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 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.