Both employee recognition and employee appreciation are equally important, but they are demonstrated in different ways. Employee appreciation typically refers to compensation, benefits and perks that all employees receive. Employee recognition is about recognizing employees for their specific work and accomplishments.
“Employee recognition and appreciation are often lumped together, although they are actually two different things,” Charlie Saffro, founder of CS Recruiting, tells Forbes Advisor. “To me, recognition is praise or a reward for work-related performance while appreciation is often more personal and acknowledges the employee for adding value to the team because of who they are as a person.”
Employee appreciation involves benefits such as increasing financial compensation, increasing paid time off (PTO) and offering career development opportunities while employee recognition involves individually acknowledging employees for the professional work and achievements they have accomplished.
Saffro provides the following example: “An employee is ‘recognized’ with a plaque for being the top sales performer at an organization. Conversely, an organization may express ‘appreciation’ for an employee who went out of their way to support a peer through a challenging time,” she explains.
While employee recognition and appreciation are different, they both play a role in building a positive and supportive workplace culture, increasing employee morale, engagement and retention. “I believe that employees deserve to be both recognized and appreciated and it’s up to company leadership to have the right parameters and processes in place to ensure team members get the attention they deserve for their efforts; regardless if their contributions were towards a company goal or simply just doing the right thing to support the team and add value,” Saffro adds.
