Understanding recognition from the employee's perspective can be challenging. While companies often speak about recognizing outstanding work, it's difficult to understand how recognition affects employee performance. Comprehending these issues becomes even more important once you decide to systemize staff recognition by investing in an employee recognition program.
Our potential customers often look for statistics to bring to their manager and executive board, so we wanted to simplify this process by surveying the people HR professionals care about most: full-time employees!
Over the past two years, Nectar has surveyed 1,800 full-time employees in the United States. We asked about various issues related to employee recognition and company culture. The first survey took place in November 2022. The second survey took place in December 2023. Let's dive into what we found when we asked these critical questions.
Do you have employee recognition on your mind for 2024? Request a Nectar demo and one of our sales representatives will give you a personalized walkthrough of our software.
Employee recognition takes on many forms. As employers begin investing in this form of praise, it’s important to note what makes recognition useful for the end user. How can you deliver positive feedback in a way that will land for workers so you can reap the benefits of the investment?
We asked employees to rank several essential variables to determine which made recognition the most meaningful to them. These variables have been touted by leaders in the space when it comes to making the most of recognition:
Overall, our survey respondents ranked authentic and personalized feedback as the top variables that make recognition feel meaningful to them.
As we look closer at which variables were ranked #1, authentic and timely feedback were ranked highest for our survey respondents.
Nectar Tip: Authenticity Is Key
Create as many meaningful, authentic shoutouts as possible when building your recognition program. At Nectar, we have a meaningful meter that encourages detailed shoutouts. As employees type a more robust shoutout, it's more likely to come off as authentic vs. just about point sharing.
When we think about recognition and its impact on the workforce, a small amount of recognition can motivate employees, increase productivity, improve engagement, and much more. Let's dive deeper into the employee recognition statistics that back this up:
On the Nectar blog, we’ve talked at length about motivation in the workplace. Companies are always trying to improve this so employees feel excited about progressing in their careers and taking ownership of their work.
While older employees seem less affected by recognition, recognition highly motivated many subsets of workers. For example, recognition affects the motivation of 35-44-year-olds, post-graduate degree earners, and workers earning $75,000-$99,999 the most.
Nectar Tip: Consider Motivation Types And Control What You Can
There are two types of motivation: intrinsic (internal) and extrinsic (external.) You can't control how internally motivated your employees are, so actions like increasing recognition can be an extrinsic factor that improves motivation.
Did you know that employee recognition impacts worker productivity?
Our survey shows that 3 in 4 workers would be more productive if they received more frequent praise. We see even more significant results in:
Is your organization losing out on an opportunity to improve productivity with your current recognition routine? Consider how often your team members receive recognition and try providing more to see if it affects productivity.
Nectar Tip: See If Goal Attainment Improves With More Frequent Praise
It's time to experiment. Build a spreadsheet based on how often you set goals. Mark goals hit and missed on the spreadsheet to get a baseline. Try providing weekly recognition to these employees. How does their productivity change? Are they hitting more goals when you increase positive feedback? Try this for several weeks/months/quarters before you decide.
We talk a lot about employee engagement in the culture enablement space. When team members are engaged, they feel invested in the success of themselves and the company. Engaged workers feel positive emotions about the company, which shows in how they treat colleagues, customers, and their work.
4 in 5 of the workers we surveyed agree that recognition impacts their engagement. Diving deeper, 39% of these workers strongly agree with the correlation between recognition and engagement at work.
If we want employees to feel connected to company success, we must take the time to provide more consistent recognition.
Nectar Tip: Share The Love
Most projects that companies work on have input from various sources. As you wrap up a project, consider how you can support workers who burned the midnight oil with you. Who worked on what? How did these contributions make your life easier? Use these insights to provide recognition to your team.
Employee turnover is a huge issue for companies in every industry. Reducing turnover will save an organization thousands of dollars while keeping internal knowledge in-house.
When we asked if getting more frequent recognition would make employees less likely to leave, a whopping 71% of employees said yes.
