whether you decide to extend lunchtime, hand out awards, or something else, make an effort to recognize your team on March 6th. They'll appreciate it, guaranteed!

Talk to us about year-round employee appreciation

Don’t forget that Kudos can not only assist you in creating buzz around this special day ,but it can also make every day feel like employee appreciation day.  Click on the chatbot at the bottom right to get the conversation started.

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