Recognition That Works: Turning Global Rewards & Recognition Insights into a Living System

All right, everyone, welcome to today's live program with Achieve Engagement. My name is Zach Dahms, President of Achieve Engagement, and it is honored-- It is my honor to share this space with you all and learn and develop ourselves and expose ourselves to some new practices, frameworks, research, and strategies that can arm ourselves to make a bigger impact on the world of work. So that's what we're here to do today. I love the activity already happening in the chat. If you haven't already, add in the chat right now, where are you calling in from? I'd love to see what type of footprint and type of community we have with us today. I think that's one of the most powerful aspects of these learning experiences. Yes, we're gonna have some amazing practitioners and leaders join us today who are doing this work at the highest level to share some of their own tips and tricks, and their strategies, and ways that they're approaching this within their own companies. But at the same time, so much of the value is all of you joining. So as we go through this program, I would love to hear, like, one, how have you approached some of these things? Like, what are some of the themes or strategies that are working really well within your organization? And then on top of that, you have access to these experts today. So if there's any questions, or barriers, or challenges that you're facing, put those in the chat and in the Q&A function as well, because this is kind of like a free opportunity to get some executive coaching and strategy from experts in the field. That's incredibly valuable. So as you think about your own recognition and reward strategies or challenges, and things you're trying to i-improve on, uh, whatever context that might be for you, uh, let's help you out and navigate that as a community. That's why we're here together today. So let's see who we have in the room. I see some people from Dallas, Texas. We've got Sacramento. Le- Yelena, welcome in here. Bedford, Texas. New York's in the house. Erie, Colorado. I'm in sunny Colorado, in Denver as well. Vermont, Houston, Texas. Let's see, Pittsburgh's in the house. Hey, Sarah, good to see you in here. Toronto. This is awesome. Okay, the next thing I would love to see in the chat, since we're getting warmed up here, and today's program is all about recognition networks, right? Like, how do we turn rewards and recognition, especially the insights and the research, and maybe your own insights, into tactical systems, and strategies, and frameworks that actually build this culture of appreciation and recognition? I'm curious for you: what do you, what do you think is, like, the hot reward right now? Like, what type of rewards are your people most engaged with or most motivated by? I'm just curious. Is it more company swag? Is there some new swag out there that I don't know about that we should be tapping into? Is it money? Yeah, Anna, m- just more money, like, let's create some more incentives and bonuses, and ways to kind of bring that into our reward system. PTO, time off is huge. What is it for you? Like, what do you feel like your people are most motivated by and excited by when it comes to your rewards and the ways that you recognize? Company swag, cash, gas cards. Can't go wrong with gas cards. Uh, genuine appreciation. People wanna know that people actually see the impact they're making. Yes, Sarah. Sometimes it's just appreciation for my contribution. Like, I just wanna know that my work is making a difference, and moving the needle, and driving momentum forward within the business. Like, that alone is, is the type of maybe internal motivation, uh, or internal recognition that we're looking for. So I'm excited to unpack this with you all today. We basically have two sections for today's program. We-- I'm really excited of how we're framing this hour together. On the front half, we wanna just expose yous to some amazing research and insights, things that, uh, Vantage Circle, our partner, which give them a shout-out, make sure to check them out and show them some love. Uh, they have an annual rewards and recognition report that they do, and they're here to share what have they found out, what are some of those insights. This will keep you more modern, ahead of the curve, and make sure you're- what you're doing in terms of timely rewards is what is resonating with the talent workforce today. And then, in connection with that, we have four other practitioners and leaders joining us on the stage to have a little bit more of an open dialogue, and a panel, and an open discussion to unpack some of this research, share some of their own perspectives on how they're doing this at their companies today, you know, where they see this heading in the future. So we're gonna have a really robust hour together here. So that being said, I would love to welcome, uh, one of my partners in crime for today's program, uh, Saurabh from Vantage Circle. He's Director of COE, People and Culture at Vantage Circle. And two other things before, Saurabh, I pass it over to you. I'm gonna shout them out. One, they have this awesome report that you need to check out, so I'm gonna put that in the chat right away. Don't read it now. Saurabh is gonna break it down for us, but there's the whole report. And then, he's also gonna talk a little bit about this at some point, a really cool tool that they just built within ChatGPT, which I'm excited to dig into myself. So if we can, in the chat and through the emojis, let's give Saurabh a warm welcome, uh, for leading and sharing some of this research, and doing this program with us. Saurabh, it's great to see you, uh, my friend. I'll pass the torch over to you. Thank you so much, Zach, and thank you, all of you, for joining. It's exciting to see that not only do we have people from various parts of the US, I saw someone from Portugal, someone from India, someone from Bangladesh as well. So extremely excited to have everyone here, and we're gonna get on with this right away. I'm gonna share my screen and walk you through some of the insights from our global report.... Okay, I hope everyone can see my screen. Um, now, most of us intuitively believe that recognition drives engagement, but let's see what the evidence says. Together with Great Place to Work India, we analyzed over five point seven million employee voices, and what we found was remarkl- remarkably consistent. In every sector, whether it's manufacturing, whether it's information technology, professional services, or something that may be very relevant to some of you that have teams in India, the