Last year, the Recognize Team ran a number of surveys on employee recognition and analyzed the results. This year, the team has examined how demographic groups (such as gender, age, etc.) prefer to receive employee recognition in different ways. Here, we provide initial research on how organizations can tailor recognition to different populations and satisfy a diverse range of people.
Questions are measured on a Likert Item from 1: Strongly Disagree to 5: Strongly Agree.
Younger employees tended to prefer additional paid time off as an employee recognition reward more than older employees.
Compared to older employees.
Whereas women slightly preferred being recognized in private, either from a manager or company.
Female employees were slightly less satisfied with how often they received employee recognition. This might be due to less frequent recognition than men but without further analysis it is hard to tell at this time.
Compared to their male colleagues.
As might be expected, employees with more senior job levels tended to be more satisfied with how often they received employee recognition.
Overall, employees with more senior job levels tended to be more satisfied with the employee recognition they received.
Employees with a higher income level had a greater preference for cash rewards as a way to receive employee recognition. We must note that we were unable to report the statistical variance, and thus the results for this may actually be the same for the general population.
Merchandise, which is already not employees’ preferred way to get recognition, became slightly more disfavored as income level increased.
Similar to the observations by job levels, employees with higher income levels also tended to be slightly more satisfied with how often they received employee recognition.
(Results are an average of three Likert Items that examined the construct of how satisfied employees were with the employee recognition they received. The Likert Items were measured from 0: Strongly Disagree to 4: Strongly Agree.
Those who completed a higher level of education were more likely to appreciate recognition.
A hypothesis is that those with a higher level of education are more likely to be in job positions that offer ample employee recognition, and therefore they are also more appreciative of it. Further analysis is required to dig into this topic.
It is unknown why this is the case, and whether this is specific to nurses or a sign of a general trend across industries. Again, further analysis in future studies will look at this in more detail.
This report is a valuable follow-up on last year’s report of employee recognition statistics. Keep in mind that these are still initial investigations and further research studies will be needed to establish results, as well as to determine the practical significance of these results.
Regardless, the findings are certainly exciting. As we implement employee recognition programs, instead of providing the same rewards to everyone, we would benefit from considering the backgrounds of our employees and tailoring recognition to something that they find truly valuable.
Written by Rigel Kim
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