What happens when laborious efforts reverberate into silence? You remain up late. You go above and beyond. After that, nothing. No thanks. No feedback. Only the next assignment. Would you continue to push or begin to retreat? Even if it might not seem like much, the lack of acknowledgment sends a message, and for many workers, it is more powerful than words.

Gratitude isn’t just good manners—it’s excellent business. Human motivation is primarily driven by esteem and recognition, as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs reminds us. Being acknowledged at work does more than just raise spirits; it also reinforces identity, connects people, and affirms purpose.

The data supports it. Employees who receive meaningful, high-quality appreciation are 45% less likely to leave their jobs within two years, according to Gallup. According to a global study conducted by O.C. Tanner, employees are 20 times more likely to feel strongly linked to their organizations when recognition is incorporated into workplace culture. The problem is that inconsistent, superficial, or generic recognition can be more detrimental than beneficial, giving employees the impression that their efforts are acknowledged but not genuinely appreciated.

So how can companies go from giving themselves a pat on the back to implementing long-lasting cultural change? This feature examines how effective recognition turns into a tactic for resilience, retention, and genuine engagement rather than just a gesture.

Align Rewards With Individual Employee Preferences

Aligning employee rewards and recognition protocols to what employees actually want and will utilise, rather than just a focus on generic praise. 

Ultimately, your rewards budget and means of recognition should be there to provide employees with valuable regards on a per-team-member basis, so if the budget is there, allocate it accordingly.

Tracey Beveridge, HR Director, Personnel Checks

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Handwritten Notes Recognize Identity Over Achievements

Our environment experienced a complete transformation when we began writing personal notes to recognize individual development instead of focusing on their achievements. The recognition focused on the person’s identity rather than their achievements when it stated “Your presence during difficult times today impressed me.” The recognition of someone’s true self creates enduring connections.

We established handwriting individualized notes as a weekly ritual to maintain this practice. Each member of the group dedicates several minutes to create handwritten appreciation messages for their fellow members. The practice of writing notes on paper with ink replaced electronic communication. The practice of writing notes by hand helped us rediscover our human connection while we worked at a slower pace. People recall authentic moments more than they do flashy displays.

Julia Pukhalskaia, CEO, Mermaid Way

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Collective Milestone Shares Boost Team Engagement Significantly

I am the HR head and the CEO of InCorp Vietnam. We have an initiative, which we call, Collective Milestone Shares, that increases the involvement of employees. It allows teammates to publicly name each other in case of team victory due to client achievements such as perfection of FDI registration or compliance audit. They also exchange short stories during monthly all-hands virtual meeting. It is not just generic praise. It celebrates the culture of collective work of Vietnam and compensates the team with symbolic awards, including a personalized voucher on the professional course on digital finance or local regulation.

We initiated it in 2023 as a way of breaking silos that exist after the pandemic. It was rapid: it was demonstrated that the involvement increased by 25% in 6 months. Hanoi and HCMC had 85% of employees joining. It also reduced the turnover by 15% and increased productivity on high-volume projects. We put it into our performance system to continue operating, linked it with quarterly KPIs, trained facilitators to be included in it, and measured outcomes with anonymous feedback. And we are adjusting it annually, and it has remained robust as we expanded to take on over 20,000 clients. This culture reinforces our supportive culture and provides the employees with an incentive to compete in the market of business services in Vietnam.

Jack Nguyen, CEO, InCorp Vietnam

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Project-Based Peer Recognition Reveals Hidden Contributors

Our organization achieved better employee engagement through the implementation of project outcome-based peer recognition instead of personality-based recognition. The organization established a monthly system which required teams to document their internal and cross-functional team members who delivered substantial value to client projects and deadlines.

The recognition system focused on business value delivery through specific examples such as “X’s intervention led to early completion of multi-jurisdictional filings” and “Y identified an inactive compliance risk which he resolved before it caused damage.”

The following strategic choices produced significant results:

The recognition system focused on project-based recognition because it provided meaningful context to the recognition process.

