There is a lot of discussion about employee recognition. Service awards, appreciation events, employee-of-the-month programs, gift cards, milestone celebrations. All of these have a part to play.
Yet after leading communications, marketing, and employee engagement work for over two decades, I consistently find that what employees actually remember isn’t usually the formal stuff.
It’s a leader who showed up for them during a really intense project. It’s the note that arrived when they weren’t expecting it. It’s being called out in front of the group or seeing their work mentioned in the employee newsletter.
Small moments. But people remember them.
What they all have in common is this: someone saw them.
I think we tend to frame recognition too narrowly. We think of it as a program, but it’s really either woven into how people work together, or it isn’t. Formal programs have their place, but they’re only one part of what employees actually experience.
Gallup research backs this up: only 25% of employees strongly agree they’ve received recognition in the past week. Employees who don’t feel recognized are twice as likely to say they’re actively looking for a new job within the year. That’s not just a recognition issue. That’s a culture, engagement, and retention problem.
The Power of Being Seen
The biggest mistake I see organizations make is framing recognition as a matter of rewards. From my experience, that misses the point. What people really want is to feel like their work matters.
Employees want to feel like their contributions count, like someone notices the effort, like they can draw a line between what they do every day and something larger. That’s true regardless of role, level, or how long someone has been there.
When employees don’t feel seen, engagement erodes. Not quickly, but steadily. When they do feel seen, it makes a real difference. They’re more connected to their colleagues, to their manager, to the organization’s mission.
Leadership Sets the Tone
In many organizations, recognition gets handed off to HR. The companies that do it well understand it’s fundamentally a leadership responsibility.
Leaders set the tone, and when they consistently recognize good teamwork or genuinely thank someone, it builds trust and confidence.
The most effective leaders I’ve seen recognize people in the moment. They don’t wait for review cycles or annual events. And they understand that it does not ned to be elaborate to be effective.
A handwritten note. A genuine thank-you in a meeting. Acknowledging someone’s work to their colleagues. None of it costs anything. And it sticks.
Recognition Lives in the Stories We Tell
Organizations should intentionally craft internal communications, such as newsletters and intranet stories, that authentically highlight employee contributions and reinforce the behaviors and values leadership wants to promote, making recognition a natural part of storytelling.
Every story shared in newsletters or meetings can make employees feel included and proud of their contributions.
When employees regularly see peers recognized through internal channels, they gain visibility into what’s happening across the organization. They also see concrete examples of the behaviors and values leadership wants more of. That’s recognition at scale, and it’s less about rewards than it is about storytelling.
Recognition Lives in the Everyday
To effectively embed recognition into daily work, leaders should consider how they can intentionally acknowledge contributions during regular interactions, ensuring recognition feels genuine and consistent rather than sporadic or superficial.
Not at the annual staff event. Not at the all-hands. But in the weekly team meeting, in one-on-one conversations, during onboarding, and in how leadership talks about the work itself. When everyday interactions start to carry genuine acknowledgment, recognition becomes part of how the organization operates rather than something that gets scheduled.
Awards and milestones will always have their place. But what sets truly engaged cultures apart is the understanding that you can’t schedule your way to them. Recognition has to live in the normal course of work, not just the marked occasions.
Because what people actually want, at the end of the day, isn’t a plaque. They want to feel like their work matters to someone. When they feel that way, they’re more likely to stay, give more of themselves, and care about the work.
Source: Gallup. How to Measure Employee Engagement With the Q12. Retrieved from Gallup Workplace Research.
