The 2026 State of Employee Recognition

MEGHAN STETTLER: Well, welcome everyone to O.C. Tanner's webinar, The Relationship Engine Behind High Performance: Regional Insights from the 2026 State of Employee Recognition report. I'm Meghan Stettler, director at the O.C. Tanner Institute, and I'm thrilled and excited to be able to lead our discussion.

Now in today's high performance economy, one thing is very clear. Performance rarely fails first. Relationships do. When trust erodes, people stop feeling seen and valued, the quality of work really starts to suffer.

And that's why for nearly a century, O.C. Tanner has helped organisations build those healthy productive cultures through personalised recognition. And this year, our research goes even deeper. It shows how human centered recognition matters even more in a tech first world and why it plays a critical role in driving those outcomes. So today, we'll explore how this shows up across regions and the approaches various organisations are taking to build those high performing cultures.

But before we dive in, just a couple of housekeeping items here. First, this webinar is SHRM and HRCI certified, and it could be used for general credit. Those codes will be available to you at the end of the webinar. And today's discussion you're watching is actually prerecorded so we can broadcast that in various time zones at more appropriate hours.

Now that said, our local panelists and teams are live with you right now to answer any questions or comments you wanna put in that chat.

And a final but important note, we'll be highlighting those regional insights like I talked about. But this session is not intended for comparison or benchmarking against regions. As you know, every area, it comes with its own cultural, economic, and organisational nuances.

So our goal today is to really understand those nuances and insights in context and on their own terms so we can better appreciate the diverse ways that success can be cultivated across a multinational workforce.

I think it's easy to say that after years of disruption, organisations everywhere are realising that sustaining performance is just as difficult as achieving it in the first place. Leaders are under pressure to deliver more with fewer resources, tighter margins.

We have less room for error, and that reality is forcing all of us to really rethink what actually holds performance together, especially when our business' survival is on the line.

And we see this time and time again in our research that high performance, it doesn't happen by accident. It happens because people trust one another. They feel seen and valued and that allows them to consistently do their very best work even when no one's watching. And those conditions aren't created by strategy alone.

They're really shaped by how people experience work every single day. And one of the most powerful ways leaders can influence that employee experience is through recognition.

Our report indicates that sixty one percent of employees have received recognition in the last thirty days. That's up from fifty eight percent in twenty twenty five, and seventy percent feel that their organisation does a good job of promoting that recognition programme, also up from twenty twenty five.

And on the surface, this progress is sounding amazing. Recognition is happening more than ever before.

But the real question we set out to answer beyond whether recognition was happening was how recognition was happening and how it was being experienced and felt. Was it actually strong enough to hold performance together under pressure?

So we gathered the perspectives of over four thousand employees across ten different countries. And we discovered in our report that while the numbers may be looking good, fundamentally, we're seeing organisations rely on plug and play technology. And that plug and play technology, it can't do the work that humans do to truly connect people.

And as teams become more dispersed, budgets are tightening, expectations are rising, recognition is now at a critical tipping point of becoming purely transactional. Automated, gamified, those forced recognition moments, they may increase activity like what we're seeing on the back end here, but it doesn't necessarily create belonging, trust, or connection that really keeps people engaged and producing great work. And that gap really matters because what holds performance together under pressure, it isn't platform speed or scale or reach, it's really relationships. It's all of us.

Relationships are built through integrated human centered recognition.

Recognition that's frequent and visible. It's modeled by leaders. It's woven into the everyday employee experience. It's recognition that's intentional and personal in ways that employees don't just feel, but they're also able to perform better as well.

You see, people don't do their best work for a generic, thank you, great job. They do their best work when recognition really meaningfully and intentionally connects them to what they accomplished, why that matters, and to one another. That's where performance doesn't hold under pressure, it actually grows.

So you can see here when recognition is integrated into the social infrastructure, it's human centered, employees are twenty times more likely to say, "I'm personally invested in the organisation's success." Forty three times higher level of trust in the organisation. Twenty six times plans to work at the organisation a year from now.

