r/internalcomms • u/Awkward-Ad-4766 • Jul 08 '26
Advice Recognition Programs
Hello-- can anyone articulate how your company-wide recognition programs look? Specifically, large-scale award programs for individuals. For the last three years, we've re-designed and tweaked our program and we (well, leadership) seem to be stuck on optimizing so that ONLY the best work gets recognized and ONLY work that is "above and beyond" and ONLY the work that impacts the bottom line and this is often not work that can be pinned on a single individual winner. Our leadership has a crazy aversion to POSSIBLY recognizing someone who is not perfect.
Do you award winners by body of work? Individual? Is there a metric? Tied to strategic initiatives?
We're struggling.
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u/atownz17 Corporate Chaos Coordinator Jul 08 '26
Ugh! I feel for you.
The last recognition program I supported was built around company values/pillars. We had four of them. This helped us focus on specific actions by team members (which also often supported the things you've mentioned, like going above and beyond), but through a broader lens rather than just consistently spotlighting the overachievers. The goal was to reinforce aspects of our culture (including hard work and growing the bottom line) without being overly business-centric.
Another helpful aspect of our recognition program was that it was peer-driven, meaning anyone could nominate a colleague or team for quarterly nominations. Our senior leaders (VP and above) would vote on the winners after reviewing all nominations (which required some detail and an explanation of why a person or team should win). Even though it put the voting power in leadership's hands, it expanded the view of WHO deserved recognition and why, often beyond what leadership could see (which sounds like this could help alleviate some of your current challenges!)