global capability centers. When employees feel recognized, they are more likely to speak positively about their company, stay longer, and put in discretionary effort. So the effect of recognition doesn't depend on industry or demographics. Its impact is universal, it's predictable, and very importantly, it's incredibly powerful. Now, here's where the story gets even more interesting. When recognition shows up in the employee experience, engagement isn't nudged, it actually multiplies. Across sectors, the chances of an employee feeling engaged rise three to four times when they feel genuinely recognized. Now, that's the difference between someone who says, "I work here," and someone who says, "I work here!" The multiplier effect is exactly what Vantage Circle's 2025 Global Recognition and Rewards Report exam- examines. Why does recognition create such disproportionate impact, and how can organizations intentionally design for this? Now, here's the clincher. Engagement is foundational, but it, on its own, it doesn't guarantee business outcomes. Employees can be loyal, they can be positive, they can be motivated, and yet the organization may still struggle with growth, with innovation, or profitability. Because engagement alone simply means people feel good. What truly drives impact is when engagement is combined with the right behaviors, behaviors that are aligned to your goals, your culture, and your business priorities. That's when you move from this small plant that survives to one that actually thrives. From low business impact to sustained business impact. Now, more and more organizations are realizing that engagement is one of the strongest behavioral signals available to them. It tells people what good looks like, what is valued, and what should be repeated. And that's why nine out of ten organizations globally now use their R&R programs to reinforce their behaviors, not just to boost engagement or reduce at-attrition. They're using recognition to embed core values, drive collaboration and innovation, and build the culture that they want to see. Recognition has moved from an HR practice to a culture-shaping operating system. Now, you might be wondering, is this just a nice theory, something that HR loves, bus-- but business leaders remain skeptical about? Well, here's the reality. When organizations get both pieces right, that is, engagement and behavioral alignment, eighty-six percent also see a direct uplift in productivity. This is the moment the conversation shifts from soft practices to strategic performance levers, because when people feel valued and know what good looks like, they naturally channel their energy towards outcomes that matter. Now, as we built this year's global report, we wanted to understand the difference between programs that simply exist and programs that truly move the needle. So we focused on a specific group, companies that reported high effectiveness across three things: engagement, behavioral reinforcement, and productivity. And we said, "Let's refer to these as the recognition leaders." Now, our goal was simple: identify what is it that these l- leaders do differently. And the answer came down to five strategic practices. There's design, where the program is built intentionally rather than reactively. There's clarity, where employees know exactly what behaviors and contributions are valued. There's consistency, where positive actions are recognized repeatedly and reliably. The fourth is meaning, where rewards feel personal and emotionally resonant. And finally, there's visibility, where recognition moments are, are actually emotionally connected to people, they're made visible, and they're celebrated across the organization. So together, these five elements form the backbone of recognition programs that actually drive culture and business outcomes. Now, before diving into design, here's one pattern that really separates the leaders from everyone else. Just a reminder, leaders are organizations that have rated their programs as highly effective on driving engagement, on driving behavioral reinforcement, and on driving productivity. So amongst these leaders, they see their re-recognition programs as strategic, and that mindset shows up in how they execute their programs. So, for example, ninety-four percent of leader organizations measure program returns, only about half the others do. Almost nine in ten leaders actively track program metrics, compared to fewer than half of the others. Now, this tells us something important. When organizations measure, they learn. They become more aware, they become more intentional, and they become more responsive. For these companies, online recognition platforms aren't just systems that automate recognition, they're tools to amplify great work, to track behaviors, and make recognition visible and data-driven.... In short, when organizations view recognition strategically, everything from design to execution becomes sharper, it becomes much more impactful. Now, to really understand what separates the leaders from everyone else, we needed to look beneath the surface. So we turned to the AIRR framework. The AIRR framework is Vantage Circle's proprietary model, rooted in behavioral science. It breaks down recognition into four core drivers of human motivation. The first is appreciation, the need to feel seen and valued. There's incentivization, which is the motivation that comes from meaningful rewards. Uh, there's reinforcement, which is the cues that shape and embed desired behaviors. And finally, there's emotional connect. That is the sense of belonging and authenticity people experience at work. Now, when we look at recognition programs through these four lenses, it becomes much easier to understand why some programs thrive, while others struggle to create lasting cultural or business impact. Now, the AIRR framework doesn't just give us categories, it actually gives us a way to measure design maturity. It evaluates a program across the four AIRR themes and the two underlying drivers and gives you a score out of a hundred. When you cross seventy, that means you're operating with modern recognition practices, things like high frequency, broad reach, behavioral alignment, and meaningful reward signals. Now, when we applied this lens, the difference between leaders and others became extremely clear. Leaders scored almost twice as high on average as the others, and forty percent of leaders crossed that high maturity threshold, compared to just two percent of others. So it tells us that program design isn't accidental. It's one of the most powerful predictors of recognition effectiveness. To truly understand what the leaders are doing