Employee Recognition: How to Measure Success

As companies compete for talent, they seek strategies to help them attract and retain the best people. Many successful leaders prioritise employee motivation, productivity and engagement. From flexible workspaces to subsidised gym memberships, company efforts to optimise the workplace are stronger than ever.

However, there is one strategy that many companies are overlooking. According to Gallup, employee recognition is consistently forgotten.

Employee recognition platforms are one of the most effective ways to boost employee engagement in the workplace – but only when the system is implemented correctly. Recognition programs cannot be a one-and-done exercise. Their success relies on continuous listening.

The importance of employee engagement surveys

Without a way of measuring engagement, it is impossible to gauge improvement. Engagement surveys and recognition software work best when wielded together; one supplies continuous measurement while the other creates consistent action.

When setting up your recognition program, it is important to establish your key metrics from the beginning. We can help you choose an engagement survey provider that suits your unique needs while giving you daily data insights on your Mo dashboard.

How to measure the success of your employee recognition program 

1. Participation Rate

How many of your people are engaging with your employee recognition initiative? You should aim for a participation rate of 80% for a strong, recognition-rich culture in your company. 

Reaching a high participation rate is hard to achieve within the initial implementation stages. Our Customer Success team can support you during this process, helping you change behaviour across all of your teams. 

2. Tracking reward budgets 

One of the features of our platform is a reward budget to be shared by managers and between peers. Keeping track of how much of the overall monthly, quarterly, or yearly budget is used is an important measurement of the program’s success. Our analytics enable leaders to quickly detect favouritism.

3. Ask your employees for feedback

Talking to your team is a simple yet effective way to measure the success of your recognition program. By soliciting your employees’ feedback, you can gain a better insight into their views and opinions. Find out what is going well, what could be improved, and any additional feedback your teams wish to share about the program or software used. Mo is highly configurable to your team’s unique requirements, so don’t be afraid to discuss your findings with our Customer Success team.

4. Employee satisfaction 

If you see an increase in employee satisfaction levels, you can be certain that your recognition efforts drive a positive impact. But not every initiative will be immediately successful. By asking for feedback at the time of the satisfaction survey, you will understand where things are slipping up and where you can make improvements. 

5. Employee retention

Recognition programs can help organisations improve turnover rates, and analysing changes in employee turnover helps measure the success of recognition programs. One of our customers reduced turnover by 8% within their first year of using Mo.

One thing to remember when looking at retention is that there can be many other factors causing high employee turnover, like toxic workplace cultures or lack of growth opportunities, something that recognition programs alone can’t fix. 

6. Assessing employee behaviour changes 

Although this may seem an intangible way of measuring the performance or success of your employee recognition efforts, carefully assessing the known behaviour patterns of your employees can help you understand the effectiveness of your recognition program. 

If employees are more willing to contribute to organisational growth, work better as a team, are more productive or display a more satisfied and happier attitude at work, you can attribute this to successful recognition efforts. 

Additionally, if you are planning on monitoring and assessing behavioural changes, be sure to do it over a specified period so you can ensure it is relevant to the recognition program. 

7. Top performers 

By using a rewards and recognition platform like Mo, you will get an idea of who uses the system most. Whether it is managers sharing the most Moments of recognition or if there is a strong culture of peer-to-peer recognition with non-managers sharing the most Moments. 

You also have the option to get a breakdown of the number of Moments an individual is involved in, and how many Connections have been made.

Employee Recognition: Key Takeaways

• Employee recognition programs enhance motivation and engagement within organisations, but success relies on regular measurement. 
• After helping dozens of companies improve their engagement, we recommend tracking participation rates, tracking reward budgets, employee feedback, satisfaction levels, redemption rates, employee retention, assessment of behavioural changes, and identification of top performers through a rewards and recognition platform.