Turning recognition into a strategic business tool

Strategic recognition when treated more than just a vanity exercise drives performance and reinforces an organisation’s culture.

Ask AI to define ‘recognition scheme’ and, unsurprisingly, you get a superficial response. Something like “a formal programme that acknowledges and rewards strong performance, positive behaviour and contributions with praise, awards, bonuses, gifts or perks.”

That’s fine because we would expect that of AI. My concern with recognition is when businesses also define it like this and treat it as a skin-deep vanity exercise.

Of course, a recognition scheme needs to incentivise, enable nomination and drive a degree of competition and because of that there will be points and prizes. But I prefer to focus 'below the line' on its core function of seeing, equipping and developing our people in line with our business goals.

Recognition as part of a management system

Recognition is not just a reward scheme. To be truly strategic, it needs to function as part of a management system and strategy that shows and tells people what matters, strengthens trust and shapes behaviours. Only then can it drive performance, reinforce culture and reduce the gap between what an organisation says it values and what its people experience. It should look and feel like a heartbeat, or a visible operating rhythm across the business.

Good recognition is specific, timely and tied to values or outcomes, so each type - peer-to-peer, customer-to-client, manager-to-report and leadership - should serve a different but connected purpose.

Peer-to-peer: Surfaces everyday contribution, calling out unsung contributions
Manager-to-report: Immediate and specific feedback that is relevant and timely
Customer-to-client: Validates impact, with praise shared internally to reinforce that impact
Leadership recognition: Recognises potential based on evidence in a fair and consistent way

Moving from gimmick to cultural embed

To make this happen on a company-wide scale, recognition cannot just be a function of HR, it needs to be embedded into a company’s daily work and life in a way that makes everyone accountable.

Leaders should be identifying culture carriers, spotting gaps in fairness and using recognition data to make better decisions alongside other people metrics. Managers should be looking out for fairness and inclusion in their teams, and making sure the quieter or less visible contributors are not overlooked. But this should be happening as part of a company's overall cultural mechanics, not because of recognition.

If a glossy recognition scheme comes at the cost of investing in people, then we're letting the tail wag the dog. So ask yourself: Do our people feel appreciated and valued? Are we focusing more on our recognition pot than we are in training?

If we get it right, we should see its effects in our work environment, in making sure we're around the right people, in having the right tools and systems to do our jobs, and in giving our people the support they need to do those jobs well and to feel like they're succeeding.

Baking recognition into our DNA

When companies do succeed - and many of our clients are through timely, frequent and meaningful recognition tethered to their company DNA - the impact goes well beyond morale. It helps engagement, retention, belonging, wellbeing, collaboration and performance. It changes behaviour by making the desired standard something that is not only achievable but desirable and repeatable.

When recognition is baked into a company’s DNA, over time employees understand what 'good' and 'great' look like to the outside, and how they feel on the inside: being trusted by peers and valued by leaders; feeling secure in the behaviours they need to do their jobs well; and creating customer value and organisational resilience.

Strategic recognition is what happens when the organisation stops praising effort superficially and starts using true and genuine appreciation to shape culture, capability, and outcomes.