So let's unpack those elements that allow recognition to build the kinds of relationships that healthy high performing cultures depend on.

We're gonna look how recognition unites diverse and dispersed teams, how it increases social connection to fuel adoption, how we can design awards for lasting impact, and lastly, the power of recognition champions in helping to move appreciation from a programme to a way of life and a true performance lever.

And here to unpack all of these trends and opportunities are our four regional experts. We have Ed Galasso, vice president of sales and marketing in Canada representing the broader Americas.

Candy Fernandez, director of people and great work in IMEA. Nadia Beedeison, lead adviser workplace culture from our APAC region, and James Humpoletz, head of marketing and communications for Europe. Thank you all so much for being here.

Let's turn to our first topic.

How recognition unites diverse and dispersed teams. Because at the end of the day, performance depends on how well we all work together. And when our teams are stretched across time zones, cultures, screens, like all of us today, it's easier to become invisible, and it's really harder to feel like you truly belong. Our research indicates that sixty five percent of employees work on dispersed teams, and thirty five percent work with someone in the department who lives outside of their country.

And all of this is happening as budgets tighten. We're leaving leaders with less time, fewer resources to actually build those strong collaborative teams that high performance depends on.

And this is where recognition can really be that critical connective tissue that brings people together across distance and culture, making their contributions visible, reinforcing those shared values and standards of great work, and building the cohesion required to really drive those real tangible outcomes we're all desiring.

James, you know, when I think of culturally diverse teams, I immediately think of Europe. What is your region facing and how can recognition be an important solution?

JAMES HUMPOLETZ: Yeah. Thanks, Meghan. I think in Europe, dispersion isn't just geographic. It's cultural. It's linguistic. It's regulatory, which really raises the bar for connection.

What stands out is that recognition acts as a sort of cultural glue, making work visible across borders and reinforcing shared standards when teams don't share the same norms.

We see from European organisations that embed recognition into everyday work and not just those annual moments, that they have stronger trust, greater inclusion, increased collaboration, even under cost and headcount pressure. It's often the most scalable way to build trust across language, distance, and culture.

MEGHAN: I couldn't agree more. And, Ed, you know, in North America, I want you to take that even a step deeper. We understand the value, the importance, some of the outcomes that that can help drive. What are some of the best practices you're seeing in your region to make that come to life?

ED GALASSO: Yeah. Well, thank you, Meghan. One of the few positive outcomes that came from the COVID pandemic is that organisations were forced to invest in the resources that support remote work. We have better collaboration tools, more inclusive meeting practices and far greater access to one another than we've ever had.

The risk now, though, is that leaders tend to put this tech on cruise control, and that's where connection falls flat. With dispersed teams, the opportunity now is less about the tools we use and more about how human we choose to show up when we use them. The best leaders use these technologies intentionally. They make work visible across locations and home offices.

They create shared moments where they celebrate wins and effort and career milestones. This is about building connections so that people don't feel like they're working in isolation. And most importantly, they are intentional about recognition.

You know, it's easy to see effort and progress when you're working with people in an office environment. But the best leaders are making a point of looking for and recognising remote employees who are doing great work.

Here at O.C. Tanner, we recently marked the signing of a new client with a virtual meeting. It included senior sales leaders from Salt Lake City, Utah, me here in Burlington, Ontario, and our account executive Connor, lives and works in Vancouver, British Columbia.

And this shared experience highlighted his achievement across regions and provided meaningful recognition for the efforts that often go unnoticed. This meeting focused on celebrating Connor, ensuring that he felt acknowledged and valued and that he was aware that his contributions truly matter.

MEGHAN: Yeah. And it doesn't take a long time. Right? It's just about those meaningful moments of visibility, of connection, of building that sense of belonging when you feel like you're out in the boon sticks of Canada, you know, figuring out what success looks like and how you can best provide value. I love that example.

You know, Candy, when we think of dispersed teams as well and diverse, India, I mean, you guys are playing a fundamental role in that massive shift towards more hybrid, more remote work. Can you give us an example of how top organisations in your region are helping people stay connected and perform their best?

