Optimize & Scale Recognition with Human Intelligence

All right. Hello everyone and welcome to today's live webcast and watch party. My name is Zach dot Adams, president of Achieve Engagement. And as your head of community, I am honored to share this space with you all, learn how we can continue to arm ourselves with new strategies, new frameworks, new playbooks, and build a better world of work. And that's what these programs are all about. We're here to talk about how we optimize and scale recognition with human intelligence. So I'm so excited to unpack that with you all today. But first, before we get started, if you haven't at this point, add in the chat where you're calling in from. This is a community learning experience. I think one of the most powerful aspects of these programs is the peer-to-peer learning piece. So as we're going through today's program, and I'll share a little bit more about this in a second, I want you to think about how you're doing these things at your company, where your gaps are resources that maybe you've leveraged, how you've approached some of the topics and concepts that we unpacked in this wa that we unpack in this watch party. And what resonates with you. And having that kind of peer-to-peer sharing and learning can really take this learning experience to the next level. So I'm leaning on all of you to do that with me today. But for starters, I love seeing what we got going on in the chat. Marion, Illinois, uh, Oregon, Iowa, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Vancouver, Missouri, Colorado, Las Vegas. This is awesome. We got plenty of different time zones in the house today, New York. Alex, welcome. Uh, I love this, this type of community space here. So, couple quick announcements as we jump into today's program as well. One thing I wanted to highlight of what's coming in our ex leadership network, if you're looking for that peer community to continue the journey with this is kind of our deeper level network, where we have HR leaders, people leaders, people that are in the talent space where we connect and learn and unpack these concepts in more of a peer-to-peer dialogue. And we have a masterclass next week around navigating change. I think that's gonna be one of the most critical skill sets that we need to master this year. So we're doing a free session or a masterclass session in the membership space there. But we're also giving you all a change assessment where you can actually assess yourself against some of the different critical competencies and skill sets required to thrive through change. So that alone is worth the membership. So make sure you sign up or check out even the 14 day trial and you can join that for free next week. We also have our monthly kickoff mastermind coming up. We do that at the top of every month. And we have also one of our first sessions for our AI innovation for HR mastermind series. That's where we actually have a global chief people officer coming in to share how, one, they've started to scale this internally, but also talk through like what does this mean for me as a director, a leader myself? What does this mean for my department? And what does this mean for our people strategy? So that's what that series is all about. And one thing that we're also really excited about is we are hitting the road as a community. We're gonna be li visiting cities all across the US this year. We're really doubling down on intimate peer-to-peer experiences. And we wanna bring you all together in your local communities. So these are some of the cities we already have planned. So stay on the lookout for that. Members of the ex leadership network at first priority, it's always limited seating. Uh, but those are on our, on us. We fund and do those programs. We would love to meet you in person. So if you're looking for some of those, stay on the lookout for that schedule. So you could check that out at our website slash ex leadership network. And you could start a 14 day trial right there. Alright, let's get into today's program. And I'd be curious on a scale of zero to 10, maybe put in the chat to get us warmed up. 'cause we're gonna be doing some prizes. We're gonna do, gonna do some giveaways as a part of your involvement and contribute contribution to today's program. When you think about your recognition program and you think about it at scale, like have you really optimized and built this system at scale to reach your entire organization? Are there the different components of it built out? Is there a human intelligence and AI behind it? Where are you in that journey from zero to 10, 10 being 10, we got this thing scale, this thing's optimized. We got the system running and humming. People are doing peer-to-peer shoutouts. It's happening on a daily and weekly basis. Zero being we, we haven't even started. Like we need to start building this asap. It's something that's on the priority list this year. We don't have any systems. We don't even recognize birthdays at this point, right? Like, where are you in zero through 10? I'd love just to do a post check of where some of you are today. And hey, no shame if you're a zero. Uh, that's why we're here. That's why we're growing and developing and learning these things. So we can move the needle on this number. So we got some fives, seven, some ones, some nine, sirona. Oh, I love that. I'd love to learn from you. 3.5 crystal and eight. That's awesome. We have a recognition program, unsure how much we use AI in it. All right, Angela, you're in the right space. Okay, not zero. More like a two. Okay. No, yeah, let's give us some grace here. Awesome. Well, as we go through this program, couple things that I encourage you. I want to reward you for learning, Ryan showing up today. Uh, so help me reward you today. This is our own recognition program for you all. We're gonna give out some a hundred dollars credits to our swag store, to our prize store, for you to get some, you know, gifts and things for showing up today and contributing. So a couple ways you can do that one by sharing in the chat. If you share in the chat today and you share certain strategies or insights and you contribute to the learning experience, we'll give you a prize. Like we're gonna raffle some of those out. The other thing you can do is tag us and post about it on LinkedIn. So if you go on LinkedIn and you post about like, Hey, my number one learning experience was what, you know, like, my number one takeaway from today's program was da, da, da da. Or I loved when this person shared this input. If you go on LinkedIn and you share something like that, uh, and you have to tag work human as they're our partners for today. So huge shout out for work human, for bringing that expertise, that insight, that guidance for our community. So take work human and then tag achieve engagement. And if you're nice enough, you can take me too, that'd be cool, but we'll, we'll look for those shout outs and then we'll for sure award you a prize for today. So would love that share of the, of the learning. And Jamie, I see your comment to me. I caught a Wisconsin accent. Yes, I am from Wisconsin. I grew up in, uh, Oconomowoc, if anyone knows that. I live in Denver now. But Jamie, thanks for calling me out on that. All right, y'all, how about we get this learning experience started? Let me get this pulled up, gimme a second, get strapped in and we are gonna kick this off. So let me know when you could see and hear this. And we are going to go live in 3, 2, 1. Alright, Welcome everyone. We