differently, we looked at their design choices within each AIRR theme. When it comes to appreciation, one difference is unmistakable. Leaders cast a much, much wider net. They use far more recognition touchpoints, especially the high-frequency ones, like peer-to-peer appreciations and spot awards. These formats capture contributions in the moment, reinforce the behaviors that matter, and ensure that recognition isn't dependent on manager bandwidth or, say, formal cycles. By broadening the base and increasing frequency, leaders make appreciation far more inclusive. Everyone has a chance to be seen, to be acknowledged, and to be celebrated, and that ripple effect builds a stronger culture of appreciation across the entire organization. Now, good design sets the foundation, but impact, of course, depends on implementation, and nowhere is this more evident than in recognition reach. While many organizations have high-frequency mechanisms on paper, the percentage of employees actually recognized tells a very, very different story. Forty percent of the others group recognize less than ten percent of their employees annually. Once again, I'll repeat that, forty percent. So it's a huge chunk of the companies that fall in the others category. They recognize less than ten percent of employees annually. In contrast, almost the same proportion of leaders, which is another forty percent of the leaders, are recognizing about forty percent or more of their employees every year. Now, what this means is that leaders are recognizing three to five X more people every year. That level of reach is what shifts recognition from being a program to becoming a part of the culture. Now, let's look at incentivization next, which is motivating people with meaningful rewards and the right signals. Here, leaders don't try to buy motivation with larger budgets. In-instead, they're investing in something far, far more powerful, which is experience and clarity. They build, build excitement around recognition through campaigns, through ambassadors, through leadership messaging, very importantly. They keep energy high by celebrating wins publicly and frequently, creating a sense of momentum. And at when-- and when it comes to clarity, leaders do much more than just maintain a simple program handbook. They explain criteria, offer training, use platform resources, and communicate consistently so employees always know how recognition works and what behaviors matter. In other words, leaders succeed because they make recognition visible, they make it energizing, and they make it easy to understand. When we looked at budgets, we saw-- we found something counterintuitive and actually very, very exciting. The organizations that recognize more people aren't the ones spending the most. Leaders keep their average val-- award values modest, with a large share under USD fifty. And when you look at their annual spend per employee, the pattern is the same. The bulk of them are spending USD hundred or less. So even though they recognize three to five X more employees, their budgets stay lean. They're not driving impact through costlier rewards. They're driving impact through frequency, through fairness, through clarity, and through meaning. The core insight is that it's not the size of the reward, it's the design of the experience around it. Now, we already saw that behavioral reinforcement is rising as a strategic priority, and this slide shows exactly how leaders are bringing that to life. Nearly eighty percent of them anchor recognition on behaviors, not just results or general performance, and they're doing it through a led approach. So they have high-frequency mechanisms like peer appreciation and spot awards, which capture the everyday behaviors that shape culture.... quarterly and annual awards, these are what highlight the standout high-impact achievements. But what's powerful is how immediate reinforcement has become. Tools like Boost within the Vantage Circle platform, it's something that we launched earlier in two thousand and twenty-five, they make this even easier. Now, managers can recognize someone instantly through the spot awards, but leaders can amp it up using Boost when a contributions turn-- contribution turns out to be high impact. Now, what that means is that even big wins don't have to wait for the end of the quarter. This combination actually allows your leaders to send clear, timely, and repeated signals about what matters, and to reinforce those behaviors across the organization, not just at the top. Now, while ma- many companies connect recognition to core values, that's very common today, or to have your recognition programs tied in with your organizational core values, leaders take a more disciplined approach to behavioral reinforcement. Two practices define their maturity. The first is that they reward consistency with intention. Recognition isn't rotated to keep things fair. If someone repeatedly demonstrates the right behaviors, leaders actually elevate that contribution. And within the Vantage Circle platform, we have a new feature called Profile Badges, which was designed precisely to enable this, which is recognizing sustained behavioral excellence over time, as opposed to one-off awards. The second is that they balance team and individual contribution. They avoid the traps of recognizing only individuals or only teams. Instead, they celebrate success while ensuring key contributors are acknowledged distinctly. Now, this commitment to consistency and specificity is what makes their behavioral reinforcement truly effective. Leaders also recognize that emotional connection amplifies the impact of rewards. So they start with strong foundation using points, gift cards, and catalogs to ensure rewards have real perceived value and don't get lost as a bank entry in your payroll. Now, this aligns with their strategy of lower value, high-frequency awards. But the real differentiation lies in symbolic and experiential rewards. Things like leadership interactions, learning and growth opportunities. I saw a lot of you who had messaged about learning and growth opportunities. Uh, some of you had spoken about, uh, time off, which might be very important to certain sections of your employee base, or personalized keepsakes, team-based experiences, these create deeper meaning and longer-lasting impact. And it's no surprise that load-- leaders show two X higher adoption of these reward types. They know that emotional stickiness doesn't come from spend, it comes from memorable experiences. So far, we've looked at rec-- when recognition is given, why it's given, and what form it takes. But leaders also excel in how recognition is delivered. They