As we'll see later, frequency does matter when it comes to recognition. By sharing the recognition experience with company executives, managers, and peers, you are more likely to give your team enough praise.
We've seen the impact an employee recognition program can have on turnover. Take it from our customers, Statista Inc., who saw a 29% reduction in turnover the year they implemented Nectar. You can also check out our employee turnover and retention statistics article for more helpful data.
Job satisfaction is an important measure of employee engagement. If you are satisfied with the work you do and the company you work for, you’re more likely to stay where you are. Employees don’t typically look for other work if they are satisfied with their current opportunity.
So, how does recognition play a role in this? 87% of employees feel that meaningful recognition impacts job satisfaction. So, if you can praise your team in a way that matters, you are on your way to hanging on to team members longer.
Next, let's move into some essential statistics on the frequency of recognition. Frequent and meaningful recognition impacts employees, but how often do employees get recognized, and what do they expect from different groups in the organization?
Receiving recognition in a timely and consistent manner is vital for workers in all industries. 31.5% of the employees we surveyed received recognition at work weekly.
~49% of the employees we surveyed get feedback daily or weekly. Unfortunately, many workers receive recognition monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Why is this an issue? Recognition can often lose its luster if there is too much time between the event and the praise.
Can you imagine doing something positive and getting acknowledged a year later? Teams deserve more consistent recognition for the great work they do.
We must consider the dip in recognition frequency we see as our survey respondents get older. The older employees we surveyed were less likely to receive daily and weekly recognition and more likely to receive it quarterly and yearly. Are we giving older workers the recognition they deserve in the workplace? Even if some employees have experience and understand their worth, it's still nice to be noticed frequently.
Nectar Tip: Consider Your Web Of Recognition
For the next week, take notes on how much recognition you are giving. Where does praise flow most seamlessly? Where do you hold back? Are there certain employees you need to get better at praising? How can you improve?
We get an interesting story when we layer how often employees receive recognition on top of employee value.
While 98% of employees who receive daily recognition feel valued by their employer, only 37% of employees receiving yearly recognition feel the same. While daily praise may be challenging to keep up with, weekly or monthly shoutouts can be just as powerful. 94% and 88% of these workers feel valued by their companies when they receive feedback weekly or monthly (respectively.)
Unfortunately, feeling valued takes a significant hit once you slip into quarterly and yearly recognition. We should strive to build a weekly habit that rewards good work often.
Nectar Tip: Use Weekly Reflections To Give Feedback With Ease
Does giving consistent recognition slip your mind? Set aside a weekly time on your calendar to reflect on the week you just had. Ask yourself:
Once you finish reflecting, use those reflections to inform who you recognize that week.
We put a lot of stress on managers. However, having quality managers on your team can significantly improve company culture. When we asked full-time employees to rank which feedback influenced them most, many shared manager feedback.
When we looked at the data across gender, age, education, income, and ethnicity, this was validated: manager recognition is the most impactful.
At Nectar, we talk with a lot of leaders. We often hear there is a recognition gap depending on the manager an employee has. This data tells us we must do what we can to ensure managers have the proper training and tools to recognize their teams regularly.
It's important to note that while managers took the number one spot here, CEO/Executives and peers matter too. For 33% of employees, CEO/Executive feedback is the best. For 28% of employees, peer feedback has the most impact.
Nectar Tip: Any System You Use Should Encourage Feedback From Managers, Executives, And Peers
Our research shows that various groups influence employees at work. Therefore, if you plan to implement an employee recognition solution, it must inspire everyone to get involved. Tools like Nectar will ensure that every employee receives the validation they need from work.
We know that manager recognition has the most impact, but how often are employees receiving recognition from these groups? While we understand the importance of improving manager involvement in recognition efforts, employees will receive more praise if other team members can get involved.
Overall, company CEOs/Executives give the least amount of recognition across the board. Let's dive deeper to understand how this impacts recognition frequency by group.
