Blog

Recognition has never been more important or more difficult. Today's workforce is distributed, fast-moving and increasingly digital. You may already be looking for ways to help employees feel valued, but creating meaningful moments of connection can still be challenging when teams aren't always together. That's why employee gifting is evolving from a simple gesture into a strategic tool for engagement, culture and retention.

Engagement is critical to organizational performance, retention and competitive advantage. It represents a measurable and influenceable aspect of business success, yet many organizations lack enterprise-wide strategies and accountability to optimize engagement efforts.

We near the end of the review of the seven individual attributes of the RESPECT model (Recognition, Exciting Work, Security, Pay, Education and Career Growth, Conditions, and Truth) with a focus on positive working conditions. 

When I began my research, I anticipated that positive physical working conditions would be among the things employees most wanted. However, I was surprised at how powerful the desire was for a supportive social environment. In fact, of the employees who stated positive working conditions was what they most wanted from their employer, only 18 percent pointed to physical conditions. Most of them—82 percent— identified positive social conditions. 

Employee optimism is increasingly vital in today’s workplace, especially as trust in institutions continues to decline. Our latest research brief, What Makes Employees Optimistic About Their Future with Your Organization?, highlights how optimism shapes employee engagement, productivity and retention, offering data-driven insights into what drives employees to feel positive about their future with an organization.