CANDY FERNANDEZ: Yes, Meghan, rightly said. So I think for India, nearly half of Fortune five hundred companies today offshore work to India, especially in tech. And even that's spreading across other sectors, pharma, banking, research.

India also is home to almost two thousand global capability centers employing close to two million people. So now more than ever, our teams are collaborating not just across geographies and time zones, but also across cultures. And in this environment, just like James said, right, recognition becomes that powerful cultural glue in helping people show up to work.

We all know that just integrating recognition, making it intentional at our workplace helps us see a healthy performance culture. It increases it by eighteen times.

But I think it goes beyond just culture. It's where we see the real business impact. It's where we see lower turnover, higher loyalty, and millions in potential savings.

In fact, we saw this in action with one of our clients, Newgen. Newgen is a global digital transformation company with employees spread across eight countries.

When they were expanding, their focus was to ensure that all of their people felt valued, felt seen no matter where they were located. They wanted recognition to travel across borders. The first thing that they did was to turn to a platform that unified recognition, that made it easy for people to be to give and recognise, to give and receive recognition and experience it across borders easily.

In addition, they expanded those moments of recognition. And for that they added several initiatives. They introduced tenure based recognition, both online and offline, introduce the human connection there.

They looked at value based recognition. They looked at adding rituals like employee appreciation months, women's day celebrations.

And all of this put together, when it came together, teams were able to see an an uplift in their cultural cohesion and in the way employees experienced recognition of the workplace. And I think it just, it brought together how recognition is no longer just a nice to have. It is a cultural infrastructure.

MEGHAN: You know, Nadia, you bring a different perspective to the table this morning. You come from remote, frontline work environments. Can you share your story and how O.C. Tanner is continually innovating to help reach this very important population?

NADIA BEEDEISON: Absolutely. So I have been a fully remote worker in globally dispersed teams for over five years now.

And I've been really lucky and fortunate to have leaders who have been really intentional about connection, whether that be through regular one on ones and team stand ups.

But even with that effort put in, you still miss the incidental stuff. So the everyday wins, the activity that's happening in other teams, and those little moments of progress that kind of give you a better scope of what's happening across the business.

And that's why I really love the connection that our digital social recognition wall creates. It really provides remote employees like myself with visibility and a better sense of belonging.

So at O.C. Tanner, we're really intentional about creating recognition tools that underpin and support that human experience for all employees.

And for me, features like Post a Win make it really easy for people to share achievements or moments that matter, whether that be a project milestone or the team going off on a volunteering day and sharing the goodwill that they've put in.

Boost lets me amplify recognition when I can't just walk past someone's desk and celebrate them in person or take them out for a coffee to say great job.

But what really brings it to life is that leadership participation. So seeing leaders actively recognise and reinforce great work is incredibly powerful, especially when you're remote and you're not seeing those leaders walk around on the office floor or in the field every day. So that Leader Broadcast functionality really helps leaders to stay across recognition happening in their teams so that they can model the behaviours and build that connection and culture no matter where people are working from.

MEGHAN: I love that. It's building visibility, connection, value into that normal flow of work. I love what this software developer from one of our focus groups says that, "if more people are going to work remotely, then recognition becomes more important. If you're physically a little bit disconnected from everyone else, you're gonna need that morale boost from the recognition. More human interaction is always good."

And, you know, if you have a software developer saying more human interaction is good, you know we are at a bit of a deficit here globally.

But take a look at this. We can see that even when employees are physically, geographically apart, the human aspect of recognition can help them communicate and collaborate far more effectively.

And then for those multicultural teams, right, they might be in the same location. That authentic recognition quickly helps them build trust and alignment that really improves their ability to pivot quickly and to really execute effectively on their goals.

Well, reconnecting a diverse and dispersed workforce, it really starts with understanding what actually drives technology adoption. We talked about a lot of great features and tools, but that's really social connection at the end of the day.