understand that the moment of recognition is as important as the reward itself. Amplifying that moment makes the experience more sticky, more meaningful, and more memorable. It also creates an opportunity to spotlight the behaviors being reinforced. Now, the data makes this clear. Leaders use structured award events, public announcements, team meetings, and social feeds far more than others. In fact, even in a post-COVID world, award events haven't disappeared, they've just been reinvented. And because not everyone loves public call-outs, social feeds on RNR platforms give both givers and receivers the ability to choose how visible the recognition should be, while still amplifying the moment within the organization. Now, the message here is actually fairly simple: moments matter, and leaders design for them intentionally. Now, over the last ten minutes, some of you may be wondering, where would our recognition program fall on this spectrum? Are we truly amongst the leaders, or are we somewhere in the middle, serious about recognition, but not quite unlocking its full impact yet? If that's the case, here's something important to know. Now, we'd seen earlier in our research with Great Place to Work, uh, what happens when employees experience complete recognition. We saw that ninety-seven percent want to stay, ninety-six percent feel motivated and agile, ninety-three percent are ready to give discretionary effort. So the upside is massive, but the real insight is this: every missing signal chips away that experience. One missing recognition signal, motivation, motivation starts to slip. Two missing, the emotional connection breaks. None at all, you're left with almost no attachment at work, and that's what we see happening in a lot of organizations today, where you have recognition and rewards programs with all the right intentions, but these aren't delivering, and therefore, the impact of these programs is highly suboptimal. So the issue isn't whether recognition is happening, it's whether it is whole, whether it's consistent, whether it's meaningful, because incomplete recognition doesn't deliver partial impact, it delivers drastically reduced impact. All right, so if I haven't completely exhausted you all with the data as yet, and you're curious to explore deeper, here's something you'll love. We've built a Vantage Recognition Insights tool. Zach also shared the link for this on, uh, the chat. Uh, here's where the full global data set, benchmarks, practices, comparisons, it's all available over there for you to explore. You could, uh, either look for the link that Zach shared, or you could scan this QR code right away, ask the tool anything about recognition benchmarks across industries or across our three major regions, which was India, North America, and the UAE.... Now with that, I'll pause the data overload here and hand over to the part that you're probably waiting for, a panel of amazing speakers who will share firsthand what the best get right, what makes recognition actually work. Uh, and let me with that welcome John, who will be moderating the panel. John champions employee engagement and recognition at Vantage Circle. He's our chief advocacy officer, and he's really helping organizations adopt modern, data-driven approaches to building stronger workplace cultures. Uh, he's a former Mercer partner, CH- CHRO, and importantly, a US Navy officer, and he brings deep expertise in HR transformation, recognition design, and workforce strategy. So over to you, John. Uh, thanks, Saurabh. I- I was gonna give myself a little introduction there, but I, I don't think I need to at this point. So I'm really excited to be here with you all, and, uh, especially to be joined by Amy, Kaitlyn, and Daniel, who I'll ask to introduce themselves here in a second. Uh, we work with them on a pretty frequent basis as, uh, clients of Vantage Circle, and, uh, we're just really excited to, to give them an opportunity to talk about kind of what's going on with their organizations, to give you all some kind of real-world learning, uh, and experiences of, you know, what you can get out of in putting in place a modern recognition program. So with that, I think, um, I'm just gonna go by alphabetical first name, and I'm gonna ask- uh, have Amy start off. But Amy, can you share a l- a little bit about your company, your role, and then maybe just, like, one example of, uh, recognition that you remember kind of having either a personal or company impact? Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me here. Um, I love talking about rewards and recognition. Um, it's my love language, so thank you for having me. Um, I am the program manager of the employee recognition and rewards program here at LPL Financial. Um, we are a Fortune 300 company. Um, we are an independent broker dealership, where we help basically Main Street find financial solutions. So, um, we- good work here at LPL, and great work in our rewards and recognition area. Um, I will tell you, I love, uh, the recognition moments that happen from peer to peer. Those are those moments, those special moments, that mean a lot to me that I see happening here at LPL. So especially, uh, one moment that in particular that spoke to me is when we had a recent new hire, um, share some feedback in regards to one of their peers, um, and sh- celebrating the great efforts and making them feel like they belonged, and, and how easy it was for them when they were coming on board. Because right out of the gate, they showed appreciation for the great work happening around them to one of their peers. So those every ty- everyday type of moments are especially special for me here and what I love to see happening. Because what my role is, is really to help everyone here at LPL feel valued, seen, and connected. So as long as I'm a- able to do that, we're winning here. All right. Great. Thanks, Amy. So glad to, to hear about that, and it, it is exciting, right? Uh, having been in a lot of different roles in HR myself, uh, being conne- connected to recognition, I think, has been one of the most fulfilling, uh, ones that I've had, to see moments like that as well. Um, so Daniel, would love to hear from you. Sure. Hi. My name is Daniel Cano. I'm the director of human resources, uh, for the US for Lummus Technology. I'm also in charge of the employee experience, uh, with Lummus Technology. Lummus Technology is a master licenser of proprietary technologies, and we service the process and energy industries. Um, and, uh, we're pretty kind of new to implementing a recognition program here at Lummus. I can't underestimate the impact that it's had. It's been a fantastic, uh, impact. Uh, what- the