Limited Budgets Hamstring Employee Recognition: Survey

Creating a successful rewards and recognition program can go along way to boost employee morale and retention, yet 89% of for-profit companies earmark less than 2% of their budget toward program maintenance, according to a recent survey by Best Practices, LLC, a North Carolina-based research and consulting firm.

Limited budgets make it difficult for managers to create a successful program and find the right balance between monetary and non-monetary rewards for employees, the survey on Benchmarking Rewards and Recognition Programs said.

The survey, released this month, compared 131 organizations' data on the management of employee rewards and recognition programs. According to the survey, nearly 60% of respondents for corporations and non-profit/public organizations say that senior managers often give rewards and recognition to employees on an individual basis.

Though travel and time off are rewards less frequently used by benchmark companies, corporations rate them second to cash rewards, the survey said. Corporations and non-profit organizations rarely link rewards to employees' salary. When organizations offer rewards as part of the compensation package, the percentage ranges from 1% to 5% of base salary, according to the survey.

Companies often seek employee feedback on rewards and recognition programs to increase the pool of potential recipients, provide additional reward choices and offer a great amount of rewards, the survey found.

More than 75% of organizations have a formal reward and recognition program, and a majority of companies base the programs on company values or goals, according to respondents.