The Manager’s Guide to Rewards: What You Need to Know to Get the Best for—and from—Your Employees

Chapter 13. Recognition: The Most Meaningful Reward?

HAY GROUP INSIGHT employee opinion surveys have suggested that too few organizations take advantage of the motivational power of non-monetary rewards. Only about 50 percent of employees surveyed—management as well as nonmanagement—report that their contributions are recognized when they perform well. That’s a pity because recognition could well be the most meaningful reward an organization could offer its employees. In this chapter we address the importance of recognition and the role it plays in motivating employees.

The Prevalence of Recognition Programs

The Motivation-Hygiene Theory proposed by Fred Herzberg, a clinical psychologist, in 1966 helps shed light on the importance of recognition. ...