Why Do Employee Recognition Programs Fail?

Engaging employees has become one of the most challenging tasks for managers these days. They look for different solutions to motivate them. But do motivated employees mean engaged employees?

According to Paul L. Marciano’s Carrots And Sticks Don’t Work, engagement is something intrinsic, deep-rooted and that cannot easily be altered, but motivation is strongly influenced by external factors.

One can only have their employees engaged when they start looking for ways to engage their employees instead of ways to motivate them. Reward and recognition programs are said to be one of the most profitable solutions, and they are. But why do recognition programs for employees fail to engage them in most cases? Because only recognition don’t work!

Also Read: The New Rules Of Employee Reward Programs

Having a reocgnition program is a good idea to motivate your employees, but to engage them we need something more precise.

Reasons Why Employee Recognition Programs Fail

Let us know look into the reasons why your employee recognition programs are failing at engaging employees.

Employee Recognition Programs Are Short-term

Recognition programs often last only for a short period of time. These programs motivate employees only for a course of time but fail to engage them for a longer period. Employees might actually start working enthusiastically in the beginning, but their commitment level to their work doesn’t get altered.

Solution 1: A platform for employees and supervisors where rewards & recognition are long-term and engaging.

How Can Engagedly Help?

Engagedly’s ‘Rewards’ and ‘Badges’ encourage all employees to continuously engage themselves at workplace. This feature recognizes employee achievements from time to time and keeps them motivated.

Employee Recognition Programs Do Not Foster Creativity Or Risk-taking

Reward and recognition programs are usually organized to lure employees and to get most out of them. However, the result seems to be different. No employee would even try using a new approach because they don’t want to risk losing. This is again a case of employee disengagement.

Employee Recognition Programs Only Look For End Results

No matter how hard employees work, rewards are given only to the ones who make it to the end results. These kinds of programs do not foster commitment in employees, they might also foster cheating sometimes.

Solution 2 & 3: A platform where supervisor can check on employee performance regularly and recognize & reward any creative approach by his employee.

How Can Engagedly Help?

Engagedly’s ‘Cascading goals’ help you to set goals for your employees and keep track of their progress based on the ‘key results’ regularly. Engagedly’s ‘Feedback’ feature also helps you to give feedback and suggestions to your employees.

Recognition Programs Discourage Teamwork

Recognition programs create a workplace environment where every employee is a competition to the other. An employee might learn how to reach goals individually, but it seriously discourages team-work in the organization.

Solution 4: A platform which helps employees communicate and collaborate with each other and work together to meet organizational goals.

How Can Engagedly Help?

Engagedly’s ‘Post’ feature allows employees to communicate with each other. They can ‘Share knowledge’, ‘Ask for help’ or update their status. The two-way Feedback also allows employees to give feedback to their supervisors.

Recognition Programs Limit Performance

Reward and recognition programs tend to have specific end goals, which tell employees only to extend their expertise to a certain level. They would never go beyond that level to when these specific goals are the ones that control employee performance.

Solution 5: Work environment that encourages employees to go beyond their abilities and improve themselves time to time.

How Can Engagedly Help?

Engagedly’s ‘Praise’ feature helps you to praise your employees when they go beyond their limits and strive hard to achieve the organizational goals.

Are your employee recognition programs delivering as per expectations? Chat with our experts to learn how Engagedly can help.

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Author

Jeevithan K

Senior Solutions Consultant

Jeevithan K is a Senior Solutions Consultant at Engagedly with extensive experience in HR technology, customer success, product implementation, onboarding, and training. He specializes in helping organizations adopt B2B SaaS and enterprise AI solutions effectively. His expertise also includes project management, account management, process improvement, and translating complex product capabilities into practical solutions that deliver meaningful value for customers.

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