11 key examples highlighting the power of meaningful recognition

At Reward Gateway, we’re big believers in practising what we preach, so peer-to-peer recognition isn’t just a staple of our culture, it’s a cornerstone. From the first day on the job through successes and milestones, high points and low points, we make it a priority to recognise each other often and with care.

We make our corner of the world a better place to work by ensuring that every one of us knows we’re appreciated – and that our successes are worth company-wide recognition. To maximise visibility, we post these recognition moments on our Wow Wall, where anyone in the company can add a kudos or a ‘like’ to reinforce or add to that celebration on our employee recognition platform.

This Employee Appreciation Day, we thought it'd be a great idea to share some feel-good moments and employee recognition examples from our own business.

Employee recognition examples at Reward Gateway

In honour of today, we’ve collected stories from our people around the world about what recognition means to them, and examples of meaningful moments of recognition that stand out to them most.

Alexandra Powell – Head of Client Cultural Insights:

“In my first year at Reward Gateway, I had a bunch of presentations that needed to be done in the same week. I loved the work, but the long hours were getting to be a drag. Our head of marketing reached out to let me know he was aware of how long my days had been, and that he appreciated my efforts because he knew the events would help us to make the world a better place to work. I felt seen, and got a reminder that my efforts had a direct connection to our mission. I worked even harder after that message! (And then took a lovely break once the work was done.)”

George Salchev – Support Specialist:

“This is the small thing that makes you smile on a busy day. This is what makes you realise what impact your work has. And sometimes, when you are drowning in tasks and have the feeling that everything is going south, a simple recognition may remind you that all that work is not in vain, and you (and the job you do) matter.”

Oren Smith – Senior Database Marketing Manager:

“It’s sometimes surprising how a simple ‘thank you’ message can make your day – particularly when I’m able to understand how it helped another person or team. After all, who doesn’t like feeling appreciated, right? But I admit, it’s also a plus that the recognition is visible to everyone at RG. A lot of what I work on is ‘behind the scenes,’ so a thoughtful eCard message also gives employees across different departments a little window into what I do for the business.”

Leonie Williamson – Head of Design and Brand Marketing:

“I was a relatively new employee at RG, and receiving a handwritten ‘thank you’ letter from the founder, Glenn Elliott, was a complete surprise. His thoughtful gesture of recognition meant so much to me. His letter expressed his appreciation for my hard work and dedication to a recent project, which he believed had positively impacted the company. Knowing that the founder had taken the time to acknowledge my efforts was truly inspiring and motivated me to continue working hard for the company as I really felt that my efforts were seen and appreciated.

George Dixon – U.S. Director of Sales:

For me, the most powerful recognition is to highlight the assumed unseen. There have been times throughout my career where small contributions have turned into big moments, and when quiet comments have turned into loud actions.

Without those contributions receiving recognition and positive reinforcement, nobody would've known they were valued – especially me. 

I once heard a quote, ‘Behaviour is what you do, Culture is how you do it.’ It’s our culture that leads to innovation, success and a positive employee experience for those around us, and highlighting the assumed unseen moments makes all the difference.

Kylie Green – SVP Global Sales:

“Recognition to me is all about visibility and appreciation. We should never underestimate the powerful impact of saying, ‘I see you and I appreciate what you do.’”

Klara Owens – Internal Communications and Brand Manager:

“Recently, my day was made by an unexpected recognition I received from Alexandra Powell. We talk about the impact of recognition regularly with our clients, but sometimes, even I forget how truly great it feels. There is no better way to start your day than feeling appreciated and empowered.”

Charlotte Neal – Senior Engagement Strategist:

“Whenever someone has taken the time to write me a personal moment of recognition, it’s given me a boost and reminded me I’m part of something truly special. From winning a personalised bejeweled hat made by Kirsty Venn in Client Success for Employee Appreciation Day, to values-driven eCards focussed around how my work has contributed to our mission, the moments that matter have been recognised, and it’s always felt meaningful.”

Didi Kirova – Head of People Operations & Learning:

“Meaningful and timely recognition received over my years with RG has helped me grow and develop my career through repeating the behaviours that bring positive results and doing less of those that don’t. Recognition has been particularly impactful for me during my failures, as these have been the biggest learnings, and in every learning, there’s been someone to recognise the efforts I have made to change what hasn’t worked.”

Joe Benton – Engagement Consultant:

“It’s amazing the power a few choice words can have on your mood. Early on at RG, someone senior in the team sent me private recognition after joining an external event. It showed they saw and appreciated the work I was putting in – and coming from someone who had grown at RG, it meant even more.”

Laura Penuela – Head of Growth Marketing - Australia:

“I didn’t realise the power of recognition, and especially digital recognition, until I joined Reward Gateway! Working in a hybrid environment, establishing strong relationships and recognising the work of colleagues is extremely important. Sending or receiving an eCard and knowing that you have the ability to make someone’s day is a beautiful and powerful experience.”

But don't just take our word for it, we've got so many employee recognition examples from our clients across Australia. 

From Zurich Australia to Bupa Australia Pacific, Hungry Jack's, Suncorp, Sesame Lane and many more, there's a wealth of success stories to draw on if you're thinking of driving real recognition, both on Employee Appreciation Day and year-round.

Keep reading as we zero in on two of these stories below!

Employee recognition at Bupa Australia Pacific

As a health insurance and healthcare company with 22,000 employees working across Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong, Bupa was determined to create a culture of continuous recognition across its widespread workforce.

The power of peer-to-peer recognition

Glen Nesbit, Head of Wellbeing, Engagement and Reward for Customer Channels & Growth at Bupa APAC, stresses the value of a peer-to-peer recognition system like Bupa’s eCards program, Boost. 