thing that we've noticed the most, uh, is how it's allowed, uh, people from all levels of the company to recognize, uh, people, uh, not just locally, but across the world. Uh, so one moment I can share, uh, pretty quickly is, you know, somebody, uh, who, you know, kind of early on in their career, uh, being recognized directly by an executive, uh, who, you know, that employee didn't even know that the executive knew their name. Uh, so it was a great opportunity, uh, and made that employee feel, feel terrific, uh, because that, uh... their work was recognized, uh, by somebody at a high level. Um, and, uh, not to underest- again, not to underestimate the impact, uh, but one thing I want to point out about, uh, just what it's brought to us in terms of a culture, in terms of engagement, uh, and the overall employee experience is, um, it's been fun. You know, it's kind of a fun thing to do, uh, here at Lummus Technology, to be able to instantly and quickly recognize somebody, uh, again, all over the world, uh, i- in some form or fashion. Uh, so I want to highlight that. Uh, you know, uh, Amy brought all this energy, and I understand where that comes from, because, uh, not only is it a cool program and a good thing to do, uh, it's also kind of fun. Cool. Thanks, Daniel. That's great to hear. And, uh, Kaitlyn, would love to hear from you. Yeah, absolutely. So hi, everyone, I'm Kaitlyn Heile. I'm the director of talent acquisition and experience at Edelman Financial Engines. Uh, EFE is one of the largest registered independent investment advisors, uh, in the US, providing financial planning and investment management and wealth advisory services. Uh, and so my role- ... by title, it just essentially covers everything from how we attract to how we recognize and retain talent. Um, so recognition for us is just, not just a program, it's pretty much a core part of how we build culture here and how we re- reinforce what good looks like just across the organization, both in the US and globally. Um, I would say one of the main recognition moments that I think has a really big impact at EFE is our client service appreciation week. And so that's something that is more nationally known as Customer Service Appreciation Week, if anyone is familiar with that, typically runs in October. Um, but it's a time for us to really celebrate our client service and operations teams. These are our frontline employees. They're interacting with our clients every day. They represent the heart of the client experience, but because of that work, they don't always get to see the downstream impact of what they do. And so that week is something that we do to really create intentional space to recognize them, not just through rewards, which of course they're going to get, uh, but also through the storytelling of the great work that they do. So leaders and partners across the organization just share specific examples of how these employees directly influence client outcomes. We share client feedback as well, uh, of appreciation of just everything that they have done, so these teams can see in real terms, you know, how they are truly changing someone's financial future. And I think ultimately, what makes that impactful is it reinforces something bigger than just performance, right? It's reinforcing identity. It's not just the task that they're doing, but it's the meaningful work that they're doing that makes a meaningful difference. And so when the employees feel connection, it deepens that engagement, it deepens the strength in our culture, it drives better outcomes for both the employees, but ultimately our clients as well. So just overall, recognition for us is just at the core of everything that we're doing. Terrific. Thanks. Uh, what I'd love to do is, uh, you know, again, had some really good information. Love the, the background and the experience that you bring with, uh, Daniel, kind of in the beginning stages of launching and g- getting a program, to Amy and Caitlin having more embedded programs that are kind of really helping drive culture and behaviors within your organization. I think we have a really good, you know, uh, kind of panel discussion here, and if you have questions, anybody who's, who's watching and listening, you know, just pop them into the, the Q&A or into, uh, into the chat, we're, we're happy to answer those as we're going along. And with that, I'm just gonna... You know, my goal for this is, uh, we were talking, uh, we were in a, a room before a- all of you joined us, and we're talking about pre-game jitters. I do these a lot, but I still get kind of anxious when I come into doing a, doing a webinar or y- an in-person session. It's just part of what it is. So the goal for us here on the panel is just to have fun, right? Have fun and share information with you all. So with that, I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna kind of, you know, open the floor for, uh, Amy, Caitlin, and Daniel to jump in at any time. I'll start the first question here, and then we'll just kind of see where it takes us. So, uh, Daniel, I'll put you on the spot if you're okay with it. You know, we talked about kind of recognition moving from being an engagement activity to a culture-shaping system, right? What change in your, uh, in... What change in your organization has occurred when recognition became more intentional rather than occasional? And again, I know you're just into it, so you might be seeing some early indicators. No, this is actually- this was actually a very important part of our entire implementation, and it does start at the beginning. Uh, 'cause aligning it, uh, you know, having a plan when you're aligning it, yes, it's good and it's fun to do recognition, uh, but there has to be a lot of thought, uh, and a lot of, uh, preparation put into it to make it truly impactful. Uh, so we kind of buttoned it up with, uh, changes to our, uh, to our values as a company. We wanted to make sure that it was all aligned, uh, and we kind of did that, uh, all at once. So, uh, we updated our values. Uh, at the same time, we l- launched our recognition program. Um, and in the background, you know, one of the intentions was to make sure that our, uh, that the recognition reflects those values and are tied to specific behaviors, um, that drive, uh, those values as well. So that way, when employees are, are, are recognized, we're, you know, sending a lot of positive reinforcement for those specific behaviors to create kind of a lived out values, uh, uh, living out the values that drive productivity, uh, drive everything that, uh, we want to see, um, in terms of the best of our employees, uh, with Lummus Technology. Great. Thanks, Daniel. Caitlin, I