I am not sure if you have ever heard the term ‘Recognition Gap’ but you have probably experienced it before. Have you ever, for example, experienced working hard and doing something well at work and then finding that you have never received the gratitude and credit that you fairly deserve?
Or perhaps as you read this, you are realizing that, as a manager, you are perhaps guilty of building a recognition gap with your team. I will explain what it is below, how you might have been affected by it, and how as a manager you can avoid this gap.
What is the Recognition Gap?
The recognition gap is the divide that exists between the contributions, efforts, and work that people do and the recognition that they receive in return.
In other words, does the recognition they deserve match what they receive?
As a manager, to give recognition requires a level of emotional intelligence on your part in that it is not simply enough to just say thank you the odd time.
Indeed, it is about ensuring that the employee feels valued, respected, trusted, and also thanked and praised as we have an innate need to be valued as people and as employees.
As a good leader or manager, the recognition gap is something that matters as it impacts employee motivation, engagement, and trust.
So just to clarify, the recognition gap is the difference between the work, contribution, and effort someone makes at work, versus the appreciation and support the employee receives in return for those efforts.
The recognition can come in different forms, including:
- formal acknowledgment – such as with an award, bonus, or promotion.
- informal gestures or acknowledgments – such as some form of verbal appreciation, written appreciation, and show of thank you in a team meeting, etc.
The problem is that many people, particularly those in less visible roles or marginalized groups, often experience a lack of recognition.
This can result in an effect on their morale, mental health, and future employee engagement level.
What are the Causes of the Recognition Gap?
The gap in recognition for employees should not of course happen so why does it occur? What is the root cause? Let’s take a look at a few of the main reasons:
1. Badly Trained or Inexperienced Managers
It is often not our fault as a new manager because we are often not provided the right training we need when we first become a manager.
As mentioned in the most common issues and challenges for 1st-time and new managers, budget cuts or a lack of priority on training can mean that the training we need is sometimes ignored, leaving us lacking some key management skills.
Moving forward, if you are a manager, try to think about each of the people you manage and how you treat each person.
Do you include every employee i.e. are you an inclusive manager or do you have your favorites?
Do you make a point to thank employees often i.e. you proactively use gratitude giving?
Try to be more self-reflective as a manager and consider the interactions you have with each employee.
2. Role and Visibility Issues
Employees who are in roles that are less visible in the sense that they are roles that are background roles such as a back-office administrative or technical support role.
The emphasis for giving praise often goes instead to those with more public-facing roles such as those in sales, or in high-profile roles.
Likewise, employees with introverted personalities can often fail to get the right level of gratitude because a manager might feel that the employee is less open to praise and to being approached.
3. Time and Resources
Sometimes a manager might simply be so busy that the issues associated with a gap in recognition is unintentionally ignored.
Furthermore, on a company level, a lack of structured recognition programs can also be a cause of these gaps.
The Affects & Impact of the Recognition Gap
The effects can actually be quite deep and affect individual employees, the team, and the company:
- Individual Employees: The feeling of being unappreciated tends to lead to low morale, less workplace motivation, and can also lead to burnout. A lack of recognition can also affect an employee’s mental health because it can lead to them questioning their value and worth at work.
- The Team: A lack of recognition can also erode morale and productivity levels on a team level. An individual employee’s decreasing morale and motivation inevitably ends up impacting the team and others they work with.
- The company: As you can imagine, the employee and team then filter down through the company, and a company who do not train managers in good management processes, is likely to result in higher staff turnover.
Example of the Recognition Gap
Let’s take a look at a couple of examples where a gap in recognition can exist:
Example 1: Bob the Garage Mechanic
Bob is a highly skilled mechanic working in a busy garage in Cardiff, Wales.
He consistently does a great job, including fixing every possible type of vehicle and using the latest computer systems for vehicle repairs including for electric cars.
Even though he works hard, Bob feels undervalued because his contributions are never acknowledged as much as those of the front-desk staff, who get more face-to-face time with customers and receive more frequent praise from management.
This recognition gap has left Bob feeling demotivated and questioning whether his efforts are truly valued.
The garage manager became aware of this issue through chatting with Bob in an annual review meeting and as a result, the manager introduced a weekly Employee Spotlight (weekly because the garage has 30+ employees) that rotates through all team members, highlighting individual contributions in team meetings and on the company notice board.
Additionally, they implement a peer recognition system, allowing staff to acknowledge each other’s efforts in real time.
This new approach makes Bob feel seen and appreciated for his hard work, which boosts his motivation and overall job satisfaction.
Identifying and Fixing Recognition Gap
The first stage in fixing the gap is to recognise that it exists and you can do this by:
1. Awareness and Self-Reflection as a Manager
If you are a manager then take a little time to reflect on how you recognize (or fail to) those people you manage.
Do you recognize the people you manage in the way that you should? Do you sometimes rely on assumptions and biases that also affect the way in which you treat certain employees?
2. Offer Training and Create a Culture of Appreciation as a Company
As a company, you can implement recognition giving and appreciation in the workplace programs to ensure that employees are recognized for their contributions regularly.
Also providing training to new and existing managers in gratitude giving can be worthwhile. Likewise, training on feedback giving can also be useful for managers.
Teaching 1st-time Managers
If you are involved with training managers and team leaders, you can find the employee engagement training materials below.
These materials can be instantly downloaded and used for teaching employees such as managers.
>> Teaching Employeee Motivation & Engagement Materials
Paul is Co-Founder of Symonds Research and is a qualified researcher with a PhD in wayfinding. Paul helps the team at Symonds Research build and focus on providing high-quality training materials packages and programs for trainers, classroom teachers and HR departments.