Over 1 in 4 employees surveyed never receive recognition from the company CEO and executive team. While most frequency leans toward getting daily/weekly positive feedback, leaders in the executive team aren’t making time for that amount of positive feedback.
As we know, for 33% of employees, CEO/Executive feedback is the best. If we get more company leaders to give consistent feedback, we can build a workplace where more employees get the feedback they need to thrive.
Overall, managers are good at giving consistent praise. As you know, we rely on managers to make up the bulk of most praise programs, and they are rising to the occasion. According to our data, 70% of managers are giving praise at least monthly.
Last, let's focus on peers. Peers are doing a great job at praising others in the company frequently. 63% of the employees we surveyed shared they are getting recognition from peers at least weekly. Since your colleagues are privy to what you do daily, peer-to-peer recognition has many benefits, such as increasing employee engagement, reducing turnover, and boosting collaboration.
When we look at the frequency of recognition from every group, women are less likely to receive frequent recognition. One of the most shocking statistics we found is that 36% of women never receive recognition from company CEOs and executives.
While 53% of the men we surveyed get recognition from their manager at least weekly, only 41% of women could say the same.
Finally, peer support is lacking as well. While 37% of men get daily recognition from peers, only 26% of women could say the same.
Now that we know how often employees get recognition, how often are they giving it? Building a culture of recognition isn't just about what employees get. They need to actively participate in creating that kind of experience at work.
71% of the employees we surveyed shared that they give recognition to their colleagues at least weekly.
A small subset of employees never praise their colleagues, but for the most part, employees give positive feedback at a high rate.
Is your praise program inclusive? While some organizations are great at giving positive feedback to everyone, some cannot make everyone feel valued and appreciated at work.
About 1 in 5 of the employees we surveyed shared they disagreed with their organization doing a good job of recognizing everyone on the team.
Nectar Tip: Track Employees Who Haven’t Received Recognition
Nectar has several reports, including a dashboard for users who haven't received recognition. By clicking on this report, you can track who hasn't received praise in a specific time frame, learn who manages them, and reach out to ensure they feel supported at work.
What would you do if you were told "thank you," more often? Many workers have been in jobs that have felt thankless. It's hard to keep going and doing what needs to be done if you aren't refueled with a kind word every blue moon. The word thanks is a small word that makes a big impact.
About 6 in 10 employees want to be told thank you more often. Companies and individuals don’t need to do much to make this happen.
Nectar Tip: Practice Thankful Thursdays
Do you want employees to say thank you more? Create a routine around it. Dedicating a day like Thursday to praising and ensuring employees feel appreciated will go a long way to building a fantastic company culture.
Next, we will discuss the impact of having an implicit employee recognition program and using software to manage your experience. Workers at organizations who solidify their stance on recognition by investing in a program see many benefits. Here's more details on that:
At Nectar, we spend a lot of time helping companies set up successful employee recognition programs. However, many employees still work at companies that need these kinds of programs in place.
Only half of our survey participants said their companies had recognition programs.
This split is the norm as we looked at different data segments; many workers we surveyed felt their company lacked an employee recognition program.
Nectar Tip: Recognition Programs Go Beyond One-Off Praise
Are you looking to improve how your company appreciates employees in 2024? It goes beyond one-off work. Your company builds a program where recognition is frequent and consistent. You don't need software to do that (though it helps.) Most importantly, you need buy-in from employees, managers, and executives. You can't be the only person giving praise if you want this to work.
So, why does having a recognition program even matter? When you build out a recognition program, the number of employees who feel valued by their employers increases. While 92% of workers feel valued in companies with recognition programs, only 70% feel valued in companies without one.
This divide is significant, and lacking a program can create a work environment where employees lack motivation, productivity, and engagement.
If you wish to improve employee value by 32%, start building your recognition program.
Nectar Tip: Build Your Recognition Program By Starting With Your Why
Getting a reward and recognition program off the ground requires more than a sense of the numbers. While statistics are vital, they don't always motivate leaders and employees to act. We suggest starting with your organization's why to inspire employee participation. When your program engagement numbers drop, you can use your why to encourage more usage.