are so thrilled that you're joining us today for our session. Just as we're getting started, I wanted to just let you know, feel free to scan that QR code you're seeing to get the full report that we are going to be discussing in our time together today. And of course, we will be sharing the recording of this session, the full report and the the slides that we're gonna be going through after this session with you as well. So with that, we are thrilled to have you join us for this session on optimize and scale recognition with human intelligence. So just starting with a very basic truth, that recognition is not a perk. It's not one size fits all. It is a business imperative. It's not a nice to have. And it is recognition when done right is one of the most powerful sources of insight into how your people work, how we connect with each other, and how we contribute the difference we're making. So as we dive into that today, we're gonna be looking at how too many organizations really treat recognition as, as a side program. Think about it tactically, not really bringing that strategic lens to what recognition can be good news. When recognition is done right from that strategic framework, it becomes transformative. It fuels productivity, fuels culture alignment, and it turns everyday actions into powerful workforce insights. And into ROI think about it this way, what recognition allows you to do is listen to your employees in a different way. Listen to what they are choosing to tell you in their authentic non-anonymous voices because they wanna tell you through the recognition messages that they're sharing with each other to explore this WorkHuman partnered with Ever Hearst Group on exclusive research. And today we're gonna walk you through that. So with no further ado, I'd like to introduce all of us, including myself. I am Lynette Silva Heen. I am the international consulting practice leader for WorkHuman, which means I have the best job in the world. I get to help millions of employees feel seen, noticed, valued, appreciated for what they do and for who they are. And I work very closely with our customers around the world to create that experience over prachi. Thanks Annette. Uh, hi everyone. I'm Prya Hoja. I'm a practice director at Everest Group. I lead our research efforts in the rewards and recognition employee experience and broader HR tech space. I've been tracking this space for quite some time now. And more recently we've been digging into how organizations are rethinking the entire employee experience spectrum and where recognition fits into that journey. So yes, I'm sure we'll be talking a lot more in the session today, and I'm really excited to be part of this webinar and looking forward to today's discussion. Over to you, Priyanka. Before we venture into the topic, my name is Priyanka, uh, Priyanka Mitra. Uh, I'm a vice president with Everest Group and I lead our research efforts across, uh, the HR and talent, uh, area. As part of this, I help global organizations in the strategic decision making around hr talent management and talent strategy have been doing this for almost a decade now. Uh, but today I'm very excited, uh, to be a part of this conversation. I'm very excited that we get to partner with WorkHuman and especially Lynette, to speak more on recognition and how we can make sure that recognition is done right. Recognition is tied to real business outcomes and, and make sure that recognition is, and make sure that recognition is done in a way that it is not just a checkbox activity and a real business imperative, as you mentioned, Lynette. Perfect. So let's dive in. So, you know, before we start talking about recognition, its role, how it's a critical business lever. I think it's important to understand the bigger picture here. So let's zoom out a little bit. So the way people work today, that has fundamentally changed, but the way we recognize them, the way we engage with them, that's barely moved. We've shifted from a long, from a stable, from a long tenure workforce to something that's much more fluid, much more fast and more fragmented as well. Employees today, and especially if we talk about Gen Z or younger millennials, they're working across different geographies, cultures, time zones, and even platforms. So they're not really looking for the traditional markers of appreciation. They want, meaning they want to grow, they wanna feel connected. But the problem is that most organizations today, they're still using those legacy models of recognition. Things like tenure based rewards, service milestones, genetic spot bonuses. These were designed for a different time, a time when people stayed in job for let's say 10 or 15 years when culture was only built in the cafeteria. And when visibility was mostly in person. And today's workforce looks nothing like that. And those old models, they don't just feel out of touch, but they can actually do more harm than good. And it's especially harder in a hybrid or a distributed world. So the question we need to ask is not is recognition important or does recognition matter? It absolutely does. The real question is, how do we make it relevant? Again, how do we make it matter in this new world of work? How do we evolve recognition so that it reflects the values and priorities of today's workforce? That's the challenge, but that's also an opportunity because when done right, recognition can become one of the most powerful tools a leader can use to drive connection, engagement, and ultimately performance. And that's exactly what we'll talk next. How we move from outdated recognition models to something that's more strategic, more measurable, and something that's built for the workforce we have today. I, I love that perspective, um, around how, uh, a, a culture used to be built in the cafeteria. Not anymore. Not anymore. 'cause we're all scattered all around the world and all different kinds of work modes. Absolutely. And I think that is one of the point that many organizations may miss today. And it's important for them to understand that when you are progressing your, a lot of your systems, a lot of your programs, including recognition, also needs to evolve as well. Hmm. Right. So, you know, we just talked about how today's workforce looks nothing like it did five years back, and how most recognition programs, they're still playing catch up. Now let's talk about why it actually matters. So in this AI first economy where so much of what we do is digital, it's automated, it's constantly evolving. People are navigating a lot of uncertainty, not just about work itself, but also about their future. And in this environment, recognition becomes more than just an nice to have, it becomes like a stabilizer. And let's look at some of the ways that recognition can become that way, or it can drive it. First recognition reinforces adaptability and also skill building. When you celebrate learning, when you celebrate innovation or risk taking, you are not just rewarding results, you are cultivating a growth mindset. It also accelerates talent development as well. So when you tie recognition to learning platforms or mentoring platforms, it can actually magnify the impact of upskilling and capability building. It can bring in equity, inclusion, recognition data today. It can reveal patterns, you know, who is consistently being acknowledged and even who's being overlooked. It, of course, it helps to unify the global and hybrid teams. It becomes kind of like a shared language, especially when it's