Taken from Johane Desjardins from the Rewards Nation Blog

I recently heard that a rewards & recognition company hosts annual Customer Appreciation events to celebrate the organizations that give out the most points in the year. I kid you not.

Given that they derive their revenues from the sale of points, they may as well call it: Everyone, let's applaud the client that gives us the most money!

A truly successful recognition program has little to do with the number of points given out. In fact, some of our clients don't even include point awards and yet, their employees are very much engaged in their program. No cash, no stuff. Just pure praise for deserving everyday heroes.



We prefer to define success as high participation levels (not number of logins but active participation), increases in enthusiasm, positivity, ideas, contribution, peer mentoring, and of course, employee retention.

Simply put: More bright eyes and bushy tails around the workplace.

Don't get me wrong: marks of appreciation - whether points, special gifts, donations or events can be an important part of a complete program and are much appreciated by the recipients. They just shouldn't be the focus. In fact, sometimes it's better to not include points.