Here are some examples of the why behind an employee recognition program:
While about half of employees have recognition programs, they don’t all have access to software.
Often, companies use a manual recognition process that uses random forms and a lot of human intervention to ensure praise gets from Person A to Person B. We've discussed the signs that it's time to ditch your manual recognition process before on the Nectar blog.
There is still a long way to go. Only 29% of the employees we surveyed had access to software to systemize the praise process.
Investing in a new tool can be challenging, especially if it's considered a nice-to-have. Many companies wonder if it's worth it. Will workers actually log in and use the new software your organization is promoting?
Recognition software is well utilized. 53% of employees use it on at least a weekly basis. Another 26% make sure they log in monthly. Most HR tools aren't used consistently. People love logging into this type of software to see their praise and see what other people in the company are doing.
When looking for employee recognition software, you might wonder what makes your team more likely to use it. As we've discussed, this type of software does see high utilization rates, but a couple of things make it more appealing.
90% of the employees with access to recognition software stated they'd be more likely to use it if it was simpler. Simplicity differs for everyone, but we try to make our tool as self-explanatory as possible at Nectar. Nectar feels like an internal social platform. It's easy to understand how to tag a colleague, assign points, pick a company value, and start writing your message.
What do employees see when they log on for the first time? Can they start sharing praise with their team immediately, or do they need to jump through unnecessary hoops? Your software needs simplicity to gain usage.
85% of employees with access to recognition software stated they’d be more likely to use their company’s employee recognition platform if it was located within the company’s communication platform. When you are rolling out a new initiative, integrations are everything. Placing your praise platform inside tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack will make it easier for everyone to access consistently.
Companies across the globe strive to become a great place to work. These companies support their team members with best-in-class benefits, professional development, and company culture. How does having recognition software impact these scores?
While 72% of workers without access to software rate their company as a great place to work, 92% of employees with access would give their companies this distinction.
Recognition software isn’t the only reason these organizations are rated highly. Companies that invest in this type of software tend to invest in other People Operations strategies like better benefits, performance management, data, and more. For example, when Statista rolled out Nectar, they also revamped other policies and benefits like paternity leave and health insurance coverage.
As we've shared, recognition frequency differs based on the group. While some groups are less likely to give frequent feedback, using software makes the entire experience of giving praise easier.
Getting recognition from top company leaders without software to facilitate the experience is challenging. 35% of employees without access to recognition software never get praise from the company CEO and executive team.
These leaders don't typically have time for daily praise, but they can give weekly, monthly, and quarterly praise more often if they can access a tool to help coordinate the experience.
Nectar Tip: Comments Are Essential
One of the best parts about recognition tools like Nectar is the comments feature. Even if a colleague doesn't write the initial feedback, they can comment on any shoutout to pile on the praise. This feature is essential for busy executives who may not see the daily grind employees go through. Commenting on a piece of great feedback is a better use of time for leaders.
Overall, managers are pretty good at praising direct reports whether or not they have software. Only 14% of employees without access to software share that they never get recognition from their manager.
Having access does make a significant impact, though. While 59% of employees with software access get praise at least weekly, only 42% of workers without access can say the same.
Peers can help organizations fill in gaps in their recognition programs. Employees with access to this software are more likely to get positive recognition from peers daily, weekly, and monthly. While 16% of employees without access to software claim they never get recognition from peers, only 6% of employees with recognition share the same sentiment.
On the whole, employees give more frequent feedback with recognition software. 74% of employees with recognition software give recognition at least weekly. 69% of employees without recognition software give recognition on at least a weekly basis. Conversely, 8% of employees without software never provide recognition, vs. the 2% of employees with access to software.
Equitable recognition is essential. Software gives company leaders helpful analytics around praise to ensure everyone gets the love they deserve. While 81% of employees with access to software feel the company does a good job recognizing everyone on the team, only 50% of employees without access agree. Conversely, 29% of employees without access to software disagree with this statement.