culturally relevant and it's localized to where people actually are. It becomes more meaningful. And of course, from a leadership lens, it provides critical workforce intelligence. Real time data can help leaders identify high potential talent. They can monitor engagement dips, and they can even detect early signs of burnout. So when we say that recognition has become strategic, it's not just about celebrating what has happened, but it's about shaping what happens next. Now, of course, that's the opportunity, but have you ever wondered what happens when recognition doesn't meet the moment, when it's inconsistent, when it's inauthentic, or even just invisible? So Priyanka, what are your thoughts on that? What does it cost when recognition falls short or worse? It disappears completely. That's a, that's a great question, right? Because I, I think recognition when done right, and, and that's what we are gonna talk about today, actually has the opportunity to transform an organization. Because as you said, right, in in today's world, we are, uh, working in the world of uncertainty. There is just so much chaos all around us. And recognition is one way in which you can validate that somebody is doing the right thing, somebody is, you know, uh, contributing to the organization. But when recognition just skims the surface, it can become harm, uh, harm, uh, it can become harmful because it can erode trust. It can, you know, impact morale. And overall, it may not be very fair because when recognition and appreciation is random or more performative, it tells people that leaders don't really care and, and leaders are not really paying attention. So every missed opportunity to be intentional about recognition can chip away the actual impact that recognition may have. And it may have an impact on engagement, it may have an impact on loyalty, and it also has an impact on the effort that they bring to the table because recognition needs to be intentional and not performative. So it becomes really important for organizations to understand that, hey, many of them are already spending on recognition. They already would have certain traditional programs like tenure, um, like service awards, et cetera. And those are not incorrect. But the real question is, is it actually making a difference? Is it actually bringing an impact? Is it actually impacting performance? And is it actually changing behavior? Especially in a world where we have AI and change is constant. So without intent and design recognition can just blend into the background, we need to make sure that it is visible, it is meaningful, and programs are designed in a way that can actually not only impact employee performance, employee uh, sentiment, but also bring in true business impact, right? Like improving productivity, uh, like impacting, you know, top line. Uh, so how can we make sure to do that? I think I'm, I'm pretty sure, Lynette, you would have certain stories to stay, uh, to tell, uh, when you have held organizations move from a more traditional approach to recognition, to a more intentional approach to recognition. Oh, I have so many stories to tell about our customers. But, um, before I do, I really liked what you said about the danger of performative recognition. 'cause in, in my role in consulting with our customers directly, I'm, I, I do get asked, is there ever too much recognition? Because we advocate frequent timely recognition given throughout the year. And the answer to is there, can there be too much recognition is yes, if that recognition, all it is, is, hey, thanks, great work. Um, with no specificity, no meaning, I, I I, the, the kiss of death to good recognition is, thank you for all you do, because the human reaction to hearing thank you for all you do is, do you even know what I do around here? And it's that specificity, um, impact how you made a difference that makes recognition powerful. And as long as it's specific, meaningful, conveying impact outcome, there could never be too much of it. A customer example of that that I love to share is Morgan Truck Body. So Morgan, uh, they, they went from a, a really kind of informal recognition. They had the right heart, the right spirit of wanting to do recognition, but it wasn't delivering the impact they wanted to see with their employees. So going from that informal to truly intent driven recognition, uh, and they really needed to counter, you know, high turnover that they're experiencing. And a critical employee group for them is their offline workers, their desk-less workers, and really getting engagement and retention with that group. And, and so they really wanted to work with us to, to meet people where they are, where they are in their work, are they, are they, uh, you know, on the road and therefore on a tablet or on a mobile device? Um, and, and how can they connect purpose to individual work? Uh, our CEO Eric Mosley defines recognition in this way. He says, purpose is collective, meaning is personal recognition is the bridge in between. And what he means by that is, you know, the purpose of the organization we work for, that's collective to all of us. But how do I derive meaning in what I do to deliver against that purpose? I only understand that based off the recognition I receive from my colleagues, and that that's something that Morgan Truck Body has really implemented, and the results they're seeing out of it span the gamut from yes, reducing turnover amongst employees who are recognized, they're less likely to leave, they're more engaged. This is not surprising when I know that the work I'm having is doing is having an impact on others, is being helpful to others. I'm not leaving. I'm definitely gonna be more engaged in the work I do, but it, it, it also bottom left over there, it's delivering on those key business outcomes, productivity, safety, quality. When we're recognizing people and when we're encouraging anyone to catch someone doing something good and recognize them for it in line with the core values, we're also empowering everyone just to pay more attention. And that does help then with safety and quality initiatives. So before we go further into our sessions, we'd love to hear back from you, our attendees, do any of these pitfalls that, that Prachi and Priyanka have been talking about. Do they sound familiar in your organization? Just a few that we've talked about are along the bottom here is like, you believe in recognition, but it's, it's tactical for you. It's not yet getting to strategic, it's local and that's good, but it's inconsistent globally. You're not getting any kind of consistent global experience. You're, you're still kind of focused on rewarding tenure, not contributions, outcomes, impact, or you're not really getting clear ROI or people insights or something else. Is, is there a recognition pitfall that you find yourself in? So please pop it into the chat. So as we move into our next discussion point, you're a believer, you're here in this session with us because you're a believer in what recognition can do and deliver as a business capability in the organization. But culture change alone doesn't drive investment. How do you convince senior leaders in the organization to invest in strategic recognition that delivers those business outcomes? You need data. You, you need executive relevance. So Everest has built out an incredible framework on building a business case for organizations, and it starts with a diagnostic assessment. So I'm gonna hand it back to proce to take us through that. So