The State of Employee Recognition in the UK

- A 2015 RESEARCH STUDY -

Multiple types of industries

25+

We surveyed HR professionals in the UK on the state of employee recognition in their organisations.

Professionals in the UK

Working in HR departments of their organisations

Companies of all sizes

UNDER

1,0001,000 -10,000

OVER

10,000

65%

212

WHY?

Because according to a 2014 Harvard Business Review study, the most impactful driver of

employee engagement is recognition.

READ THEIR REPORT

And we were eager to find out what’s happening today within UK organisations and share it with the business and HR community.

HERE’S WHAT THEY TOLD US...

Q: Does your organisation have a formal employee recognition programme?

A:

Yes, every employee can participate

NoYes, only managers & leaders can recognise employees

62 % 26%12%

It’s alarming that 26% of companies don’t have a formal programme in place, and another 12%

don’t enable employees to participate.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

In order to create a culture of recognition, the programme must be inclusive and allow

social recognition across all employees.

On a positive note, nearly three quarters of companies have some focus on recognition.

However, we also asked...

74%

Q: What type of recognition programme does the organisation currently have?

A:

The most prominent type of recognition programme is for service anniversary or tenure at a company.

Service Anniversary

or Tenure

Achieving Performance

Goals

Demonstrating Company

Values

Displaying Key

Behaviours

PerformanceDriven Goals

Providing Employee Referrals

Wellness None

66%

51% 50%

45%

34%

27%

14% 11%

KEY TAKEAWAY:

With today's modern workforce and velocity of business, recognition in the moment - not only

on an annual basis - is imperative.

Employees work in days and hours…

...not in months or years.

Q: On average, how often are employees recognised in your organisation?

A:

66% of employees are either NEVER recognised, or if they are it is rarely, annually or quarterly.

Only 15% of employees are recognised weekly or daily.

Annually Quarterly Monthly Weekly Rarely NeverDaily

29%

19% 19%

7% 8%15%

3%

DID YOU KNOW?

According to Gallup’s Q12 engagement questions, recognising employees weekly has a positive

impact on employee engagement.

On the bright side, over 50% of companies are using recognition for other important elements such as

for key behaviours, values and performance.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

The foundation for a successful recognition programme is defining the values and behaviours

your company wants to see more of and the performance strategies that must be brought

to life by your employees.

Q: Does your employee recognition programme include rewards that have monetary value?

A:

46% of recognition programmes always or often include a monetary reward, while 25% of programmes

never or rarely have monetary value attached torecognition in the form of rewards.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always

7%

18%

32%29%

14%

KEY TAKEAWAY:

The concept of ‘Social Employee Recognition' is now a recognised HR tech category according to Gartner.

It's where recognition strategies are going.

Social recognition engages EVERY employee. Daily authentic recognition amplifies the key

behaviours that drive results for the organisation. What gets recognised, gets repeated.

THE GARTNER HYPE CYCLE

Download a free research report about “Building the business case for social recognition

solutions” by Brandon Hall Group.

Business Builder

Building the Business Case for

We also asked about benefits and challenges of employee recognition programmes...

Q: What benefits would you expect for your organisation from a successful employee recognition strategy?

A:IMPROVES EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

COMMUNICATES EMPLOYEES ARE VALUED

REINFORCES APPROPRIATE EMPLOYEE BEHAVIOURS

ALIGNMENT TO COMPANY VALUES

IMPROVES EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

REINFORCES COMPANY CULTURE

ALIGNMENT TO COMPANY GOALS AND STRATEGY

IMPROVES SENSE OF COMMUNITY

85%

84%

74%

70%

70%

67%

61%

60%

There are multitudes of benefits companies expect to see.

Organisations understand that recognition can impact employee engagement, reinforce values and behaviours,

and improve performance.

Q: What are the biggest challenges, if any, with your current recognition programme? (check all that apply)

A:MEASURING THE IMPACT OF RECOGNITION

CLARIFY CONNECTION BETWEEN WORK AND ORGANISATIONAL GOALS

MANAGING THE CURRENT PROGRAMME(S)

NONE

GETTING EMPLOYEES TO PARTICIPATE

CONSISTENT EXPERIENCE WITH EMPLOYEES IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS

COMMUNICATING VALUE OF RECOGNITION TO SENIOR LEADERS

50%

44%

32%

28%

23%

13%

9%

BIGGEST CHALLENGE #1

Measuring the impactHaving the right technology is important.

Measuring the impact comes from a robust reporting that can give you insight into your workforce, and the impact

on business performance.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE #2

Employee participationA platform that employees love to use that requires no

training will improve adoption immediately.

See the success of Achievers customers in getting 90%+ employee adoption.

CUSTOMER STORIES

BIGGEST CHALLENGE #3

Consistent Employee Experience GloballyA unified recognition programme needs a company-wide

platform ensuring every employee can participate.

Benefits also include a single source for communicating, administering and tracking everything.

Q: On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being very important)

A:

1. How important is employee recognition to help positively impact employee engagement and align employees to the company strategy and values?

2. How effective is your current employee recognition strategy to help positively impact employee engagement and align employees to the company strategy and values?

weighted average weighted average

EffectiveImportant

8.3 5.3

KEY TAKEAWAY:

It is clear that recognition is important, but organisations have yet to benefit from new

approaches and technology to make it effective.

It’s time to change a robust employee recognition strategy from

a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’.

Q: Does your 2015 organisational strategy include improvement in employee recognition?

A:

Yes Not sure No

53% 25% 22%

Over half of companies have it on their radar because they see the employee benefits and business ROI that

comes from focusing on employee recognition.

Organisations are looking at improving their recognition strategy because they want results.

These are some of the results companies have seen after implementing the Achievers Employee Success Platform:

increase in highly engaged employees

increase inretention

increase in customer satisfaction

spots in topemployer ranking

22 % 31 % 112 %

increase in top talent hires

+10 137 %

Want to learn more about how to develop a sound recognition strategy?

DOWNLOAD NOW

THE ULTIMATE

GUIDE TO

EMPLOYEE

RECOGNITION

Change the way the world works

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Client Retention

91%

Employee Satisfaction

95%

Employee Adoption

80%

Learn how your company can change the way the world works – www.achievers.com

Countries Serviced110

Net Promoter Score77

The Achievers Employee Success Platform™ is a behaviour-driving engine that aligns employees to business objectives and company values. Fuelled by

recognising and rewarding shared victories every day – 5,000,000 recognitions shared last year alone – it’s designed to make success a way of life.