Now, let’s discuss an important subject: AI in employee recognition. In recent years, artificial intelligence has taken most industries by storm. Many organizations are trying to find small ways to use AI to increase efficiency and cut costs. Can companies use AI to augment recognition?
The first question we asked was whether workers thought companies could use AI to provide meaningful recognition to team members. Over half of the respondents said no.
This is an important question as more companies move to add AI to the employee shoutout creation process. Employees aren’t convinced that AI will make the praise they receive more meaningful. While tools like ChatGPT help employees in some cases, employees may not want to know that artificial intelligence was used to create their feedback.
Next, we wanted to know if employees felt like they could tell the difference between an AI-generated message and one written by a human. Artificial intelligence has a few quirks that typically make it easy to spot, such as repetition and lack of depth.
2/3rds of the employees we surveyed shared that they think they can tell the difference. If you plan to incorporate AI, there probably isn’t a way to do that without raising red flags for the employees who get the praise.
Last but not least, let's dive into a few statistics about company culture and tenure. Employers want to create a space where employees stay for more extended periods. As employees job hop to get the experience and salary they want, there may be an easier way to keep employees on staff. Here are some stats to help you understand that experience:
Is your company struggling with employee retention? You've probably heard phrases like, "People just don't want to work anymore!" But that's not the case. Employee expectations have changed significantly in recent years, but many want to work and provide for those around them.
Culture and pay can have tremendous impacts on employees. Workers want to love their jobs and companies while getting paid fairly for their labor.
These two elements are essential if you are struggling with recruiting and retention.
There’s a preconceived notion that younger employees don’t want to stay at organizations for longer than a year or two. Many millennials jump from employer to employer in search of something, but what are they trying to find?
When we asked this question, across the board, a significant majority said they would stay at a company that had a great culture and paid fairly. It didn't matter if a respondent was 20, 30, or 50. Employees want to stay at organizations for an extended period but need to be motivated.
What are you doing to build a culture that employees won't want to leave? How are you motivating them with money that will make their lives easier? It's not always about who can offer $250,000 right out of the box. How can a team member grow with the company once they join your organization?
We wanted to dive deeper and understand which variables affect employee tenure. It's not a shock that most survey respondents shared that fair pay made the biggest difference in their decision to stay with an organization.
Employees also ranked opportunities for career advancement as a significant reason they stayed with an organization.
The other variables we surveyed influenced employee decision-making, too.
More than anything, this chart shows that there are various reasons employees choose to stay. So consider what you can offer (and what the employee wants most) as you strive to improve employee retention rates.
So, what variables make the most significant difference to employees in different age brackets?
Again, fair pay has the largest impact, no matter which age bracket you look at.
Fair pay is the most impactful to employees in the 45-54 age bracket, which makes sense as those workers typically have the most expenses as they pay for current bills and save heavily for retirement.
Opportunities for career growth is another impactful variable, but it has the most significant impact on employees who are 25-44.
Whew! We covered a lot of topics today. Recognition is more critical than ever because it influences motivation, productivity, and employee engagement.
When using this data in your organization, consider what recognition looks like at your company.
→How often are workers recognized for their hard work?
→Do all of your managers and executives treat recognition the same way?
→Is there a recognition difference between different groups (age, gender, ethnicity, manager, etc.)?
→Do employees feel you care about them and their wellbeing?
→What does retention currently look like in your organization? What are some simple things you can do to improve that?
As you use these statistics and answer these questions, you'll create a recognition and rewards system that works for your team.
What does your recognition system look like today? Does your company focus on manual recognition, or do you have recognition software in place? Nectar works with hundreds of companies to provide recognition and rewards for employees across the globe.
If these recognition and culture statistics have made you interested in how software can streamline this process, we'd love to chat with you about your needs. Request a demo and one of our sales representatives would be happy to walk you through a personalized demo of the Nectar platform.