the most effective recognition programs that we see in today's day and age, they are built around purpose from the very beginning. They define clear goals, they target the right set of behaviors, and they align directly with the business strategy. And to do that, you need to run a diagnostic assessment. So think of this as your baseline. It's how you figure out where you really stand today and how do you want to progress further. You can start with the fundamentals and you can ask some very basic questions to yourself, like, what's your program coverage? Is the usage consistent across different teams and geographies? How equitable is it? And most importantly, what do your employees think? These are some of the questions where most organizations are going to uncover some big gaps. So how do we move about this diagnostic assessment? Let's move on it step by step. So the first step is that you conduct a full inventory and audit map all the recognition programs that you have. They can be formal, informal, peer to peer, manager driven, monetary, non-monetary whatsoever. Look at the frequency, look at the delivery channels, and whether these programs overlap or contradict, it's quite possible that you'll find recognition efforts that are quite siloed, that are redundant or completely disconnected from business goals. Then comes your gap analysis. Benchmark your practices against the industry standards and what your peers are doing. And this is one area where working with an r and r partner can be especially valuable. They can help you interpret the data, they can highlight the disparities, and they can bring forward the best practices from their knowledge, from their research and from their experience. After that, I think one of the most important step is to gather the employee feedback. You cannot build an effective recognition strategy without knowing how people are experiencing it. Use surveys, use focus group discussions. And you can even use AI driven sentiment tools as well to understand what feels authentic to your employees, what's missing for them, and what would make recognition more meaningful to them as well. And finally, you bring it all together through strategic and financial alignment. You know, does your recognition program reinforce the culture that you want to build? Does it drive the behaviors that your business needs to scale? And does this investment that you're making, you know, is it generating measurable, ROI? That is where you can actually connect the dots between recognition activity and workforce outcomes like retention, engagement, and performance. Because at the end of the day, if you're going to scale or optimize recognition, you need clarity. And a structured diagnostic assessment will give you exactly that. It'll build a foundation for you for a smart, for a scalable recognition strategy. So, Priyanka, this brings me to a question. Once we've run the diagnostic assessment, how do we start translating recognition into real business outcomes? What are your thoughts on that? Yeah, that's a, that's a very important question, right? Because especially now, every investment is looked from an ROI lens. Um, right, and recognition as Lynette was also saying, it's an investment. It's needs to be intentional. The program needs to be designed in a way that is actually having impact. So it's begs it, it, it stands, uh, it stands that, you know, HR leaders, everybody would look at, okay, I have understood that recognition is important, but how am I actually able to translate that into business outcomes? Because recognition, for recognition to be successful and to get, um, you know, visibility at the leadership level, it needs to move away from anecdotal success to actually hardwired tangible business metrics. So I think it's important that when we are building the objectives for recognition, we also need to understand, as you said, what is the strategic alignment with the organizational goal? Because you cannot build recognition programs and isolation just to drive engagement. It needs to be aligned to an organizational goal. Now, this goal could be reducing, which these goals are generally around reducing attrition, improving productivity, improving employee morale, but you still need to make sure that you do your homework to identify those. Um, and we need to also start tracking metrics which define success. So of course, you know, start with tracking metrics like reach frequency sentiment, but let's not stop that. We need to make sure that we correlate how recognition happens to how recognition is impacting those business outcomes that we have identified, right, the business outcomes around retention risk, productivity improvement in output attrition. So in order to do that, we need to make sure that the platform or the recognition data is combined with the HRIS data to be able to, you know, connect those, those trends because many, a many a times recognition is, is sitting in a system, HRIS, all these productivity, attrition, et cetera, sitting in a system. So it's important that you work with partners or your design programs that are able to connect these dots. And as Lynette was saying, we need to start shifting from just counting thank yous to actually measuring how recognition is impacting, you know, cultural health and bringing in performance based ROI. And there are several metrics that we have seen, uh, through which organizations can look at the, look at both the tangible value and the intangible value. If we move to the next slide, um, we have given some examples of what kind of metrics that we have generally seen organizations use because program ROI can be calculated through cost savings, because, you know, when you are bringing in a platform, it can result in much more efficient, uh, uh, processes. Uh, you can of course, you know, have an impact on retention and productivity, but it also has an indirect impact on moral collaboration, cultural alignment nowadays with AI coming in and disrupting, um, talent skilling, right? And hence better productivity for employees. So we need to make sure that organizations are modeling to link how recognition program is going to be impacting business outcomes. And there are modeling, you know, exercises that are available in the market. Many of the partners, uh, many of the RNR providers, especially somebody like WorkHuman would have, um, ways in which you can calculate these ROIs, right? And we need to make sure that we model scenarios that are based both on hard savings as well as the more intangible, the softer, uh, strategic pieces to complete, to provide a complete picture of the ROI. Um, right. And, and again, I'm, I'm leaning on you Lynette, uh, to give us an example of how you may have done this for some of your, uh, clients, right? Where you've been able to really drive, um, ROI and actually show outcomes for some of your clients. Yeah, Yeah. Uh, uh, there's so many examples to share and it, and it is so custom to each company, kind of what matters to you, what, what do you need to see in some organizations that's safety, where correlation of recognition activity is, is is very strongly correlated in plans where more recognition is happening to reduce trips and triggers, re reduced, lost time to safety incident, reduced incidents, full stop. Um, so, so to productivity, to quality, to throughput, to employee engagement, to culture adoption, the, the to turnover. There's so many different metrics. Um, one specific story to, to share is Zimmer biome. So, um, they, they were