see you just came off mute. Yeah, yeah. No, exactly to what Daniel was saying, I think, at our company, you know, we've had recognition programs for quite some time now. Um, but in the past, it was honestly more tied to, like, a major milestone or a leadership-driven moment, and while that's meaningful, of course, it was more occasional, and that meant that the everyday contributions that actually drive the business forward weren't always visible to everyone. And so with our program, we just wanted to make it a little bit more intentional. So by scaling what we call We Applaud, that's our recognition program, we're able to just embed it a little bit more, to, to Daniel's point, to our everyday culture, making our values front and center for every piece of recognition. And that, we saw that shift almost immediately. Now, as people are giving recognition, they're immediately seeing a value, they're recognizing a behavior, and it just starts to become that repeatable, uh, just engagement that we want to see, um, and reinforce positive behavior at the company as a whole. Yeah. Yeah. It's, and actually, I, I see a question in the, uh, our, uh... Someone asking, uh, Amy, a question, but, and it was kind of- I was gonna lead into this, too, Amy, with you, is like, like, you've had a program running for a while now, so-... Like, how do you keep it, uh, fresh and engaging? Especially a- along these lines, right? Because well, in my experience when I set and forget a program, that's exactly what everyone else does, forgets it, right? Um- Absolutely. Yeah. So a- a- Caitlin and, and Daniel were speaking, again, my love language, on the rewards recognition. Um, but about the tying it into the values, of course, is very important. Uh, 'cause again, like you keep hearing, and, and this is very true, it's not about the outcomes, it's about the behaviors, right? So right out of the gate, we tell new hires about the importance of recognize- recognizing the great behaviors happening around them. Every single one of our teammates here have budget to send recognition through monetary means, but we also promote and inspire those around us to send those everyday recognitions, and that's the, the thing that we're trying to lean more heavily on. Now, we're... I can't say right out the gate we are the most successful in creating the behavior of sending those type of everyday recognitions above the monetary recognitions, 'cause everybody likes the money. You know, I like the money, too, but I also know that there's value not associated with monetary value, right? There's value in those everyday recognitions, and from your peers, not just from leadership. So I think that was an important step that we made as well. We, we pivoted where it was more of less where those leaders got the budget, where they were the ones that we focused on to give that recognition. Where now it's about e- every day, all of our peers and each other recognizing each of our efforts that we make each and every day with each other, and those behaviors. So I think that's a, was a important pivot for us, is making sure that all of us have that in our DNA here, in essence, is the importance of recognition and celebrating the great work happening around us. Not just from the leaderships celebrating their great report- the great work of their direct reports. It's about each of us celebrating the great work happening around us. Yeah, that's terrific, Amy. And, and one thing that that just brought up for me is, like, a lot of times we... When we're trying to do these things, we, we lean on a company leadership to try and really push things through, right? Some, some leaders are very charismatic, others are not. I have not met one leader who thinks they're not good at recognition, right? Uh, but then again, I was working with one, uh, one organization di- designing their global program, and he clearly said, "Well, you get recognition every day. You get a paycheck," you know? And I, I kind of, you know, wanted to just, like, put my head on the table at that point. But y- you know, and, and again, he thought he was really good at it. So one of the things that, that I think that modern recognition does is, like, by putting the power into everybody's hands, democratizing it, it actually makes it easier for leaders to actually celebrate those along as well, right? 'Cause we as leaders, if we are in a leadership role or whatever, we cannot see everything, right? We miss probably 90% or higher of opportunities to do recognition just 'cause we're not there, right? So now with the, with the technology in place, yeah, or o- any other mechanism, you can actually, again, just as Saurabh said, just boost it or kind of weigh into it, which adds into that value. Have you all, um, been seeing kind of when you put in, uh, kind of your new programs that, that leaders actually find it easier to do recognition? Yeah, absolutely. We actually are, are seeing, like, a very high increase of our leaders starting to use recognition in their leadership meetings, their team all-hands. And now, so we use Vantage Circle, um, so they're able to get a report of all of the recognition their teams got in that last month, and then they pull it over through to just continue to show everyone, you know, everyone that they're getting that recognition. Uh, I would say the... Similar to what Amy was saying, you know, putting that in the hands of the peers, we're now starting to see it across levels, across departments, across countries. We are seeing people start to recognize each other, and as a mana- a people manager, I get an email every time my, someone on my team gets that recognition, and it's great. I might not have known that m- someone was helping someone in another department or, you know, welcomed them in a different way, but now I'm able to see it and I say, "Oh, great, I can now bring- call that out in my team meeting and share that a little bit further." So it definitely makes a big difference when it's not just top-down, but more k- like a lattice. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With the... The other thing that, that, that, oh, gosh, Amy, you had... You said, s- it'll come back to me. So, but, so the one thing that I... Another question that I just kind of had in mind was, like, that we see being intentional about developing programs, right? That, um, that those that have high-level gamings, that 86, really drive the, uh, influence of allowing kind of a really, or having a very structured program. And, you know, and this might be more for Amy or Caitlin, and, and Daniel, maybe even for you kind of ahead of time, but, um, when you first started off doing recognition, was it really aligned or was it more open, and did you over time become more intentional and more prescript or give more definition around it? Uh, Caitlin, I- I'll, I'll take this one to start, if you don't mind, my dear. Um, but I will tell you definitely, um, having the intention behind recognition is important. And people... One of the things we like to do, of course, is get feedback.... We like to get feedback, we like to hear from our, our teammates here on how they like to be recognized and rewarded, and what's important to them. And one of the biggest pieces of feedback we receive is that it means the most when it's genuine, right? When they feel like it's a genuine recognition, where the words are genuine, and not just like, "Great job, team." You know, uh, you know, it's something that's intentional, with purpose, and genuine. So because that means the most to us. It doesn't necessarily have to have monetary value again, but if you're genuine in it, people feel that, and they actually... Because otherwise, they're- it, it just seems like, okay, you're just rewarding for rewarding's sake, you know? Um, it's ne- not necessarily about the person, it's about the person who's giving it in that instance, per se. So I think just making sure that you're genuine and you're leading with those intentions, um, behind that is very important. Yeah, and Amy, to that point, the feedback I think is the most important thing that we do. So we implemented the program, we- we're going to iterate on it, right? So we have what we call here HR boards. These are, uh, two separate boards. We have managers, we have employees on these boards, and we go to them and say: "What do you think? Do you like this? Do you not like this? What do you think of the badges? Did they- do they resonate with you?" We ask our employees, "What do you like? What do you want to see?" They told us, and we pivoted, and we've changed them. And so we changed our badges, we changed the hashtag values, we changed things to make sure that it fits what they need so that they can continue to have that repeatable behavior to, you know, enforce, enforce that, uh, positive actions, too. And Daniel, I want to give you an opportunity to speak, 'cause I think Amy and I are kind of tag-teaming here- No -on this program. Uh, no, that's great. Uh, I'll say from the perspective of somebody who still kind of, uh, early in this- uh, in, in implementing this, um, it take- uh, you'll get... If you're thinking about doing this, there's- you'll get a lot out of the program if you put a lot of time into the design. Um, putting a lot of time into the design, uh, will help you, uh, make it your own. Uh, you can implement that feedback early on, um, and you can design it. Vantage Circle has a lot of good out-of-the-box stuff, uh, but it's also very customizable. Uh, so being- putting that time to make the badges look like you want them to look. Uh, we, we did, uh, bespoke badges, so we actually- all of our badges, we created ourselves. Um, and so it is meaningful. It does drive those behaviors, as, uh, as Amy mentioned. Um, and there's also something Amy mentioned that, uh, I wanted to comment on, that I'm, like John, uh, uh, all of a sudden forgetting about, uh, um... Oh, about the spec- uh, about, uh, it being genuine and authentic. Uh, one thing that we've really pushed for our managers to do is, uh, try to take recognition one layer deeper. Uh, 'cause it's easy, you know, to say, "Hey, these people did a really good job," uh, but what we found is more impactful is say- is saying, uh, "This is the ways in which these people did a really good job. These are the specific people who helped in the background. Uh, these are the specific things that they did, uh, to help, uh, to help in this achievement." Uh, so we found that, uh, to be very impactful and helpful as well. Yeah. One thing, actually, that now it just came back to me, so Daniel, I'm glad you said that, 'cause- You're welcome ... like, the- what I've found in, in working with organizations to really think through the design, right? Uh, it's like design before digital is something I constantly keep saying, right? 'Cause if you just want to put in cool technology, great, but if you have a lousy program, then you've got cool technology with lousy results, right? Um, is that if you lean too heavily into the money, right, you can always shift later on, and, and, and, and I think that's an important thing to do. But what it becomes is, like, it becomes very transactional. "I do this, you give me this," right? And it becomes less about the behavior and more about the action. Um, and a lot of times I'll talk to, uh, uh, my, my other HR professionals and be like: Well, why don't you just, just create a short-term incentive if that's what you're trying to do, right? Don't, don't try and make recognition and rewards... And, uh, again, we purposely flip those, flip the Rs. Just, it's not about the reward, it's about the recognition, and the reward is just an amplifier as needed. And so do you get a lot of questions? And, and maybe, um, uh, uh, Amy, I'll ask you, I'll start out with you on this: Do you get asked for more money, for more budget from, uh, from your managers and people so that they can do more monetary? What, what's the pressure around budget for you? Well, we do. We are constantly hit up for budget. Um, and it's, it's amazing, it, it, it varies, you know, uh, from different departments and different areas. Um, we do have some consistency, um, within some of our areas, where they have some programs, some special initiatives that they run, um, pretty regularly. And frequency- the frequency is there, so they use budget pretty often, and so they request a little bit of extra budget, but that's a great thing. But we also lean into, again, highlighting that it's not necessarily about the monetary value that creates the value. So we do run a challenge every month, um, for, um, non-monetary recognition. Um, we, we promote that. It's unlimited for you to send appreciations out to folks, so we, uh, celebrate and highlight that type of behavior, and we give out points for, um... You know, w- we hold challenges to give out those extra points for just celebrating each other and doing something we should all be doing on a regular basis. So, um, we see a lot of good activity come from those challenges, and it's a great reminder, even for myself, to go out there and appreciate my teammates during these challenges. Okay. ... Yeah. Hopefully I answered your question, John. You did, you did. Daniel or Caitlin, anything to add to that? Sure, yeah, always getting, uh, requests for additional budget. Uh, and, you know, I'm