How many have seen this play out? Right? You have a big launch, plenty of fanfare, employees log in once, and then they disappear. The technology exists but recognition never really becomes a part of how the work actually gets done. Here's another focus group participant that says, "the last time I even used our recognition programme, I remember there was an incentive value to it, but there's no culture behind this. We don't have a culture of recognition. So many of my colleagues don't even know it exists."

And this is from an IT professional, right, whose job it is to probably manage and help some of these programmes grow and flourish. And that's why things like integrations really matter.

When recognition is embedded into the tools that people already use, where the work and relationships are already happening at work, that's when it becomes visible, shared, and social. And when employees see recognition showing up naturally like that in everyday interactions, it feels normal, it feels cool, and exciting to engage with.

Because at work, just like in life, we take our cues from the behaviours and the relationships of the people around us, and then our adoption follows.

In fact, employees are two times as likely to use a recognition platform when they see others consistently use it. So Ed, I'm gonna turn this to you in North America. How are companies using integrations and other features to fundamentally build the social trust necessary to fuel adoption?

ED: Yeah, thanks again, Meghan. You know, definitely using the integrations that we have available for Teams and Outlook, etcetera. But I want to bring you this really great example of Louisville, Kentucky based Norton Healthcare.

In a high pressure frontline environment, Norton didn't ask leaders to do more. They redesigned recognition to happen inside existing routines, specifically while bedside leaders are doing their patient rounds.

So as leaders check-in with staff during the normal flow of care, they are able to recognise contributions in the moment, where the work is happening, by leveraging the Culture Cloud technology inside their patient rounding application to electronically deliver meaningful notes of appreciation.

This approach reflects exactly what the state of recognition research describes, recognition as a daily human practice, not some top down or episodic event. And this is super important because when you operate in this kind of an environment where burnout risk is high and connection is easy to lose, it's the recognition that creates the deep sense of belonging that keeps people engaged.

And we see that appreciation continues to be something that teams and leaders find deeply important because at Norton, they recently celebrated their two millionth recognition moment on the Culture Cloud platform.

MEGHAN: That is incredible. Two million. I can't imagine. It's a great, great organisation and we're very privileged to be able to work with Norton Healthcare.

So, Nadia, reaching everyone, everywhere, it's really critical to employees feeling actually empowered to be able to recognise one another. Technology comes in a lot of forms. So what are some other ways that leaders are making this possible for their frontline workers?

NADIA: Absolutely. So connecting offline employees into the digital experience, whether that be in desktop, through a mobile app or a mobile experience or other integrations as Ed referred to, is really just as important for recognition as it is for other people activities. Listening surveys, performance reviews, accessing key communications and resources, all of these things help employees to feel connected and included as we've said.

What I've seen work best is actually meeting offline employees where they are. So yes, the technology is one piece, but actually pulling them into that tech through ways that are completely offline.

So physical thank you boards embedded into daily routines or reward cards that are provided to leaders that have a QR code on them where they can see great work, give that out in the moment, and the employee, when they have an opportunity, scans that QR code and loads the points into their site, which again pulls them into that technology solution.

These touch points really act as that bridge into the digital experience, and they help employees feel how meaningful recognition can be and to clearly understand the "what's in it for me?" This approach has been particularly effective for our mining and resources clients. So BHP is a great example, and we actually have a published case study on our website that brings that to life, I encourage people to go and have a look at.

MEGHAN: Very cool. You know, we've been talking again a lot about these features and opportunities, but it isn't just about reach at the end of the day. This is about social connection. It's about creating meaningful moments. James, we have another opportunity within O.C. Tanner to help equip and empower employees and leaders to do this more effectively. Can you talk about how we're viewing AI and using that?

JAMES: Yeah. Absolutely. You know, we have, one of our clients in Europe actually has been working with our strategist to identify key adoption data within their platform.

And what's really telling from the research is how significant the human element is within the programme, particularly when considered against the technological advancements we're seeing in the world.