going from a strategic program design, which is great, but they wanted to see that financial impact. What's that real impact of what they're seeing? And of course, it starts with engagement in the platform. So we've been talking about ROI the business outcomes, but it all starts with usage data as well, or people actually engaging. And that's where giving of recognition matters. And that's, that's why we are such at, we're human, such strong advocates of peer recognition programs. Um, as I like to say, uh, I work for the best manager in the world, best manager of my entire career. Only challenge is I'm based in Dublin, Ireland, she's in Cleveland, Ohio. She's incredible, but she can't see all the great work I do. It's my colleagues that are co-located with me that see my work, can recognize me and elevate it to that visibility to my manager, but then also to the organization. So we need people empowered across the organization to recognize others. And at Zimmer Biome, they, they saw this, they were driving this and, and getting to two times a percentage of people giving recognition, which also translates to ownership over culture and people reporting that they feel, um, more like they love their jobs or less likely to leave and have that positive experience at work. But for Zimmer, it also delivered for them increased visibility into program ROI. The more people giving, the more data you have, the more insights you have, the more you learn. Um, and it, that doubled program reach and engagement overall, but it also optimized distribution of awards. And the frequency resulted in a kind of a flat spin. They were more predictable in what they were giving in recognition by encouraging everyone to give, which sounds counterintuitive, but once you can start to plan for that and encourage everyone, you know, the behaviors in the organization. But, but getting there is the secret. So how, how do you do that? How do you, how do you map where you are today? Uh, and this is, is it's, it's great that companies can achieve these goals, but, but where do you start? How are you doing now? So is is your recognition program that you're, you're using today or perhaps ones that you've had in past experiences delivering everything it should for your people and for your business. That's where understanding the maturity model comes in and, and, and looking at at what that needs to map to. So, so Prachi back over to you to take us through the maturity model. Thanks, Annette. So, you know, we introduced the maturity journey. I think now we will just take few minutes to walk you through what it actually looks like. And before I start, I want to make it clear, no stage is wrong, okay? Every organization is somewhere on this spectrum, and wherever you are, that's your starting point. So let's break it down. The first stage we have is the ad hoc stage here. Recognition is mostly informal, and it's more reactive. You might see a manager thank someone in a meeting, maybe there's like a long service award. These moments are genuine, but they're very scattered, they are inconsistent, and they're completely disconnected from business goals. Hence, the impact here is quite minimal. You can get occasional morale boost, but there's no structure, no data, and there's no way to scale it. Next stage is the structured stage, and this is where a lot of companies operate today. Recognition is a bit more formalized. There's a system in place, maybe you've rolled out a platform, maybe there's alignment to company values as well. But these programs are also often fragmented. They are owned by different departments. They are operating in silos, and they're not really tied to any central measurement strategy. Then we move to the integrated stage. And this is where recognition actually drive or starts to drive real momentum. Here. Recognition is connected to HR systems, it's embedded into performance management, and it's aligned to strategic priorities. You start seeing trends, you can see who's giving, who's receiving, and how is recognition mapping towards engagement, retention, and even skill development. And finally, we reach the final stage, which I like to call as the intelligent stage. Where is, you know, where the most progressive organizations operate today in this stage, recognition is completely embedded into daily workflows. You know, we, it teams, slacks, mobile platforms, wherever your work happens, it's powered by analytics and ai. It is providing real time insights. It's inclusive, it's personalized, and it's predictive. And it enables leaders to respond as to what's happening on the ground. So not months later or in an engagement survey, but in real time, what is happening right now currently in your organization. But here's the reality check. Most organizations are still in the early to mid stages today. Recognition is happening, but it's often disconnected. It's transactional or it's unmeasured. And the goal is not to get to the intelligence stage tomorrow. The goal is to progress. Use data, use intentional design and use integration to move towards that journey. Because once recognition becomes part of the way you work, when it becomes part of your culture's, DNA, that is when it'll actually start to deliver real sustainable impact sustain. So the question becomes, once you know where you are, how do you move forward? And just importantly, what role can the right partner play for you in and help you in getting there? And that's exactly that we'll explore in the next slide, right? So this is where we shift from diagnosis to more action. And progress is not about giving more awards or updating your platform, it's about strengthening the right foundational pillars that will actually help you scale, sustain, and even prove recognition's value. So we see five strategic levers that make the biggest difference. The first is personalization. Recognition has to feel authentic, and it has to feel relevant to the individual. When you personalize recognition by team, by role, by region, or even by individual preference, it builds trust and belonging in a way that generic messages simply can't. Second is measurement, and this is one aspect where a lot of platforms wall shot, if you are still tracking success by how many awards were sent, that's not enough. You need to start measuring outcomes, you know, the actual business impact on retention, on engagement, on performance, all of it. Third is of course, analytics and AI analytics can help you see patterns. You can see where recognition is working and where it's missing and where it's driving as well. So AI can also help managers personalize messages. They can nudge them to create a more inclusive recognition behavior. The fourth pillar, of course, is leadership and governance. You know, it's important to understand it's not just an HR initiative. It needs sponsorship and modeling from the top. You need strong governance in place to ensure that recognition stays aligned to the core values and it's supported across business units and it's continuously improving. And finally, integration recognition has to be embedded in the flow of work. If it's not integrated into the platforms that your people are already using, it will become what it, uh, poses a risk to become of like an extra step and it won't scale. Then integration is something that makes recognition part of everyday rhythm. So these are some of the levers to keep in mind while you decide or while you progress towards your maturity journey. And this stage especially is where