White Paper Seeks to Support Recognition Program Budgets

A new white paper unveiled at The Motivation Show this week provides planners with arguments to justify their 2010 budgets and tips for how to proceed if those budgets are cut.

Prepared by the Incentive Marketing Association's Recognition Council, the paper, "2010 Recognition RX: Engaging Employees For Economic Recovery," sums up current thinking and argues that recognition programs pay off, even during a recession.

For example, it notes: "Hay Group Insight collected data from 41 organizations and over 1 million employees worldwide. These companies used employee engagement strategies, including recognition and rewards. After comparing the results of employee opinion surveys conducted in late 2008 or early 2009 with survey results from the same clients taken prior to the downturn, Hay Group found that more than 75 percent of these organizations realized improvements in their survey scores regardless of the economic downturn."

But long-term thinking is not in vogue right now. "Realizing that the economy is starting to show signs of recovery, we thought it important to examine current thinking and results about the use of recognition and rewards to help business leaders and HR professionals plan for 2010," says Peter Hart, president of New York-based Rideau Recognition and president of the Recognition Council. "What we found is that companies that continued to focus on employee recognition also continued to have better results during the challenges of the last two years. So, it’s clear that all companies should maintain programs to promote results and retain good employees as the economy recovers."

— Nielsen Business Media