fine with it. Like Amy said, you know, if they want to recognize their employees monetarily, uh, go for it. You know, happy to do that. Uh, but yes, do want to also emphasize the, uh, appreciation part. Um, you know, can't underestimate that, uh, that aspect of it, and wanna make sure that that is highlighted as well. Yeah. So when you think about, like, again, in the design, Daniel, like, uh, uh, in particular, like, you did it around values, you did it around behaviors. Was that actually... You know, uh, again, like, and Amy, you even mentioned this, like, a lot of times in our onboarding, we talk about these things, right? Like, the leaders talk about 'em at town halls or quarterlies. But did you see- are you starting to see a shift, Daniel, in people actually, um, s- real- seeing more about what behaviors they're exhibiting through recognition? So, uh, I want you to ask me this very same question a year from now. Because one of the, uh, one of the things that we did right around the time that we launched, uh, our recognition program was we did, uh, a Gallup survey, uh, employment survey, and one of the things that kind of came in on the low end of the spectrum was about recognition. Now, it was, you know, a couple, literally, weeks after the launch of our recognition program, so we haven't, we hadn't yet really felt- started to see the metrics come in. Um, so I'm very, very excited to see, uh, how it's gonna look, uh, this summer when we, uh, do our next survey, uh, to see, uh, how far we've been able to move the, uh, move the needle on that. Uh, so, uh, so come back to me on that one, John. Definitely, Daniel. How about Amy or Caitlin? Have you seen like, a, a, you know, since putting in your programs and, and, uh, actively managing them, have you seen kind of, uh, behaviors change within the organization, or people actually start moving from just the result to the, to actually noticing and, uh, uh, driving more of the behaviors that you're looking to, to have within the organization? Yeah, absolutely. I think for us, we also... When around the same time we implemented Vantage Circle, we implemented new purpose, vision, and values as well, almost hand in hand. Yeah. So what we found is now that in addition to the recognition, we're also rowing the same direction, we're speaking the same way, we're recognizing the same kinds of behaviors, which is helping us to kind of craft this employee mindset. Like, what does good look like here, so we can make sure to attract that as well, and then recognize it through our, our platform. Um, so I definitely think it, you know, it definitely is doing it, its purpose, for sure. Okay, great, great. We're coming up on time here. We've got a, a few more minutes left. I guess one of the things that I would just ask, and this is a, a little off the cuff, too, is just, like, if you were to do one thing different about your program or how you kind of implemented recognition and on, or, or managing it going forward, what would that be? Uh, and I'll start with- I'm gonna go reversed, uh, uh, alphabetical order. So, Caitlin, I'm gonna ask you- Yeah ... uh, take that. Take your time coming up with that. If you need a moment to think about it. Yeah. So for, for us, um, when I first, uh, took over the program, we actually only had it set up where US employees could recognize other US employees, and our, uh, international employees could only recognize international employees. That's not a very one team, mindset- mindset, and which is one of our values. Um, so one of the things we first did was we gave everyone budget for both countries, so that you can continue to give recognition if you, you know, cross paths with somebody else in the organization. Uh, but what I wish I did differently is, one, do that at the beginning, just immediately roll it out, so it became a, um, just a, something that they're seeing regularly. It's not a big question about why they're getting this additional budget. Um, and then some probably additional comms around why we're doing it that, this way, and just kind of making sure we're seeding those values through to make sure they understand it's part of being a one-team initiative, and that is why we're doing it. Yeah. How about you, Daniel? I, I can't remember any implementation I've ever done where I didn't come out of it with some scars, right? Sure. No, the, uh, to say it was, uh, smooth and easy would, uh, be a lie. Um, but no, no, uh, it was very smooth working with the, uh, Vantage Circle team. Um, some of the... As I mentioned, you know, we were doing it during the same time that we were revamping our values. Um, so one thing I would say is, you know, have a good plan and a good team, uh, to work with as well, uh, because, uh, this should not be something that you do in a vacuum. It should be a, a team effort, where you have champions, um, globally, who are pushing forward, uh, the recognition. Uh, it very much needs to be something that is, uh, celebrated and augmented, uh, throughout your organization at various levels. It can't just be something that's, uh, owned and lives within HR. It really needs to be, uh, something that's, uh, shared among the entire organization. Great. Great. And Amy, I think you're gonna get the s- uh, second to last word, so please. Oh, goodness! Well, I, you know, we, we... I will say you should always iterate, right? There's always lessons to be learned with everything. Um, but I think our program's running pretty well. But the only thing I will say, we do not offer delegates, um, where people... And that was intentional, um, where the leaders have to actually go in and, and do their own recognizing, um, which is, was intentional. But there are times where it would be nice, I will say, to have that delegate in place, um, where, you know, maybe more recognition would happen if it was in place. So that one's, that's an area that I'd love to be able to do a deeper d- uh, dive into, um, from an analytics standpoint and see, um, if that's a, a place we would change. Okay, great. Well, I just want to thank the three of you, uh, for coming on, and participating, and, and sharing again, your experience and your knowledge. Um, it's been great, uh, to have this time with you. Uh, for those of you that have, uh, been on listening, I hope you found some value in this. Uh, and, uh, again, we, we have the, uh, links in the, in the, in the, uh, chat, as well as I did see somebody asking for slides. We'll make sure that we circulate those out, 'cause there's some good information in there as well, and you can also grab our global report. So again, I appreciate you all, and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.