the role of an RNR partner becomes very critical, the right RNR partner, they are not just delivering you a tool. You know, they're helping you design the recognition culture that you want to scale. They are your strategic partner. They can help you build the roadmap. They can track ROI, they can even help you sustain long-term impact. So if you are treating your recognition partner as a vendor, you are missing the point. They are a core strategist, someone who can challenge your thinking, someone who can help you evolve your program, and even hold you accountable for the results as well. So the question becomes how do you turn, you know, all of this interaction. How do you, let's say, get your CFO to care about recognition? How do you move beyond HR and build a case that resonates across the C-level executives? Priyanka over to you to break that down? Yeah, that's a, uh, that's a powerful slide, right, Raji, because as you said, recog, once you identify where you are, how do you make sure that you are always, you know, always making progress? It's always, uh, the, the, the trajectory needs to be upwards. And progress actually starts with a strategic narrative, as you would say. Um, and we need to make sure that it connects to business outcomes. And success would mean different things for different C-level stakeholders, for different leaders, right? It, for somebody like A-C-H-R-O success, uh, would mean better engagement, better attention, you know, lower attrition, more productivity. But for A CFO, uh, it would mean, okay, you know, what's the top line impact? What's the, uh, what's the actual cost that I'm saving? You know, I'm, what, how does it result in cost savings? And for business units, uh, business unit leaders who are going to be the champions, uh, to run the program. In many organizations, it would be about, okay, how am I making sure that I am able to build teams that really enjoy the work that they do? So we need to make sure that we are building recognition business cases in the language that aligns with organizational priorities with which also align with different leaders objectives. So, uh, Lynette, you know, you've been with WorkHuman for a very, very long time. Um, and you said you have the best job in the world. So how have you seen, uh, you know, organizations use WorkHuman as they, you know, go through this journey? Because, uh, to Prachi point, you have to start somewhere and organizations can be anywhere in that maturity curve. So how have you give, give us, you know, a few more stories? Sure. So, uh, 20 years at WorkHuman, nearly, and yes, I've seen, I've seen people all along that maturity model and pr she's right. There is no wrong spot to be as long as we're moving forward. So, so what do we see? So, um, we did a, a global research study with Gallup where we found, um, that if we can just double the number of employees who agree that they were praised for doing good work in the last seven days, an average 10,000 employee company, that's to gain in employee productivity of almost a hundred million dollars just from doubling the number of people who feel praised for the work they're doing. CHROs, CHROs, they care about attrition among many things, but attrition is, is a good indicator of people's, um, uh, belonging and adherence to the culture. And at Michelin, people recognized more than once a year attrition's down to to zero, um, amongst that group of people. And at Eaton, what, what do ops and business leaders care about? They care about accuracy, especially in a manufacturing environment like at Eaton. And they found, um, that they're getting a, a 10, a plus 10 point improvement in accuracy when their pulse survey data was integrated into Eaton's predictive turnover model. And, and all of that ties back to people's engagement in recognition. But what does that mean for how we need to think about recognition going forward? Back to you, proje. Absolutely. Thanks for that, Priyanka and Lynette. And I think those examples from WorkHuman really help bring the strategy to life. You know, we are seeing real time action here, so I wanna take a step back and again, zoom out a little bit, because what we are seeing across the leading organizations today is a mindset shift. And we call this stage recognition reimagined because the most advanced organizations are completely rethinking recognition. You know, recognition is no longer just about awards or making people feel good, but it has become far more strategic and far more impactful. And the best programs, they are doing two things at once. One is that they're combining the emotional value of a meaningful thank you with the analytical rigor of measurement, insight, and ROI tracking. And these are some of the building blocks that we see are quite common in the best in class programs today. These programs, they go beyond visibility. They are more strategic, they are thoughtful, and they're embedded into the way people work in the strongest programs. Recognition is deeply aligned with values. It's very personal, it's very authentic, it feels very real, and it reflects someone's actual contribution in a way that resonates with them. It is connected to outcomes, you know, you are reinforcing behaviors that you want in your organization, and those behaviors actually lead to more innovation, more retention, and more business impact. These programs are also powered by data, you know, recognition. It's not that you kind of do it and forget it, it's continuously mono monitored, it's continuously refined. You look at the different metrics, and just as importantly, recognition is also built into the tools that people already use. And that integration makes sure that it's seamless, it's scalable, and it never feels like an extra work. So when you tie all of these building blocks together, this is where recognition stops becoming a program, but it actually kind of becomes a part of how you operate. But as we all know, you know, great design is only half the equation. What really unlocks is scale, uh, and scales. It is position and intelligence. So, Priyanka, what are your thoughts on that? How do analytics and AI empower a more smarter, more inclusive recognition? Yeah, I think AI has the potential to take us to the next frontier for scaling recognition, right? Because AI has the ability to actually impact behavior in many ways. We, we are seeing AI change the way we work every day. So actually using analytics and ai, machine learning, predictive analytics together to under, to identify what nudges will work for managers to help ma to make sure that managers are actually recognizing and recognizing equitably, unfairly, and at the right moments, right? Predictive analytics can also help identify burnout risk, um, can help identify culture gaps through, uh, uh, recognition data, and especially help identify high potential contributors. Um, and data is not only about dashboards, but I think it's also about understanding what messages and how the tone of a message can have the maximum impact, right? So we do see AI being used to drive more personalized messaging, drive it through intent, but make sure that, you know, it really hits the market and really communicates in a way that is impactful for an individual. And I think recognition intelligence at the end of the day, can power really inclusive, really intentional recognition, even as you said, in a very large globally dispersed, uh, organization, because you are able to bring in that personalization either through using, uh, tools