How to Keep Employee Recognition Fresh, Strategic and Inclusive
When co-CEOs ask how to revitalise their recognition programme without falling into the favouritism trap, the answer reveals why 91% of companies have recognition programmes but only 31% rate them as highly effective.
Recognition programmes are everywhere, but meaningful recognition? That's rarer than you might think. This disconnect came into sharp focus during my conversation with Belinda and Amie, co-CEOs of COS, who were grappling with a challenge facing thousands of businesses: how do you keep recognition authentic when your current programme is "getting a bit tired"?
Why Recognition Programmes Fail
The numbers tell a sobering story. While 90% of HR professionals say effective recognition programmes improve business results, there's a massive execution gap. Only 31% of organisations rate their programme effectiveness as "high," despite 91% having programmes in place.
The financial impact is significant: organisations with formal employee recognition programmes have 31% less voluntary turnover, and companies with engaged employees experience 21% higher profitability.
Strategic Alignment: The Key to Fresh Recognition
The most effective recognition programmes evolve with business strategy. As I told Belinda and Amie, "The best recognition programmes are aligned to strategy, and strategy changes over time."
Cos already has "strategic bubbles"—annual focus areas designed to double the business. Instead of generic values-based recognition, they can align acknowledgements directly to current strategic priorities. When strategy shifts, recognition focus shifts with it.
Solving the Personalisation vs Favouritism Dilemma
Amie raised a crucial challenge: "How do you create recognition that avoids perceptions of favouritism and surfaces quiet achievers?"
The solution lies in systematic personalisation. Ask every team member: "How do you like to be recognised?" This prevents assumptions that everyone wants the same acknowledgement type and demonstrates thoughtful consideration of individual preferences.
Recognition preference categories include:
- Public celebration vs private acknowledgement
- Individual vs team recognition
- Immediate vs accumulated rewards
- Experiential vs material recognition
The Dream Catcher Strategy
Instead of generic rewards, ask team members to share three experiences they'd always wanted. One person wanted world peace (challenging, but we appreciated the ambition). Another wanted a six-pack—so we provided beer. A team member wanted to be a TV extra, so we arranged her appearance on "Packed to the Rafters."
This approach demonstrates genuine care about people as individuals, creating stories that become part of company culture.
Micro-Gifting Revolution
Rather than waiting for annual awards, micro-gifting allows frequent, smaller recognitions that employees can accumulate toward larger goals. This acknowledges that 92% of workers are more likely to repeat specific actions after receiving recognition.
Making Recognition Inclusive
Recognition preferences vary culturally and generationally. Build programmes with multiple expression formats:
- Public and private options
- Individual and team-based recognition
- Immediate and delayed acknowledgement
- Various cultural celebration styles
Implementation Strategies
Align to Strategic Goals: Connect acknowledgement to current business objectives, refreshing focus as strategy evolves.
Understand Preferences: Survey team members about recognition preferences and maintain this information in manager toolkits.
Create Stories: Design recognition moments people want to share, extending culture beyond the workplace.
Balance Frequency: Implement both micro-recognition for regular acknowledgement and larger recognition for significant achievements.
Build Refresh Cycles: Schedule regular programme reviews to ensure recognition stays strategically aligned.
The Bottom Line
Recognition programmes need regular refreshing to maintain cultural impact. The statistics prove recognition drives results, but execution—keeping programmes fresh, strategic and inclusive—creates competitive advantage in talent attraction and retention.
Listen to the complete Handpicked episode for more insights on reimagining recognition culture.
Frequently Asked Questions on The Employee Recognition Reset
1. What does the "Employee Recognition Reset" mean for modern leadership?
The "Employee Recognition Reset" means moving beyond transactional, token gestures (like a generic bonus or public mention) to a system of recognition that is meaningful, personal, and aligns with the employee's core values. It shifts the focus from simply rewarding results to acknowledging and reinforcing the behaviours and effort that drive the desired culture.
2. What are the four core emotional needs that effective recognition must address?
Effective recognition must address four core emotional needs to build a high-performance, engaged culture: Clear Purpose (knowing their work is worthwhile), Clear Role (knowing exactly what they need to do), Acknowledgement (knowing their effort is seen and valued), and Impact (going home feeling like a winner). Transactional rewards alone fail to meet these deeper, more meaningful human needs.
3. How can leaders use recognition to strategically reinforce the company culture and values?
Leaders use recognition strategically by consistently and publicly celebrating actions that directly embody the company's core values. If a company values "Customer First," a leader should reward the story of the employee who went above and beyond for a customer, not just the employee who hit the highest sales target. This narrative-driven recognition reinforces the 'rules of the game' and makes the abstract values concrete and aspirational.
4. Why is a personalized approach to recognition more effective than a universal program?
A personalized approach is more effective because recognition is only valuable when the recipient feels truly seen. A universal program (e.g., giving everyone the same gift card) treats all employees the same regardless of their personal drives. A personalized approach, however, respects an employee's unique 'love language'—whether they value time off, professional development, social experiences (like a RedBalloon voucher), or financial reward—making the acknowledgement significantly more impactful and motivating.
5. How does Non-Executive Director (NED) oversight contribute to a robust employee recognition program?
NED oversight contributes by ensuring the recognition program is strategically aligned with long-term business objectives and is not simply a short-term HR tactic. The board ensures the program is fiscally responsible, promotes the right cultural behaviours (mitigating the risk of poor culture), and is directly linked to performance metrics beyond short-term revenue, reinforcing the sustainability of the company's people strategy.
Frequently Asked Questions on The Science of Sales
1. What does the "Science of Sales" mean for modern selling?
The "Science of Sales" means moving away from purely intuitive or aggressive sales tactics to a data-driven, systematic, and relationship-focused approach. Modern selling is grounded in understanding human psychology, objective metrics (like cost of customer acquisition), and predictable processes. It’s about leveraging data to understand the customer's needs, reducing 'cognitive friction' in the buying process, and achieving repeatable, profitable results.
2. Why is understanding the Cost of Customer Acquisition (CoCA) a core pillar of the Science of Sales?
Understanding CoCA is a core pillar because sales success is measured by profitability, not just revenue. Many businesses generate high sales but fail because their cost of acquiring those customers is too high. The Science of Sales emphasizes treating sales as a predictable investment: knowing exactly how much you can afford to spend to gain a customer, thereby turning a high-revenue transaction into a net profitable asset.
3. How does the 'Science of Sales' approach integrate with the overall business strategy?
The sales process must be integrated into the overall business strategy by ensuring it aligns with the company's purpose and values. The sales team shouldn't just be focused on short-term targets; they must be focused on acquiring customers who align with the brand’s value proposition and are likely to be retained long-term. This alignment ensures the sales process builds, rather than erodes, the brand's reputation and customer lifetime value (CLV).
4. What is the biggest technology-related challenge for modern sales leaders?
The biggest challenge is avoiding the trap of 'complexity' and 'cognitive friction' caused by technology. While CRM and sales tools are vital, sales leaders must ensure the technology simplifies the buying process for the customer and is easy for the sales team to use. The goal is to use technology to speed up the transactional elements, freeing up the human sales team to focus on the high-value, empathetic, and complex relationship-building that technology cannot replace.
5. What role does a customer-centric Non-Executive Director (NED) play in advising a sales-led organization?
A customer-centric NED plays a critical role by ensuring the board's focus is not just on the revenue figures, but on the long-term health of the customer relationship. They ask challenging questions about the customer journey, the ethical integrity of sales practices, and the true profitability of customer acquisition. They hold management accountable for building a sales 'engine' that is repeatable, profitable, and protects the brand's long-term reputation.
