Can employee recognition programs actually be measured in terms of ROI?
A. The old business management adage “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” applies perfectly well to recognition programs. In fact, given today’s economy, recognition programs that aren’t being measured stand a good chance of ending up as recognition roadkill! Recognition Professionals International believes measurement is so important that it made ROI its third Best Practice Standard. Every year RPI presents an award to the company that does the best job of measuring the effectiveness of its recognition programs. But it doesn’t start with measurement, it begins with a clearly defined recognition strategy that ties into your senior leadership’s mission, vision, and corporate strategy. If you have alignment between recognition and strategy, the task of measuring recognition becomes easier and more meaningful. Measurement should be examined on two levels. The first should tie into the same things your senior leaders are interested in at a high level: turnover, engagement, and employe