like recognition coaches, or through tools like nudges, which enable and empower, uh, employees to I to recognize at the right moments. So to your point, right, I think data and AI and analytics can actually make sure that recognition moves from more of a reactive thing to more of a proactive intervention to make sure that you are actually having a strategic impact. So again, right back to you, uh, Lynette, that, how have you seen data and analytics being used in, in, in your clients, right? How have they actually used it and, uh, actually, uh, brought in outcomes? Sure. So many ways, but I, I love this example from Merck because it, it has the data behind it on the impact. So, uh, WorkHuman systems come with an advisor suite that is AI driven, but it is that balance of human and ai, especially in something as human as appreciation, as recognition. So we never want, um, an AI tool to go and write a recognition message, because over time all the recognition messages sound the same, and we've lost any benefit of any information that's coming from 'em. But AI can help as a coach. So at Merck, they're using our advisor suite of our recognition advisor coach, where the AI is kind of tracking your messages, you write it for specificity and impact, and then making suggestions on how you can bring in more specificity, more messages of impact, and even more using our inclusion advisor. So this is an unconscious bias detector. The problem with unconscious bias is it's unconscious. I don't know I have it until somebody tells me. Um, so the, the, uh, the inclusion advisor will flag in a message where you might be saying things like, um, so glad we found a woman to bring a perspective to this. Oh, may, maybe we shouldn't say that. Or even something as innocuous as, thank you so much for working nights and weekends to get this in. Okay, well, what's wrong with that? That's going above and beyond. Well, that's just encouraging people for very imbalanced work life. So, and if we recognize it, we're encouraging it. So our advisor's gonna counsel to, to not recognize that, but recognize the outcomes of that effort. And what Merck found when using these advisors as 74% of people were taking the advice of the system, and, and now people are saying that they have a much more positive recognition experience, and that's seen by a, a 12 percentage point rise in recognition in their survey metrics. So with that, we wanna bring us home. We wanna wrap us up on when, when we do recognition, right? When it's strategic, when it is driving business insights and outcomes. But when we're keeping our humans at the core, what's good for the human is good for the business, what do we learn? What do we see? And we see that recognition follows is this strategic loop. If we're getting these higher quality recognition messages and appreciation, that's feeding the insights, we're listening in a different way to our employees, and then that lets us learn to drive those business outcomes that we want to see, the richer data gives us insights, gives us the ROI that feeds higher quality recognition, and we just keep going through our strategic recognition loop. Brohi, what are you seeing from kind of an insight to action point of view. So of course, at this stage, you know, I want our audience here to kind of pause and reflect back on their programs. You know, I would request the audience to kind of ask yourself some very simple questions. Are you measuring impact through your recognition? Is recognition helping you solve real business challenge? Are the recognition moments reinforcing some of the future ready skills? You know, how does your maturity start? And when you compare yourself, not just where to where you were last year, but are you also comparing yourself as to what best in class looks like in your perspective? So these are not some of just the checkbox questions, these are very business critical questions, because if your recognition strategy isn't evolving, you risk falling behind on a lot of key metrics. So please use this slide as a pressure test, you know, take these questions back to your team and use them to assess the program, build a business case, and even a roadmap to move up the majority curve. With that, I think let's close things out with a few key takeaways that tie all of it together. You know, we covered a lot today, but if there's one thing that I want to leave you with is that recognition is not just a side program, it's a strategic lever. And when done right, it has the capability to really drive measurable enterprise level impact. So of course, some of the key takeaways to consider is that first strategy is not optional. Recognition has to be built with intent. You need to have a structured system in place that is directly connected to your organizational goals. Second, depending upon your journey, build a business case. Start with data. Don't start with assumptions. We discussed a lot of frameworks as to how you can assess where you stand in your maturity journey. It's important you understand that recognition will evolve with time. Make recognition personal, make it inclusive, make it values driven. And finally, remember that recognition is not just a business system. You know, it's not just an HR initiative, but it acts like a heartbeat of your culture. It's a continuous rhythm that unites people purpose and performance. And as we've talked about throughout the session, that's not just theory, that's what the data actually shows. So with that, I'm going to hand it over to you, Lynette, to share how WorkHuman is standing behind some of those outcomes with a pretty bold commitment, if I may say Thank you. Yes. So, uh, brachi, Priyanka, you both talked with quite a bit of passion about the importance of finding a partner, a recognition reward partner, not just a vendor. That is what we are interested in, in WorkHuman, and we stand behind our partnership so much that if, if you do not achieve the key ROI metrics you're looking for through recognition, when your program is designed to proven practices, not just best practices, the practices we've proven with customer after customer, we'll refund our fees. No other provider in our industry will stand behind an ROI guarantee in that way. So we do hope to be able to partner with you. And again, there are many more resources available to you here on screen. Again, you can scan for the research report. The one on the left is the, the one shared at the start of this call. And also we would love to schedule a consultative session with you to go further. How can we help you achieve that ROI guarantee? So on the right, just scan that QR code for a consultative session with us at work Cumin. Uh, and then I just want to move into a quick, uh, we're ready to go to q and a before we start the q and a. A huge, huge thank you to our partners at Everest Group, ACHI, and Bianca, it's always a pleasure to work with you and learn from you. Thank you. Hi everybody. So we're excited to take some of your questions. There's been a lively chat going on. Appreciate that mu that very much. We do have a few questions in the q and a section. I would love to start with a question from De Andre. And Andre is asking, how can a successful recognition program help to influence, develop, or become a catalyst for succession planning? So Prachi, I'd love to go to you first on using recognition to support succession planning. That's a great question, uh, Lynette, and of course, it's important to realize that recognition can actually help us