British employees feel less appreciated at work than their global peers. It’s time for HR to rethink workplace recognition and close the appreciation gap. Benefits Expert speaks to Nebel Crowhurst, chief appreciation officer and chief people officer at Reward Gateway, to find out how.
With close to nine in ten British employees reporting that they work harder when they are appreciated, getting it right is crucial for business performance and workforce productivity.
However, last month British workers gave employers a ‘could do better’ review for workplace appreciation.
The disappointing feedback was revealed in the new Appreciation Index study from Reward Gateway. Britain’s employers scored 61.8 out of 100. The global average of 65.
Other countries fared better with workers in the USA giving their businesses 66.3, while Australian employees felt slightly more appreciated scoring their employers 66.8.
Separate studies from Gallup, Bersin & Associates, Reward Gateway, and more, all show that appreciation in the workplace can significantly increase employee, engagement, productivity and retention.
When appreciation can be as simple as saying thank you, why are British employers falling behind?
Part of the answer lies in looking at the subcategories that sit beneath the country score, says Nebel Crowhurst, chief appreciation officer and chief people officer at Reward Gateway. She says what you tend to see driving the lower score is the trend for particular groups to feel less appreciated.
“For example, women feel less appreciated than men. People in large organisations feel less appreciated than those in smaller ones,” she says.
There’s a further divide around neurodiversity. People that identify as neurotypical feel more appreciated than those that are neurodiverse and people with disabilities.
With all the different categories that sit under the index, HR leaders need to work smarter, she says.
“We need to think about those differing needs for our various people in our organisations, and understand what appreciation means to them. So leaning into that idea that people are unique and we need to provide personalised experiences for people.”
Understanding how culture contributes to this is also important.
Crowhurst says: “So why is it that in Britain women feel less appreciated than men? What do we need to be doing differently in that space?
One hypothetical reason for the gender divide is that in the UK a lot of the female workforce are still primary carers.
“In this case, women are less likely to be present in the office, more likely to be using hybrid and flexible working. By default then, you’ve got that lack of presence, so do they get overlooked when people are being appreciated and recognised for good work?”
Unique appreciation
Every organisation is different, she says, making it really important for HR to gather ‘employee voice’ to be able to understand their workforce and organisation.
While Reward Gateway’s index provides an overview of the trends, Crowhurst says she’d expect HR leaders to use that as inspiration to find out what it actually means in their own business.
For Crowhurst, improving employee appreciation means building your people strategy around your employee voice and understanding your workforce demographics.
“Think about the personas in your organisations, and think about what the things are that are going to make the most difference to them because you could have different age demographics, different workforce makeup, such as remote workers versus desk based, and the nature of businesses varies.
“It’s important to get that data and insight and use the principles of evidence based practice to truly understand what it is you need to do that’s uniquely different from one organisation to the next.”
Appreciation pyramid
Before the Appreciation Index, Reward Gateway conducted an Economic Value Study. This previous research found a clear link between investment in people and positive business performance.
Organisations that are delivering people investment in a way that is having the biggest impact reported a difference in their business performance of 5-7 percent, which helps to build credibility around what you’re investing in, Crowhurst says.
This research fed into a strategy for identifying positive employee experience. This uses a ‘total employee experience pyramid’ rooted in Maslow hierarchy of needs. The pyramid helps HR understand what they need at the base of the pyramid to build up to the pinnacle because appreciation is at the top.
“If you think about the principles of Maslow, which are kind of safety and security, they link into pay, core compensation, the hygiene factors of what we should do that 50 years ago was all HR really did. For example, issue contracts and pay people,” Crowhurst says.
“But you build up the pyramid, and you realise that actually you’ve got to have a really well rounded wellbeing provision. And that’s broad, not just physical, it’s mental, emotional, it’s financial.
“You then look at how people thrive and grow. We want to learn, we want to grow, we want to feel like we’re progressing in our careers. Ultimately, you build up layer by layer the different elements of the pyramid to achieve the pinnacle, which is the culture of appreciation.”
Enable managers
Managers are key to this culture change. But Crowhurst says she has sympathy for managers because they are stuck in the middle, facing push down from the top and push up from the bottom. They’re often expected to be operational and people leaders at the same time.
“But when you look at the Appreciation Index, the biggest drivers of appreciation are closely linked to managers. People feel they need to be recognised by their manager, feel supported by their manager.”
Training helps, says Crowhurst, but HR should always have things in place to help develop managers’ capabilities and confidence.
“HR needs to be the enabler. We need to put in place solutions that enable managers.
“My view is the majority of our time should be spent with managers and if we get things right with managers, we probably then need to do less with employees. You have less issues to deal with if a manager is very capable and confident.”
Crowhurst says that at Reward Gateway they have put in place the mechanisms to help managers easily recognise their people for the good work they’ve done.
“For us, it’s very simple. It’s online, ecards, some are very lovely words that just say thank you, and others that have points that go alongside them that people can then save up and buy themselves treats or it can go towards essentials, like groceries.
“So it’s those enablement solutions, working with managers to make sure they know those things are available to them and how they can use them alongside training.
“I think training only goes so far. You need to put in place the mechanisms and the solutions and give it to them so they’ve got it to support their people.”