They've adopted O.C. Tanner's recognition coach, where through the use of AI, employees are coached on how to connect and recognise their peers, helping them to review and refine their messaging so that it feels genuine and authentically comes from them.

And this offers a clever balance between utilising the technology without losing the value of human input that's at the heart of employee recognition and therefore avoids this situation where AI simply automates the whole process for them.

Those meaningful moments of gratitude and appreciation are being delivered in a truly personal way while simultaneously providing employees with education and coaching on how to issue and receive recognition in an impactful way.

And the report is very clear. Technology does not drive adoption, but social connection does. And in Europe, adoption follows behavi​our. So when recognition is visible and human, people participate.

MEGHAN: Yeah. I think you bring up such an important point. Right? People don't want technology that talks for them.

They want technology to help them talk more effectively with one another again, especially in this fragmented disconnected world.

Well, here's an interesting statistic, on the other side of that. Imagine this. When employees log into their recognition platform just once a month, look at some of these outcomes.

It doubles the odds that they're gonna plan to stay for a couple more years. It cuts burnouts by half and increases the odds of great work by two times. Quite incredible. Well, we've seen that social connection really fuels technology adoption, but really what carries that forward that so many of you have touched upon is the meaning and the memory.

Awards, while they are fantastic, they really aren't the point of recognition. They're actually the artifact. So let me explain what I mean by that. When we choose awards intentionally and we pair that with a very meaningful memorable moment, that carries the story and the legacy forward. It really reminds people of what they accomplished, why that matters, that somebody noticed the unique contributions that they made.

And that memory is what builds pride and connection and the desire to do great work again and again. But when awards are generic, maybe they're cash only or they're put in a catalogue of endless offerings that are difficult to sort through, it really feels transactional like, hey, our organisation checked the box. You're recognised.

Here's what's interesting to me. When we look at what people, how those recognition experiences have been shaped, seventy two percent say that their most recent recognition experience involved in awards.

So this is really, really important. And I want us to better understand and really discuss how this playing out regionally, especially in APAC. Nadia, you've seen a very interesting shift towards intentional awards in Asia. Can you tell us more about what you're seeing on that front?

NADIA: Yeah. Absolutely. So in Southeast Asia, over the last decade or so, it's been really common practice for organisations to be recognising top performance with precious or high value items. Think those gold pieces, luxury things that you wouldn't perhaps purchase for yourself, prestigious brands. So whilst these are highly prestigious, the approach isn't always sustainable, when cost becomes a constraint or we're trying to expand on how many people we're recognising.

So increasingly, we're seeing organisations introduce custom symbolic awards instead. The feedback from employees has actually been really positive.

So whilst these items are far less expensive than a designer brand, they do share a powerful characteristic that their perceived value actually comes from the rarity and the meaning in the item itself, not the price.

Again, it's connecting people to their story of why what they did mattered so much and made an impact on a global scale.

MEGHAN: These things are really, really cool, and I love this one from from Mandai. Ed, you know, Enbridge out in Canada, they're really leaning again into that meaning and personalisation as they look to scale that approach, not losing that human touch, but really making sure it's at the core of everything they offer. Can you tell us a little bit more about what they're doing?

ED: Yeah, I really think that Enbridge is an organisation that gets what symbolics can do, and they're showing that through their Careerscape programme.

What the state of recognition report makes very clear is that awards have their biggest impact when they're designed as experiences.

So Enbridge has created these purpose built symbolic experiences, including custom boxes, the unique icons that you see here, and tailored inserts that clearly are tied to the organisation and the importance of the project. These moments reinforce identity and help people reflect on the contribution that they made and the role that they play at Enbridge.

Now, personal messages are often attached to these moments. And while I've changed the name of the project for confidentiality purposes, I still want to read what I think is an excellent example of this.

"We did it. Thank you for making our ACME project a success. This innovative technology paves the way for experimentation, collaboration, and pioneering approaches that break barriers and unlock fresh opportunities. Together, we're driving progress and shaping the future."

And Careerscape works really well at Enbridge because it's part of a broader recognition programme.

