Reimagining Employee Recognition: From Rewards to Meaningful Engagement | Rajani Athreya | Senior Director – HR, South Asia | Kantar Group

For decades, employee recognition was synonymous with Rewards – gift cards, bonuses, the “employee of the month” plaque and the like. All these gestures did have their place…yet, they often felt transactional and were almost always received post -facto.

In today’s workplace, where hybrid models, generational shifts, and digital transformation are reshaping expectations, Recognition needs to move beyond occasional rewards and become part of everyday culture – something that builds belonging and makes people feel valued in the moment.

The need for the shift is clear – recognition can no longer sit on the sidelines as a programme or perk. It must reflect the culture an organisation wants to build: one that enhances engagement, reinforces purpose and makes retention a shared priority.

Why recognition culture matters

Recognition influences retention in three important ways:

• Enhancing Engagement: Research from Workhuman and Gallup found that organizations with strong recognition cultures are 12 times more likely to achieve high employee engagement.
• Driving Performance: Deloitte research shows that companies with effective recognition programs experience 31% lower voluntary turnover.
• Promoting Well-being: Recognition reduces stress and fosters psychological safety, especially in hybrid teams where visibility is a challenge.

Research suggests that when employees strongly agree that recognition is an important part of their culture, they are 3.7 times more likely to be engaged, 3.8 times more likely to feel connected to their culture, and half as likely to experience frequent burnout. Equally, recognition that feels inauthentic or inequitable can quickly undermine trust.

Reimagining recognition: from prizes to meaning

The old model of rewards-led recognition was built for a workplace where teams were co-located and appreciation travelled more naturally through proximity. Hybrid work, cross-functional delivery, and the pace of modern organisations have changed that. High-performing organisations are now making recognition more strategic, personalised, frequent and team-oriented.

How recognition is changing

High-performing organisations treat recognition as part of their broader rewards and culture strategy, rather than leaving it on the fringes as a standalone programme. In practice, that means making a few important shifts.

1) From manager-led to enterprise-wide
Expanding beyond the manager-employee dyad, high-performing organizations are increasingly building peer-to-peer and team-based recognition into the flow of work. Many global firms are investing in social, visible recognition – like newsfeeds, “kudos” channels, and peer nominations – so that appreciation reflects how work actually gets done.

More mature organisations value both individual and team achievements and increasingly embed recognition into collaboration tools so that appreciation happens in real time, not just during review cycles.

2) From one-size-fits-all to personalised and inclusive
Meaningful recognition is increasingly designed the way consumer experiences are designed: personalized, responsive, and choice-driven.

This is also a response to the diversity of workforce expectations. What feels meaningful differs by life stage, culture, role type and personality. A public shout-out might energise one employee and deeply embarrass another. The focus, therefore, is not on how loud recognition is, but on how thoughtfully it is delivered.

3) From moments that matter to habits that matter
Recognition works best when it is frequent, specific and tied to behaviours the organisation wants to see repeated. Money matters, but only up to a point. The non-monetary aspects of culture – growth opportunities, skill development, inclusion and thoughtful appreciation – often have a longer-lasting impact on engagement.

4) Leveraging technology to make recognition more relevant
Artificial intelligence is transforming recognition in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago – offering:
• Customised Delivery: AI-driven platforms can tailor recognition to individual preferences – whether that’s public acknowledgment, private feedback, career development opportunities, coaching or capability building.
• Real-time feedback: Machine learning enables continuous recognition, surfacing moments of impact as they happen rather than waiting for annual reviews.
• Predictive insights: AI can identify patterns of disengagement, allowing leaders to intervene with recognition before attrition risks escalate.

What good practice looks like

Across organisations, a few design choices are emerging consistently:

• Digital, always-on recognition platforms that enable quick appreciation across geographies and time zones – often integrated into collaboration tools.
• Values-linked recognition, where each “thank you” is explicitly connected to a company value or leadership behaviour to reinforce culture at scale.
• Recognition analytics, using data to enhance inclusion, identify participation gaps (e.g. teams or groups being overlooked), improve equity, and measure impact on engagement and retention.
• Celebrating the whole employee, including life milestones and team wins – not only performance outcomes – so that recognition also supports belonging, not just productivity.

At Kantar, we’ve leaned into the philosophy that recognition should be easy, human, and immediate – not reserved for formal ceremonies. In addition to our traditional and monetary forms of recognition, we leverage our global “Kantar Appreciate” platform to create meaningful differentiation. Kantar Appreciate enables colleagues to recognize one another through simple acts of appreciation, both public and private reinforcing a culture where noticing effort, support, and collaboration becomes part of how we work.

The shift is from recognition as a formal reward to recognition as an everyday expression of value.

Questions worth asking

If you are redesigning recognition, three questions are worth asking:
1. Is recognition timely and regular, rather than something reserved for year-end?
2. Is it equitable, fair and inclusive, giving everyone the opportunity to recognise and be recognised?
3. Is it systemic enough to reinforce culture consistently across the organisation?

A practical playbook

1. Embed Recognition into Culture
o Make recognition a leadership priority, not an HR initiative.
o Train managers to recognize authentically and frequently.

2. Leverage AI for Personalization
o Use AI-driven platforms to tailor recognition to employee preferences.
o Deploy predictive analytics to identify disengagement early.

3. Tie Recognition to Values and Innovation
o Align recognition with behaviours that drive strategy and clearly reflect organisational values.
o Celebrate contributions that reinforce the company’s brand promise.

4. Measure and Prove ROI
o Track metrics such as engagement scores, retention rates, and productivity.
o Demonstrate recognition’s impact on business outcomes to secure leadership buy-in.

Conclusion: Recognition as a strategic imperative

The future of recognition is not about bigger rewards but in meaningful engagement. It is about making people feel seen, valued and connected in ways that genuinely matter. AI can help personalise recognition at scale, but the bigger shift is cultural: recognition must reinforce values, purpose and belonging.

What the employee wants is clarity (on what is the expectation), consideration (that their contribution matters), inclusion (that they are seen and heard) and identity (that they belong)!

Recognition works best when it is timely, sincere and woven into everyday culture. In a workplace where people increasingly want to feel seen, not just assessed, that shift is no longer optional.