New Report Reveals Government and Healthcare Organizations as Most Appreciative of Their Employees

• Oklahoma Recognizes Its Employees the Most, but US-Based Firms Greatly Lag Behind International Companies When It Comes to Recognizing Their Employees

Awardco, the employee recognition and rewards company that builds culture through value-driven recognition, released its State of Recognition Report 2022 that showed a dramatic increase in the number of healthcare companies and organizations that implemented or grew their employee recognition and rewards programs last year, more than likely driven by the unprecedented challenges that healthcare workers experienced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of healthcare companies on the Awardco platform jumped by 188% from the previous year. The report also noted that government entities gave out 500% more than the average number of recognitions that other workers experience.

The report included data from Awardco users for the year 2021. Oklahoma led the state category for redemptions: People living in the Sooner State were 21% more likely to be rewarded than employees than in other states. Kentucky, Maine, Tennessee, and North Carolina rounded out the top five. Knoxville, Tennessee, was the most rewarding city in the U.S. coming in at 92.9% above the national average.

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“The wealth of data from this year’s report tells a few stories, but one conclusion really stands out: 80% of employees indicate that recognition and rewards improve their overall employee experience,” said Steve Sonnenberg, Awardco founder and CEO. “This is huge because it shows a clear connection between retention and recognition and rewards, which is crucial as we continue to grapple with the Great Resignation and Reshuffling. And, with that, we see how this is bigger than HR — it’s about the entire experience that an employee has day to day. So, the key takeaway here is to level up your recognition programs because they can get your team members more engaged, which translates to only good things for your organization.”

The U.S. lagged behind its global counterparts; when compared with companies outside of the U.S., the average recognitions per user in the United States dropped by 25%. The top five most appreciative countries were the Philippines, India, Serbia, Argentina, and Indonesia.

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Looking at company size, the report showed that small businesses recognized 21% more than the average and almost twice as much as enterprise-level organizations, and small businesses also spent 21% more than average per employee than their midmarket and enterprise counterparts. In fact, enterprise companies came in last in spending per employee at 24% below the average.

The report also includes recommendations for human resource practitioners as well as additional information about the types of recognition and rewards programs that are the most and least popular.

Fun facts:

The top five products purchased by employees using their reward points:

• Apple AirPods Pro
• Amazon Basics silicone nonstick baking mat
• Magic Bullet blender
• Hamilton Beach electric grill
• Bose Soundlink headphones

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