So Enbridge uses day to day recognition to keep momentum going and then Careerscape to anchor meaning in those key career moments.

MEGHAN: Yeah. I love what this focus group participant said. "Whether it's a piece of paper that's framed in a five dollar frame or it's a beautiful piece of crystal, having something tangible is really important. It's validation that this isn't something you just made up in your head. You've been recognised."

That tangible award infused with meaning and memory, they're able to relive those moments over and over.

But even the most intentional awards per se can lose their shine if preferences aren't taken into consideration.

You know, globally, what we see is thirty four percent of employees believe their leaders don't know how they want to be recognised. And this is what we see play out regionally. The highest is in Europe, over forty percent. North America and APAC sitting in the middle somewhere. IMEA coming in best at twenty one percent.

So, James, I wanna toss to you first for this one.

What does the research tell us about how European employees wanna be recognised, and where are leaders still struggling?

JAMES: I mean, we discussed earlier and those couple of examples of how impactful recognition is when it's intentional.

When you look at the data, you see this gap. So between the seventy two percent of employees that said their most recent recognition involved an award, and now on the chart there, the forty two percent in Europe that believe their leaders don't know how they want to be recognised.

That disconnect matters more because cultural expectations around humility, visibility, and formality vary widely. The strongest programmes focus on understanding individual recognition preferences and matching the award and the moment to the person. And when leaders get it right, you see the employees are eight times more likely to trust the organisation, seven times more likely to say that recognition from leaders is meaningful.

But I think there's a bit of a misconception sometimes that personalisation is just about being flashy. But actually, it's about being thoughtful. And in my experience, employees read sincerity very quickly.

MEGHAN: I couldn't agree more. We're gonna unpack this in just a few more minutes. I wanna go to you, Candy, first, though, because IMEA seems to be doing this quite well. I mean, roughly eighty percent of employees, if you flip that equation, say they do. Their leaders do know how to recognise them. So what's happening culturally across IMEA that's making this kind of statistic come to life?

CANDY: I'll tell you one unique thing about IMEA, Meghan, and that is we are a very highly relationship driven region.

Employees are more likely to seek value and feel connected to their workplace. So if you look at our workforce today, sixty percent of the population is under thirty. We have a uniquely young digitally native workforce.

But we also have a multi generation region, which means recognition can become that shared language across very different career stages and expectations. And I think organisations and leaders today are really becoming cognizant of the strategic lever that recognition can be. And they are leaning into recognition as a critical driver for this psychological need for our people.

So I think for us, where these numbers are showing up is that it's a reflection of us having the right practices, meeting the right environment. And I think that's showing up in our numbers.

MEGHAN: Yeah. I wanna pulse on something you said that, you know, young workforce, digitally native workforce, and I think we sometimes lean into these assumptions that, you know, I'm online. Don't bother me. But the main point is these generations, they want connection, and the older generations know how to do it so so well.

And so being able to knit everybody together through the modality of recognition really provides that strategic lever in order for things like this to come to life. And this really matters. These preferences really matter because a few years ago, we did some research, and we found that employees, we carry our past perceptions of recognition with us. So if you've had a previously poor experience with recognition, you're bringing that skepticism, that jadedness with you.

You're far more likely to view recognition as inauthentic. Your leader's not genuine. You prefer to receive no recognition at all. So that means that we are never starting from neutral.

We are always overcoming history. And so the way forward is to really create intentional, better, new memories for people. So maybe we can start just by asking people about their previous experience with recognition. What was good? What maybe could have been better? What are your expectations? What really makes them feel seen and valued at work? How do they like to be recognised?

Not everyone wants a public ticker tape parade. If somebody chooses more individual, more team based recognition moments, our job then as leaders is to backchannel that up so people don't lose out on visibility and opportunity. And, also, who would they like to include?

If this is a career milestone celebration, it might be appropriate to include family members in that celebration. Right? So when leaders recognise intentionally, they know their people, they're pairing that with a thoughtful award and a meaningful moment according to preferences, then that award and that experience, it really becomes a symbol that people remember over and over and over. And that's what really helps accelerate pride and a standard of excellence that they want to live up to again and again.

