Recognise This! – The only qualifier for needing recognition in the workplace is being a member of the human race.
Last week I had the pleasure of co-presenting with Thad Peterson the results of the Globoforce Spring 2012 Mood Tracker survey (which tracks the perceptions of full-time, currently employed U.S. workers).
Now available on demand, the webinar revealed quite a few interesting results and I shared my thoughts around the trends we’re seeing over time with these surveys. Here are just a few of the highlights from the webinar:
Recognition is a universal desire
- 86% of all respondents want to have their efforts/contributions at work recognised.
- 46% are not satisfied with the level of recognition they receive for doing a good job.
- These results are quite similar across all generations in the workplace. And guess what? It’s not GenY who is the most dissatisfied with recognition – it’s GenX (respondents aged 36-45).
This last point deserves to be more deeply examined. I’m not surprised by these generational results. Recognition is something we all need. As I often say, the only qualifier for needing recognition in the workplace is being a member of the human race.
As my colleague, Thad, commented, “So all of the companies out there that are hiring humans, this applies.”
Frequent recognition is key
- 41% of all respondents to the survey have not been recognised in the last six months.
- 90% of people recognised within the last month feel their manager effectively acknowledges and appreciates them at work.
- 20% of people recognised only in the last two years agreed their manager effectively appreciates them.
This proves that so many employees function in a recognition desert in their workplaces. Frequency of recognition is a very important topic because the frequency with which you reach out to and engage employees is critical to a successful recognition programme.
When people tell me their “good” recognition programme only recognises 20% of employees once or twice a year, I have to inform them that, in fact, they have merely a superficial programme where you really need to be a superhero to get recognised.
This type of programme isn’t going to move any critical business metrics or have any real impact on engagement or performance.
This is also a fundamental question on engagement surveys – that your manager understands and appreciates what you do at work. Increasing positive responses to this question will increase your overall engagement results.
A few other highlights:
- 78% say they would work harder if efforts were better recognised and appreciated.
- 3 out of 4 employees who are satisfied with the recognition they receive love their jobs.
- 2 out of 3 employees who are not satisfied with recognition received don’t love their jobs.
- 81% say receiving recognition makes them more satisfied with their work and position.
- A full third of respondents plan to search for a new job in 2012, which means 33% of your workforce isn’t fully focussed on the task at hand. Yet, out of employees who feel appreciated, 80% have no desire to leave.
Take a few minutes to watch the webinar for more results and how this impacts your workforce and your organsiation.
Derek Irvine is senior vice president of global strategy at HR software provider, Globoforce.
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