What employee recognition does for engagement and retention
What Gallup and Workhuman's research found recognition does for engagement, burnout and turnover, and the five things that make it work.
Recognition is one of the few levers on engagement and retention that HR can pull every week without a budget line. In Gallup and Workhuman’s 2022 study, employees whose recognition hits the mark were 4× as likely to be engaged and 56% less likely to be looking or watching for job opportunities. Two years later, well-recognized employees were 45% less likely to have turned over. Yet just 22% of employees say they get the right amount of recognition for the work they do.
Here’s what the research found, what makes recognition work, and how to build it into your team’s week.
What the research found
In 2022, Gallup and Workhuman surveyed employees, managers and leaders for their report Unleashing the Human Element at Work: Transforming Workplaces Through Recognition. When recognition hits the mark, employees are:
- 4× as likely to be engaged
- 56% less likely to be looking or watching for job opportunities
- 73% less likely to “always” or “very often” feel burned out
- 5× as likely to feel connected to their culture
Note the condition. These figures describe recognition that hits the mark, not recognition in general. A thank-you sent to meet a quota isn’t the same thing, and how recognition is given matters as much as how often.
Does recognition reduce turnover?
Yes. Gallup and Workhuman followed nearly 3,500 employees from 2022 to 2024, as Gallup reported in Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right (2024).
45%
less likely to have turned over after two years, for well-recognized employees
Employees whose recognition met at least four of the five pillars described below were 65% less likely to be actively looking or watching for another job opportunity than those receiving lower-quality recognition.
Turnover is expensive, and Gallup puts a number on it:
By that estimate, replacing an engineer on an $80,000 salary costs about $64,000, before the knowledge and morale a team loses with them.
How much recognition is enough?
The 2022 report found that recognition at least a few times a month is the minimum to see its positive effects on engagement, culture, wellbeing and turnover intentions. Most teams are below that line, even though most leaders say they give recognition often: how often to recognize employees covers what the research recommends and how to reach everyone on your team.
What makes recognition hit the mark
Five factors are critical to driving its impact: Recognition must be fulfilling, authentic, equitable, embedded in the culture and personalized.
The report found these five pillars matter more than recognition’s type, source or setting, or whether money is involved:
- Fulfilling. It comes often and reliably enough that people feel valued, at least a few times a month.
- Authentic. It names what the person did and why it mattered. “Great job this week” is kind; “Your review caught the pricing bug before release” is recognition.
- Equitable. It reaches everyone. When recognition looks out of balance, especially to people who feel shorted, the report found it sets off alarm bells.
- Embedded in the culture. Having a recognition program isn’t enough. Everyone, not only managers, takes part, and it’s part of how the team works every week. How to build an employee recognition program covers the steps.
- Personalized. It’s given the way the person likes. Only 10% of employees strongly agree someone at work has asked how they like to be recognized, and 29% prefer recognition in private, while only 7% prefer it public.
The pillars add up. In Gallup’s 2024 data, employees whose recognition met at least four pillars were nine times as likely to be engaged as those whose recognition met none, and 55% of U.S. employees either don’t receive recognition at all or receive recognition that meets none of the five.
Should recognition come from managers or peers?
Both. Half of employees in the 2022 study receive recognition from their manager about as often as from coworkers, three in 10 receive it more often from peers, and employees say they want recognition from peers just as much or more often than from their managers. Managers set the tone, and peers see the everyday work that managers miss. When anyone can thank anyone, recognition stops depending on one person’s attention.
How to build recognition into your team’s week
- Pick a regular moment. The last minutes of a weekly team meeting, or Friday afternoon, works for most teams. It gets you to “a few times a month” without anyone keeping count.
- Let anyone thank anyone. Make peer recognition as easy as a message, so the people who see the work can say so.
- Tie it to your values. Tagging a thank-you with a company value shows what the value looks like in practice.
- Ask people how they like to be recognized. Public or private, in a team channel or one to one. Almost nobody asks.
- Look for who’s been missed. Once a month, check who hasn’t been recognized lately and ask their teammates. The quiet contributors are the ones recognition most often skips.
- Mark the moments you already know. Only 23% of employees strongly agree their organization has a system to recognize work milestones, and 15% for personal events. Work anniversaries and birthdays are easy moments for the whole team to say thank you together.
- Measure it. Add “I receive the right amount of recognition for the work I do” to your engagement survey, and compare it with who gives and receives recognition, by team.
Upreciated is built around these ideas: boards your whole team writes on, company values to tag a thank-you with, analytics that show HR who’s been recognized and who’s been missed, and boards for work anniversaries and birthdays made for you.
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of employees feel recognized enough?
Just 22% of employees say they get the right amount of recognition for the work they do, according to Gallup’s 2024 data, unchanged from 2022.
How often should employees be recognized?
At least a few times a month, the minimum Gallup and Workhuman found to see positive effects, and ideally every week. Read how often to recognize employees for the research and how to get there.
Does employee recognition reduce turnover?
Yes. In Gallup’s longitudinal data from 2022 to 2024, well-recognized employees were 45% less likely to have turned over after two years.
What are the five pillars of employee recognition?
Gallup and Workhuman’s five pillars are that recognition is fulfilling, authentic, equitable, embedded in the culture and personalized.
Does recognition have to cost money?
No. Gallup and Workhuman found that the five pillars are more strongly tied to recognition’s positive impact than its type, source, setting, the presence of a formal program, or whether it involves money. A specific, timely thank-you is where it starts.
Sources
- Gallup and Workhuman, Unleashing the Human Element at Work: Transforming Workplaces Through Recognition, 2022.
- Rachael Yi, Gallup, Employee Retention Depends on Getting Recognition Right, September 18, 2024.