Nearly half (49%) of employees would leave a company if they did not receive recognition for their good work, according to a study from Reward Gateway.
The survey of 500 employees and 500 senior decision makers found that six in 10 (59%) workers would prefer a job at a company that provided them with regular recognition rather than one with a higher salary. Almost two-thirds (72%) of workers reported that motivation and morale would improve if managers thanked them more and noticed their good work.
Despite this, 40% of the senior decision makers polled said they don't think regular recognition and thanking staff has a big impact on retention. More than half (52%) of the employees polled felt their boss could do more to appreciate them.
Glenn Elliott, founder and CEO of Reward Gateway, said that employers need to take note of the power of recognition. “If companies want to improve employee engagement, motivation, and retention they need to urgently divert investments from tenure-based, long service award programmes, which aren’t working but are costing businesses a fortune,” he said.
Liz Crutchley, head of reward and benefits at HomeServe Membership, a company that uses Reward Gateway as part of its engagement strategy, agreed recognition is important. “At HomeServe we have a ‘people first' culture, where empowerment and recognition form a huge part of the way we do things,” she said.
“We actively encourage our people to recognise each other based on our people values. One of the ways we do this is by enabling them to send thank you e-cards to one another in a really simple and accessible way. To date we’ve sent more than 33,000 across our business.
“We’ve worked really hard to create a culture that every single person who works at HomeServe is proud to be a part of, and this type of recognition along with the many other initiatives we have implemented has helped see a huge rise in our engagement.”
