Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking employee recognition to the next level. It’s transforming how organisations recognise their people’s efforts, results and career milestones, while demonstrating the direct correlation between recognition and bottom-line benefits.
But how exactly will AI change the face of employee recognition, and should HR leaders openly embrace this new technology or approach it with caution?
The rise of recognition 2.0
Feeling appreciated and valued is an inherent human need with recognition in the workplace linked to stronger bonds and a greater sense of belonging, which in turn positively impacts engagement, retention and performance. In fact, the power of employee recognition has been known for generations and can even be traced back over 2,000 years, with leaders like Cyrus the Great motivating workers with personal gestures of thanks like a pat on the shoulder, or the gifting of a coin bearing his likeness.
The 20th Century saw the rise of more formal recognition programmes – most focusing on service anniversaries – with the last 10 to 15 years seeing greater numbers of organisations incorporating recognition into their everyday culture. 54% of UK organisations now appreciate their employees on a regular basis – up from 51% in 2024.
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The ramping up of AI adoption is now catapulting forward change like never before, with a breadth of recognition capabilities at organisations’ fingertips. AI’s ability to prove the business benefits of recognition by extracting meaning from huge swathes of data, while supporting the giving of meaningful recognition at scale, signals the beginning of a whole new era – Recognition 2.0
The true magic of AI is its dual ability to deliver powerful insights and teachings while managing mundane and time-consuming tasks, thereby allowing employees to focus on adding value.
AI for improved recognition giving
When it comes to recognition, AI is at its most powerful when it can facilitate the quick, easy and meaningful giving of recognition. A gen-AI ‘Recognition Coach’, such as that recently launched by O.C. Tanner, is an example of this, delivering in-the-moment micro-coaching to improve how employees recognise one another.
Using Recognition Coach, improvements can be made to the recognition messages employees write to their colleagues or managers. The AI evaluates the message against the five attributes of effective recognition: meaningfulness, sincerity, specificity, inclusivity and purpose, and the employee can then choose what to do with the suggested changes – keep them, re-write them or even ignore them. The purpose is to make the recognition message as meaningful and impactful as possible and in doing so, behaviours are being shaped and mindsets changed so employees learn what great recognition looks like.
Recognition prompts
Up until now, the burden has been on managers to know when to give recognition, and with sizeable workloads, it’s all too easy for recognition moments to be missed. AI can remove this burden by pushing intelligent alerts to the right people at the right time, prompting them to take the appropriate action. For instance, managers can be reminded to recognise an individual for something they’ve achieved, or perhaps an individual just hasn’t been recognised for a while so may be at risk of disengaging.
Prompts can also be sent to managers and team members when an employee has joined a new department or transitioned into a new role, reminding them to send welcome messages and to show appreciation. These timely prompts mean that managers (and colleagues) aren’t under pressure to remember when to give recognition, they just need to act when alerted.
AI for inclusive, impactful celebrations
A good manager will never knowingly leave anyone out when organising recognition celebrations. When celebrating an employee’s career anniversary, for example, the manager will want to invite everyone who knows and cares about the employee to share in the celebrations. The issue is that a manager can’t possibly know every employee’s full circle of work friends and acquaintances.
AI can remove this burden by serving up to the manager the details of everyone who matters to the employee, from the people who the employee interacts with daily through to past colleagues and even social media friends based at different offices. By using AI to improve the inclusivity of recognition celebrations, the employee experience is elevated.
Linking recognition to business results
Using AI to understand the business impacts of recognition should not be underestimated. After all, highlighting correlations between greater recognition and low staff turnover and/or improved performance, provides a compelling business case for greater investment into the company’s recognition programme.
One such tool is a flight risk dashboard which uses AI to interrogate recognition data and correlate the data to the employees in the organisation, highlighting any groups who are at a higher risk of leaving. With a lack of recognition directly linked to higher rates of attrition, a flight risk dashboard helps to stop staff leaving before it actually happens.
Overcoming AI concerns
Despite the incredible benefits AI can provide, there are still hesitancies around its use particularly around job displacement, security and data privacy.
The good news is that HR leaders should feel confident about embracing AI as the positives far outweigh any negatives.
To start with, AI is far more likely to allow HR teams to re-focus their efforts rather than making any roles redundant. And while security, data privacy and ‘hallucinations’ (when the output is at odds with reality) are key considerations, there are safe models and organisational guardrails that can effectively protect data and reduce the risk of hallucinations. These include establishing an AI security committee to ensure all aspects of security are considered, and forming partnerships with reputable suppliers that can provide reassurances around how the organisational data will be used.
The future is AI
We’re just at the beginning of an exciting AI journey with its use in the recognition space capable of creating micro-experiences that matter at scale, and demonstrating the true business value of effective recognition. And as the capabilities of AI are fully realised, organisations will find that recognition giving becomes incredibly simple, frictionless and delivered with greater impact and more meaning than ever before, profoundly elevating the employee experience. Recognition 2.0 has finally arrived!
Jason Andersen is VP of Product at workplace culture and recognition specialist, O.C. Tanner. He has been with the company over 20 years and leads a team to deliver O.C. Tanner's Culture Cloud suite of products to help employees thrive at work.