see those particular patterns, right? So recognition activity will tell you who are the people or employees that are being recognized and what are those particular elements, capabilities or skills due to which they're being recognized. And often it's the case that employees who generally showcase capabilities such as innovation or leadership qualities or similar type of attributes are the ones who are able to perform very well in the leadership roles going forward. Of course, this data, this accuracy, it becomes better over time. And that's why we say that recognition should be very real time. You should learn from the data that you have at hand, and you should keep evolving it as in when your workforce progresses as well. Uh, excellent. Thank, thank you for that. Um, and we're humans platform in our systems. We we're applying a ai, AI internally. We're not sharing any data internally, your system to look across the recognition messages and what people are saying about each other to identify those skills. And then through the AI assistant to build to the platform, allowing you to ask, Hey, I, I, I, I need to find someone who, who's ready to take on that, that process engineering management role. Who, who, who's ready for that? And you can query the recognition data to start to see what people are saying around who may be ready, who's showing the leadership skills to the communication skills, and are ready to step up, perhaps from individual contributor into that management role, for example. Um, and it's similar to an's question around using predictive analytics to identify burnout or high potential talent through recognition data. And it's kind of kind of the same principle. You're, you're looking for those words and the messages people are sharing and where we can start to identify that Priyanka I'd love to go. Yeah. And if, Yeah, if I were to add one point, right? Succession planning not only looks at performance, but is also about potential. Um, in, in recognition data, sometimes you can even uncover potential. Uh, where have you seen potential? You know, who has the potential, who's showing early promise? It's not only about high potential hypo identification, but early potential. You know, are there interventions that should be, uh, that should be identified for, uh, you know, for, for certain individuals because there is consistent hard work and potential, but maybe they're not getting the right opportunity. And the way I see it is recognition is also data that's validated by experience. A lot of other data that exists in skills intelligence platforms and other platforms is, you know, is about, okay, what's happening over a course of six months recognition data, as Prachi was saying, is instant. It can actually help you track performance over the course of a, a six month, uh, period, or a three month period, and actually help you understand, okay, how are you actually translating that potential to actual performance and unlocking succession? So I think that is also very important part about recognition data, which, uh, many organizations, um, have started to use. Yeah, that the, oh, I'm so glad you you brought that up, Priyanka, um, uh, in work human terms, we're looking for hidden gems. So we're using the recognition data to find those hidden gems that you may not have had in mind as potential for succession, but that the recognition data is surfacing as someone you should consider. Uh, so it's really powerful in that way. Um, Bianca, I'd love to stick with you for another question from Anaise on what benchmarks or industry standards should we use when we're assessing our recognition programs? Oh, um, I think there was a similar question on success, right? Yeah. Where, how do you make sure that your program is actually performing and not underperforming? I think the most basic, uh, metric is adoption. You wanna make sure that when you have a recognition program, it is actually resonating with the audience and, uh, with your employee, uh, who are your audience, right? So adoption, you know, are people actually using these prep, uh, programs? What's the adoption level like for, um, you know, organizations who are just stepping into recognition? 70 to 80% is something that they should, you know, uh, target, and of course, you know, build up on that. And then beyond adoption, once you've reached a level of adoption beyond adoption, you need to start looking at equity. Are you, uh, is there concentration risk? Is is there a particular part of the organization that's actually driving adoption? Is it actually happening across, uh, different levels? Um, you know, are there particular teams that are standing out and is there a particular culture in that team that is making it stand out? So, how can you make the recognition program, uh, equitable, fair, um, uh, across the teams that you are targeting? And then slowly and steadily you want to make sure that you are able to bring in business outcomes. How are you tying it to productivity? How are you tying it to attrition? How are you tying, uh, tying it to actual business change or actual business behavior that you wanna drive? So there are different levels to how you would wanna track success, as Prachi was saying that there are different maturity levels, right? Depending upon where you are, what your objective is, um, we can, there are, you know, multiple metrics that organization can look at because doing recognition the right way is one of the first steps that organizations can take. And adoption, having great adoption is also one of the first metrics that organizations can use. Anything To add prachi. Yeah, well, tracking that maturity model that Prachi was talking about earlier. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Um, one last question. I know we're right at time, um, but it is our last one from EE on what does intelligent recognition, uh, actually look like in day-to-day operations? Uh, Prachi, I'll start with you this time. Yeah. So when we say intelligent recognition, and I think that's a great question, right? We mentioned the term, but what does it mean for you in your day-to-day operations, or day-to-day program? So, intelligent recognition is something that's very smart, that's integrated, and that's very proactive, right? It lives inside the flow of work. So be it any systems that you use, you know, teams, slacks, work, workday, whatever that recognition data, it's constantly learning. It'll use that data to also personalize recognition, you know, to flag any equities. It'll use, uh, data to also coach managers in the way and in real time. So, intelligent recognition is not about tracking what's happening, but it's also about optimizing who is recognized and how they're recognized, and even what are the reasons on which they're being recognized. E excellent. Uh, Priyanka, anything to add? Yeah, so we're right at time. So intelligent recognition is just being specific, meaningful, and then using the information your employees are choosing to tell you, to actually listen to what they have to say, and then feed that back into your business intelligence and your, your, your human intelligence thing of this session. So thank you everybody for joining us for your brilliant questions, your engagement in the chat, and of course to my amazing research partners, Priyanka and Prce, for, for not just this session, but for the research they did underlying this as well. Very much appreciated to everyone. Thank you and hope you have a great day. Great evening. Thank you everyone.