The submission process became an integral part of our internal closeout procedure instead of being added as a separate requirement.

Managers received access to team performance patterns through recognition data which showed how different team members consistently delivered stable results on critical tasks.

The recognition system provided two main benefits to employees: it exposed hidden workers to recognition without requiring them to promote themselves and it made teams adopt particular behaviors which included precision and timely delivery and international market understanding because these actions received direct recognition.

The recognition process continues through monthly leader rotations which maintain the program’s stability. The practice of appreciation extends throughout all organizational levels because leaders from every department participate in recognition activities which demonstrate that dedication to quality work receives equal value to fast work and large numbers.

The system operates without financial rewards because it requires only three elements: documentation and employee identification and ongoing maintenance. A reward program with high costs but irregular distribution fails to create trust as effectively as a consistent recognition system.

Phil Cartwright, Head of Business Development, Octopus International Business Services Ltd

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Virtual Town Hall Awards Boost Monthly Engagement

One concrete recognition practice we do is host a virtual awards ceremony during our Town Hall meetings, which is held every last Friday of each month. We usually only reward them with time off work and a $50 gift card, but recently, we added this to make virtual meetings more fun and help boost employee engagement. A different set of people are assigned to host each Town Hall and aside from planning the games, they’re also tasked to come up with unique award names like “The Peak Performer Award”, “Surpassing Everest”, and my favorite, the “Helping Hand Trophy”. We managed to sustain its impact over time by implementing it in a different manner each time. Some have the formal awarding of sash but virtually while another created a short skit showcasing the recognized employees. I find this to be a thoughtful touch we can add to our usual Town Halls, where we are also able to remind them that their efforts don’t go unnoticed.

Mimi Nguyen, Founder, Cafely

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Sprint Reviews Integrate Recognition Into Development Cycles

The practice of linking recognition to sprint review sessions produced quantifiable results. The team received specific technical recognition through a spotlight system which ran throughout each sprint to highlight one team member at a time. The team received feedback which was both immediate and detailed.

The practice became permanent through its integration with our sprint cycle. The process runs as a standard part of sprint closure without requiring additional work to build team respect through open communication. The practice has developed better code management and team member awareness because developers receive recognition for their detailed work which normally stays hidden until system failures occur.

Igor Golovko, Developer, Founder, TwinCore

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Peer Micro-Bonuses Linked to Values Reduce Turnover

Peer-to-peer “micro-bonuses” that are directly linked to business values are the most effective recognition strategy.  A lot of the time, top-down praise seems distant or slow.  Since they are the ones who truly witness the work you are doing in the trenches, a colleague’s recognition of you in the moment carries greater weight.

At Wisemonk, where we oversee remote teams all over the world, we put in place a system that allows any employee to give a coworker a small monetary reward.  However, there’s a catch.  They can’t merely say “thanks.”  The particular company value that the individual exhibited must be tagged.  In order to give a developer a reward, they must describe how that particular code fix demonstrated “Customer Obsession.”

Peer-to-peer recognition increases the likelihood of lower turnover rates by 35%, according to data.  We personally witnessed this.  After just three months of implementing this program, our internal engagement scores for “feeling valued” increased dramatically.

Recently, there was one noteworthy instance.  In order to assist a sales representative in repairing a damaged slide deck for a significant client presentation, a junior designer stayed late.  She received a microbonus from the sales representative in public for her “Team First” actions.  Despite the small amount of money, she became the day’s hero due to the public recognition in our primary communication channel.

We directly integrated it into Slack to maintain this.  It doesn’t reside in some dusty HR portal that no one visits; it lives where we work.  Recognition ceases to be an HR initiative and turns into a habit when it is frequent, public, and linked to particular behaviors.

Aditya Nagpal, Founder & CEO, Wisemonk

What Do You Think?

The role of recognition in employee engagement is undeniable, yet its execution varies across workplaces. What’s your experience? Have you felt the impact of gratitude in your workplace, or do you think recognition programs can sometimes miss the mark? Share your thoughts below!