Tracking and Measurement

Establishing a recognition strategy will help determine which direction your recognition program goes – what gets recognized and what doesn’t. But you also need to establish measurement criteria to evaluate the effectiveness of your program.

Not only will measuring the effectiveness of your recognition program help determine what’s working and what isn’t, it will also help correlate the results with the core objectives of your strategy.

According to Recognition Professionals International (RPI), measuring activity alone isn’t enough to identify the activities that positively impact your business’s performance. You should also measure your program with a high level of consistency and integrity. Learning from your metrics to continually make improvements and stopping activities that aren’t performing well are keys to your success. It’s important to look at your results as they are, not how you wish them to be.

There are two ways to measure the effectiveness of a recognition program: qualitatively and quantitatively.

Qualitative measurements are a subjective in-depth description instead of actual numbers. The goal of qualitative measurements is to understand employees from different perspectives. If you can capture the “before” and “after” perspectives of a few participants, you can compare and contrast the effectiveness of the program. Qualitative measurements include testimonials, case studies, and focus groups.

Quantitative measurements are hard and fast numbers. When you kick off your recognition program, ask participants to assess their work environments with an employee engagement survey. Halfway through the program, ask them the same questions. The results will help you gauge the progress of the program. At the end of the program, ask participants the same questions one last time. Use that change to show how effective your program is. Quantitative measurements include the number of participants, dollars spent, changes in employee behavior, and changes in turnover.

Click here to download a measurement action plan. Click here to download a completed measurement matrix. Click here to download a recognition tracking form.