You can see that in the statistics here, that there's a six times increased odds that employees will recommend their organisation to a friend as a good place to work when recognition and awards are intentional. They become those ambassadors for your organisation.

And that leads us really nicely into our final section here today. We've talked a lot about how recognition programmes, they don't just succeed on tools and awards alone. They really succeed when they become a part of the social infrastructure of your organisation.

And recognition champions can really become that powerful accelerator of all of that, turning recognition from a programme that employees know about really into a daily practice that they see, they learn, they use, and they repeat.

So for those of you who might be asking this question, what is a champion? I want you to think of them as a special culture squad in your organisation.

They are those authentic, trusted people who really make recognition feel safer to try and easier to use and really a part of the everyday flow of work.

Now our research shows that recognition champions are most common in those corporate knowledge worker type of sectors, IT, finance, insurance. And, unfortunately, they're the least common in the frontline areas, like health care, retail, and hospitality. And that's perhaps even more where they could be impactful than in others that are more connected through technology.

Now if we break this down regionally, this is where we are at in terms of employees who say their organisation has a recognition champion programme.

James, I'm going back to you in Europe. Once again, twenty nine percent here, what role do recognition champions play in Europe? Again, as we look at dispersed, diverse workforces, uniting people, helping them, socially adopt this technology, how can they make that more effective?

JAMES: Yeah. Thanks, Meghan. Yeah. I think, what we know from the research is that authentic, approachable, visible champions can have a powerful impact on workplace culture.

And here in Europe, they're especially affected because firstly, employees trust peers more than programmes. And secondly, those champions help to normalize recognition across cultures and seniority levels.

And where champions exist, we see employees three times more likely to say recognition builds community, three times higher engagement, four times higher odds of innovation. The multipliers are huge.

But the key takeaway for me is that champions turn recognition from a platform into a practice, and that's where culture actually changes.

MEGHAN: Yeah. I couldn't agree more. You know, when you look at IMEA, and again, as we talk about the culture and knowing people and, the strong social ties that they have here, you all have a strong, champion culture over in IMEA. Tell us a little bit more about the success you're seeing and maybe what other organisations should consider.

CANDY: So I think organisations once again are realising that and if you know IMEA, we are the fastest adopters of AI. We have research that says that eighty eight percent of our people use AI at work, another thirty seven percent outside of work. But organisations are also realising that the success of their recognition programme cannot be left to technology alone. The human intervention, human intelligence behind it is equally important.

Especially in a fast evolving workforce like us, we spoke about dispersed teams and shifting employee expectations.

Technology can automate their processes, but it cannot interpret cultural nuances.

It cannot understand team dynamics or sense the emotional pulse of employees. And that's where human recognition champions make all the difference. They can take what this technology enables and translate it into meaningful everyday behaviours across the organisations.

They behave as culture multipliers. They amplify stories, they celebrate local wins, they make sure appreciation reaches every corner of the organisation. And like we spoke earlier, so recognition's not just a programme anymore, it becomes a movement that people start feeling connected to.

A great example of this comes from a client of ours who was a leading member of the big four with employees spread across multiple countries, multiple offices, realised that their culture couldn't be sustained from a central team or technology.

So they built a panel of people, two hundred cultural ambassadors from different business units who championed recognition daily. They coached their teams, they kept the energy and the momentum strong. But most importantly, they married the human connection with data.

They tracked recognition usage, budget patterns and platform engagement to guide where action is needed. And over time what they saw was they expanded what was three to four awards to about fifteen awards. And they even saw a ten point drop in attrition. So very clearly showing the link between recognition, culture, and retention. So I think all of this coming today, it's very clear why Recognition Champions and IMEA are having such a powerful impact.

