We are often asked to "put a recognition program in place". The request is almost always a symptom of something else: people do not leave because a points system is missing, they leave because their manager has said nothing in eight months.
What does not work
The common thread: all of them move recognition from the manager to a mechanism. But the person is precisely what the message is made of.
The three conditions
Specific
"Good work" recognizes nothing. "Your follow-up with the client on Thursday is why we did not lose the contract" recognizes something, because it proves somebody was watching.
Fast
Recognition has a very short half-life. Past two weeks it reads as a formality rather than a reaction.
From directly up the line
A mention from the CEO is pleasant. A sentence from the direct manager changes behaviour, because that is the person who decides assignments, scheduling and the next promotion.
Where to start
The first four weeks
- Ask every manager to name one specific contribution per person, per month.
- Write it into the one-on-one record, so it is traceable.
- Remove any mechanism that produces one winner and a set of losers.
- Measure after six months with "my work gets noticed", not with a headline score.
It costs nothing, it needs no tool, and it is the only part of the problem leadership genuinely controls.
