The powerful role managers play in everyday recognition culture
Employee Appreciation Day on March 6 is a great opportunity to recognise people and the great work that they do. The real gains, however, come when managers are make recognition an everyday act.
If day-to-day interactions are not appreciated, a branded email or one-off treat becomes superficial and creates a disconnect from people’s real experience.
Instead, this annual event can act as a springboard to set the expectation that appreciation is something people feel all year round. By focusing on how to make it easier for managers to recognise effort and progress, people can live in the values.
Boostworks' The heart of workplace engagement research (2024), The Heart of Workplace Engagement highlights just how powerful managerial appreciation is with 51% of employees reporting that they are positively boosted by direct recognition from their manager.
There is no doubt that managers are the unsung heroes of recognition. When they recognise people well and often, they do more than make someone’s day. Managers shape how an individual feels about their job, team and their future in the business.
How managers shape culture and behaviour
Personalised rewards and recognition that form part of a well-designed programme will go further than the transactional “thanks”.
When recognition is clearly linked to values and specific behaviours, it becomes a practical way of signalling what matters most to a team and the business as a whole, reinforcing the culture and nudging people towards the habits the business wants to see more of.
Managers play a central role here because they can connect the dots: “this behaviour, in this moment, is exactly what our value of customer focus (or collaboration, innovation, etc.) looks like in practice”. Over time, this kind of values-rooted, specific appreciation builds shared understanding of “how we do things around here” turning recognition into a quiet but powerful culture-shaping force.
Supporting managers to become recognition champions
Simply telling managers to “do more recognition” doesn’t work. Instead, organisations need to identify the right people to lead the charge – empathetic managers who care about connection – and then invest in their skills through practical training, best-practice examples and ongoing support.
Guidance should cover how to give recognition that is timely, specific and personal, how to weave appreciation into one—to-ones and team rituals, and how to balance individual and team-based recognition fairly.
Crucially, the responsibility for creating a culture of appreciation should be shared. Leaders, HR, managers and employees all have a role, rather than HR carrying the burden alone. That’s when it starts to become genuine.
Giving managers the tools and freedom to act
To be successful in championing recognition in a busy, complex world of work, managers need barriers removed.
Practical enablers might include simple digital tools that allow managers to recognise colleagues in minutes, share messages more widely when appropriate and aligning every recognition moment with company values.
Another powerful lever is giving managers a clear, values-aligned rewards budget they can draw down from as they see fit, so they can match meaningful, personal messages with timely rewards that reflect individual preferences.
When the infrastructure, guardrails and permissions are in place, recognition becomes something managers can do confidently and consistently in the moment – turning Employee Appreciation Day from a one-off event into the visible tip of a much deeper culture of everyday appreciation.
Practical ways to help include:
- Make recognition specific and values led: Encourage managers to link every thank you to a concrete action and a core value (“this is what great collaboration looks like”), so appreciation reinforces the culture as well as the outcome.
- Equip managers with simple, in-the-moment tools: Remove friction by giving managers easy ways to recognise colleagues and access to a rewards budget, so they can respond quickly when great work happens rather than waiting for formal approval cycles.
- Build recognition into everyday rituals: Ask managers to weave appreciation into one-to-ones, team standups and project wrap-ups, so recognition becomes a natural part of how work gets done rather than a once-a-year event.
If you’re a manager and want to learn more about your role in driving an appreciation culture, join Boostworks’ free webinar at 10am on Friday 13 February.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, Boostworks
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