MEGHAN: I think you hit on something really, really important, and I've seen this in a variety of articles. Right? In the age of AI, in the age of technology accelerate, you know, acceleration and digitalization, what we are fundamentally missing and needing in the workplace are storytellers, and that's where recognition champions can just bring all of that to life, telling the stories of of success, of sacrifice, of great work, happening in the organisation. Really cool. Thank you so much, Candy.

You know, Ed, a lot of really great overlaps in what she's talking about in terms of leveraging data and insights with what's happening with CIBC in Canada. I want you to talk a little bit more about how they're going next level in connecting their recognition champions together and equipping and empowering them to really succeed and tell those stories widely.

ED: Yes. I love Candy's story and I would offer that if you're thinking about starting a recognition champion network, I would also look to see what CIBC is doing. They're a Canadian based financial institution with about fifty thousand employees operating globally in over one thousand physical locations. They have a small but passionate team who is responsible for culture, recognition and well-being.

And clearly, as an organisation of that size, this group can't stay connected to every employee on their own. So when CIBC launched their Moment Makers recognition programme, they knew they needed help to bring it to life.

So to support the launch and to sustain it over time, they developed this champion network. And today that network operates at a global scale. They have about two hundred champions as part of that squad. And they continue to advocate for recognition and help employees understand why using Moment Makers in their day to day work can make a difference. They are consistently promoting programme awareness and fostering this workplace where recognition is both regular and highly visible.

But to your point, this isn't a set it and forget it group. Champions receive ongoing support through an office hours model where twice a week champions can join a virtual meeting when they're available and they can share best practices and get their questions answered by programme leaders or in fact other champions themselves.

As Candy mentioned, access to data has been super important for CIBC and they continue to reap the benefits on programme impact as a result of making the decision to open up the data.

But I think the biggest surprise that CIBC has learned through this process isn't about the impact the champions have on the programme, it was the hidden skills that the champions brought with them.

Things like design and video editing and presentation skills that don't always show up in the day to day work for these employees, now has a real place to shine.

So a champion network isn't just great for the recognition programme. It strengthens culture, it builds connections, fosters community, and it's really good for the champions themselves. And that's exactly the benefits that CIBC continues to see.

MEGHAN: I love that next level of connecting among themselves, learning what's working, what's not working, and then even developing those skills from a storytelling perspective to be able to design those experiences of recognition in very meaningful and intentional ways with those presentations and video.

Lots of really great things happening. I love this quote from our last focus group participant here that says, "It's just nice to have recognition champions there supporting you, walking you through everything, and making you feel like you're not totally lost."

I think we've all kind of been there, done that, when it comes to some of our programmes, technologies. Having somebody there that has your back to help you walk you through and make you feel more empowered and more equipped to be able to use it can make all of the difference.

We heard some of these outcomes from James, but, definitely some significant business results, increasing the odds of innovation, retention, and great work.

Well, team, we have come to the end of our discussion here today. Thank you so so much for joining us, being able to unpack those regional insights, and help us lead those multinational workforces that are part of everyday organisations, today.

So remember, for those of you still listening, that high performance cultures, they're really built in the day to day. It's the relationships garnered through trust, connection, and a shared understanding of what great work feels like and what it looks like.

So just a few key takeaways here that we need to remember to build higher performing teams by leveraging recognition to unite diverse and dispersed employees.

Make recognition easy, accessible, and socially connected to fuel adoption.

Intentionally design awards and experiences for lasting impact, and then leverage recognition champions to turn appreciation into a practice they see, learn, use, and repeat.

So I hope you've seen through the course of our webinar today just how intentional O.C. Tanner is in our approach to workplace recognition and the employee experience.

And that commitment has been grounded in nearly a century of human insight and research, and that's why our Culture Cloud solution is able to deliver more than thirty one million recognition moments a year, making a very meaningful difference for the employees, their ability to thrive, and the organisation to ultimately succeed and produce the best possible work.

For any additional insights, feel free to reach out to any of us or download the report at octanner.com. And that leads us to just thanking you for joining us.

Here are those codes for use for anyone seeking credit, and we'll see you back here next time. Thanks so much, everybody.