Why Is Employee Recognition Always a Problem?

I recently wrote an article asking why employee recognition is so big a problem. A key piece of evidence: As I mentioned in my earlier post, the one issue that recurred in literally every employee survey I was involved with over several decades in management was employee recognition.

Employees never got enough of it – it was always a pain point.

This was hard for me to understand. As I noted in the prior article, the vast majority of managers know (in theory at least) that it makes good business sense to recognize employees for jobs well done. It’s not complicated. So why is employee recognition a persistent management problem?

Lacking satisfactory answers myself, I asked readers (from both Psychology Today and Forbes, to which I also contribute). Not surprisingly, they responded abundantly and thoughtfully, as they often do, bringing up numerous points I hadn’t considered. Here’s a sampling of their answers from both publications (edited slightly just for clarity).

“I’d like to (mention) the work of Barbara Fredrickson and her positivity ratio – that really, for flourishing, we need 3 positives to every 1 negative. The reason for this is that the negative is weightier and tends to stay with us more. The positive is more fleeting and we don’t give it as much attention. So, really, managers need to provide a very solid foundation of positives in order for their employees and teams to flourish. Also, managers need to realize that it’s not what they provide – it’s what the impact is. A manager can say ‘good job’ 100 times per day, but if the employee does not feel that this is sincere, then it’s like not saying it at all. The manager has to tailor the message to the individual (and collective) audience – it has to be sincere and meaningful. I coach managers on how to seek out the positive and recognize it, and I get two pushbacks: 1. I don’t have the time; and 2. they are just doing their jobs – so why should I say anything?” – Lisa Sansom

“Many managers and supervisors I’ve worked with also give the ‘don’t have time’ reason, and I don’t understand it either. What I found is that they often don’t want to have to think; that’s why formal (employee recognition) programs are more popular – they don’t have to think about what to say or do, they just give the requisite gift. I much prefer the more personal touch, getting to know one’s staff and if gifts are to be given, choosing something that might actually mean something to a particular employee. That does require getting to know your employees, though, and taking the time to think about it.” – Danna Blum

“There could be a mismatch between a manager’s expectations and a subordinate’s expectations of what warrants recognition.” – Kenii

“I think it’s as simple as most managers don’t have ‘praising reports’ in their job description. Not having been told by their supervisors to do it, they concentrate on doing the things that they have been told to do. It requires an effort to know what direct reports are doing and then to further comment on it.” – Krissa Swain

“As a manager I try to give recognition often and be generous. However, it often can get overshadowed by the need to raise the temperature when there is a crisis or pressure point. These events can create an underlying sense of anxiety with potential for staff to feel that the organization does not in reality recognize employee good intent & motivation. Would be interested to know how others deal with pressure points…” – Andy

“Having been a corporate manager and engineer in my career, I feel that this problem is due to the fact that we have too many non-working managers. Most managers are tied up in meetings on a daily basis and when review time comes along, they have not been involved enough to know who is contributing what. We need less people-only managers and more hands-on project managers.” – Anonymous

“This question happens a great deal in the sales business. The problem with implementing an ‘employee recognition’ program is that often it’s done without adequate communication. Home office senior leadership often determines what’s best for the employees and it always has budgetary implications tied to it. Employee Recognition programs should be a critical part of an organization’s strategic planning before the fiscal year starts and an employee recognition team should be developed to ensure communication & transparency are encouraged.” – Andre Harrell

Thank you to all who took the time to share your thoughts and enrich this dialogue. (And more are always welcome to join.) Many of the points – the “positivity ratio,” the mismatch of expectations as to what actually should warrant recognition, the inability to really get to know your employees, for example – point to the complexity of management. At times we mistakenly think management is simple. But there are invariably many shades of gray.

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This article first appeared at Forbes.com.

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Victor is the author of The Type B Manager: Leading Successfully in a Type A World (Prentice Hall Press).