"I think it's really important, just to show as an organisation that recognition is a huge part of our culture. We're very big on values and behaviours, and I think that starts from the grassroots, from our people. So, it’s important to enable them to have a peer-to-peer and leader recognition process and that it's visible to everybody on the platform is hugely important.”

Looking beyond monetary recognition 

Glen explains that Bupa’s recognition program is impactful and meaningful, even without a direct monetary value attached. “We know that money recognition is great, but actually people also appreciate and are energised by being recognised publicly on a social platform by their peers, and by their leaders.” 

“We have a strong cross-company culture that is supported by reward and recognition programs like Boost. It’s a simple and easy way for our people to call out the great work done across the organisation.” 

“The director of my division, Customer Channels & Growth, plays a huge role on Boost, making sure that he’s engaging with our people to ensure the program is working the best way possible.” 

Achieving high user adoption and employee buy-in

This continuous culture of recognition has resulted in impressive user adoption across Bupa’s workforce. "While there is ongoing recognition of our people, we also actively look at new ways to encourage people to recognise their peers. Our most successful campaign happened in October last year, which was called Bupa Boost Boom, which encouraged people who received a Boost from somebody, to pay it forward and Boost somebody else. As a result, the average 1200-1,800 Boosts sent every month, more than doubled in the month of October, to over 4,000 Boosts. This was an incredible result."

Advice from one HR leader to another

When asked what advice he would give to other organisations considering a recognition program for the first time, Glen suggests a two-fold approach. 

"One, I wouldn't put KPIs or measurements on it and I’d work to understand what method of reward and recognition works for your people. I think originally what a lot of companies do is go, "we'd like to see X amount of people engaging on it," and what tends to happen then is you're not seeing meaningful recognition given. It's like, "thanks for the cupcakes." What we tended to do then once we've moved past that was actually give examples of great ways that you can actually recognise and promote people and give specific examples. The power of it is where you have examples and people go, "oh, yeah somebody did that for me too," and so I'm going to send them an eCard to thank them for what they did."

Glen also commented on Reward Gateway and their partnership. "It's been a great partnership so far and the fact that we're really open to looking at different and new ways that we can create and encourage people to recognise. I think what we've managed to establish is that great working relationship where they know what we want and what we're all about from a values and behaviours perspective so that when we have a request for some new eCard or something creative, it's usually very much on point.”

How Hungry Jack's encourages employee recognition

Hungry Jack’s Reward Gateway recognition and reward program, ‘JackPot’, reflects its commitment to recognising, supporting and appreciating employees while fostering a sense of belonging.

Developing an engaging and effective recognition and reward strategy

Hungry Jack's approach to developing its recognition and reward strategy was highly inclusive, ensuring that it understood what its employees truly value. It actively engaged with employees and stakeholders to gather insights and feedback, ensuring its strategy resonated with every team member, from restaurants to the board. The methods used for consultation included:

• Collaboration with Reward Gateway specialists: Hungry Jack's worked closely with specialists from Reward Gateway to integrate best practices and innovative solutions into its strategy. 
• Focus groups: Hungry Jack’s conducted focus groups with employees in various roles from restaurants and the support centres to gather qualitative insights and diverse perspectives on what they value in a recognition and reward program.
• Surveys: Hungry Jack’s deployed comprehensive surveys to collect quantitative data on employee preferences and satisfaction levels regarding existing recognition. This data was crucial in identifying areas for improvement.
• Workshops: Hungry Jack's held workshops to facilitate open discussions and brainstorming sessions. These workshops allowed Hungry Jack's employees to voice their opinions, share ideas and collaborate on the development of the strategy.
• Feedback loops: Hungry Jack's established continuous feedback loops to ensure ongoing communication with employees. This included regular check-ins and feedback sessions to keep the strategy aligned with evolving employee needs and preferences.

Encouraging adoption and usage with a successful recognition and reward program rollout 

Hungry Jack’s implemented its reward and recognition strategy with Reward Gateway in phases to ensure a smooth transition and widespread acceptance. Its phased approach included:

• An initial pilot phase: Hungry Jack’s started with a pilot program in select restaurants to test the new strategy and gather initial feedback. This allowed the HR team to make necessary adjustments before a full-scale rollout.
• Employee involvement: Throughout the process, they made employees feel like part of the journey by involving them in discussions and updates. Regular communication ensured that they understood the benefits and felt engaged with the new updates.
• Feedback and adjustments: Based on feedback from the pilot phase, the Hungry Jack’s team made adjustments to improve the program. This approach ensured that the final implementation was well received and effective.
• Full rollout: Once refined, they rolled out the strategy across the entire group, providing comprehensive training and resources to ensure everyone understood how to take advantage of the updates effectively.
• Ongoing support: To keep the program meaningful and impactful, Hungry Jack’s established continuous support and communication channels. This included regular updates, feedback loops and support from state people and culture team members to maintain momentum and engagement.

Continuous recognition and rewards with the JackPot program

The JackPot program has seen incredible success with the program boasting:

• Instant recognition: Immediate acknowledgment of employee contributions, ensuring that recognition is in the moment and meaningful (totaling $330K in monetary awards, 393 recognition comments and 2,577 recognition reactions in the past 12 months).
• Peer-to-peer nominations: Employees can recognise each other through peer nominations, such as the "Crew Member of the Month" program to boost morale and create a sense of community.
• eCard recognition: Employees can send recognition eCards that reflect behaviours aligned with core company values (8.9k eCards sent in the past 12 months).

Feeling inspired by these success stories? Check out our research report on Recognition and Rewards in the Australian Workplace for insights that can power your recognition and reward strategies year-round.