Recognition: Your understated superpower that will enable you to win the war on talent.

‘I sold ￡1m of new business and my manager didn’t even say well done’. It seems crazy doesn’t it? Now, we’ve got your attention . . .

At Brave, our mission is simple. To create great places to work, every day.

But what does this mean. Like actually really mean.

We work with our clients to understand what motivates their teams and what needs to be in place to deliver exceptional places to work. Looking at things like development, progression prospects, recognition, rewards, communication and alignment on value.

And the factor which is cited as a main reason for leaving, and I have witnessed score consistently low throughout my career in HR, is recognition. A perceived lack of appreciation for their efforts and lack of recognition for achievements. The work matters on a personal level and the absence of recognition for their efforts has a very physical and tangible impact on them personally.

So does this matter? The short answer is – yes. If you want to drive profitable growth then, yes, it does. To put this into context, one of our clients with the highest level of perceived recognition has approximately 4% lower employee turnover. That 4% has a massive impact on the bottom line for businesses and health and wellbeing for their staff. Read that bit again.

This is supported by research from the world’s most prominent employee research agency. In 2023 Gallup found that organisations with higher levels of recognition were 9% more productive and had 22% less absences. Now, that’s pretty compelling.

In our view, getting recognition right is one of the key secrets to your continued success. There’s no right answer or one size fits all, however, our best performing clients in the space of recognition all do these three things as standard:

1.???? Say thank-you. So easily missed. Especially in a world of hybrid working, where meetings are short, remote and task based. If you’re a leader, make sure you take the time to thank your team for their efforts. If it’s not second nature to you, put diary reminders in or little prompts in your one-to-one structures.

2.???? Celebrate Success. At Brave, every Friday afternoon we gather together to celebrate our successes and It is a great end to the week and something we all look forward to. So it came as no surprise to see that in our survey metrics we scored highly for recognition.

3.???? Individualise. Two of our best performing clients take the time to talk with their teams through structured action planning discussions and planned one-to-ones to understand what great recognition looks like to them. They ask the question ‘what does great recognition look like to you?’ For some, a private ‘thank you, good job’ will do, others want public praise shouted from the roof tops and some, well, they just want more money and bonuses. Until you know this you can’t truly know if your approach is really working.

In our view, the business case and need to recognition strategies and a tailored approach has never been so strong. If you would like help structuring your approach to recognition, pay, bonuses and reward, then we’ll be happy to discuss our approach to insight and experience to see if we can empower your teams to out-perform, every day.