Once you see employee recognition as a matter of perspective, you can start to explore the possibilities.

1. Re-invent reward. The reward industry have been selling  gift vouchers and merchandise for 50 years. Better than cash? More memorable? Well, no doubt there is a big argument to make a distinction between pay and ad hoc reward. However, reward is changing. Get to know employees personally and start to lock that goodwill and understanding inside your business. Add time, activity and perks features to your traditional offering.
2. Formal recognition is on the way out. If there is an expectation, it has become compensation. Transactional recognition payments such as service awards may be expected, you may feel you have to do it, but lets not confuse it with recognition of what you do.
3. HR strategy. Connect your employee recognition strategy directly to trust, engagement, and your employee brand. The ROI on employee recognition sits in the workforce of the future, not just today.
4. Data & Mobile. Recognition with instant impact, instant visibility and instant reward has arrived. Make a recognition a real time mobile experience.
5. Social. Trust your employees to tell great stories about your values and your people. Create layers of appreciation up to and down from your leaders, embrace peer to peer, and make recognition social.
6. Software not just service. Say goodbye to agencies and reward providers who do anything and everything, employee recognition has entered a new era (finally). Put employee recognition software on your HR shopping list.
7. Manager effectiveness. Take a look at the data, admire the good, influence the bad, and make sure your managers are nothing less than frequent, authentic, and inspiring. It matters.
8. Company Values. Are you paying lip service to your values? Start to think “live and breathe” not “show and tell”. Put your values and the supporting behaviours at the heart of everything recognition.
9. Leadership. We want to know what they see, we want to hear what they say and we want to know how they say it. Ensure your Leadership Team are heavily involved in the recognition conversation.
10. Go for it, be progressive. Employee recognition is 100% dedicated to the positive, it is a safe place for HR and Leaderships teams to be bold, and make a difference.

Room for another? 11. Remember it is a recognition program. Employee recognition is what you see, and what you say. Reward is just what you spend.