Workday bets on recognition retaining employees in an AI-driven market

As employers seek to hire and retain top talent to deliver on their AI strategy, continuously recognizing their achievements will likely become vital.

That’s part of the thinking behind a deeper partnership between Achievers, a Canadian recognition and rewards platform, and Workday, which has been an Achievers customer since 2023.

Workday announced on April 16 that it selected Achievers to power its recognition product.

Ben Carter, Workday’s SVP of total rewards, said implementing a recognition program had helped boost engagement among the company’s workforce, and that he believed this offering could be a differentiator from traditional total rewards programs.

Cash, no longer king? Achievers allows employees to recognize one another for their work, and earn points that can then be redeemed for rewards such as travel, merchandise, or gift cards.

Such rewards are a departure from strategies HR teams have typically relied on to reward employees for outstanding work, such as one-time bonuses, Carter said.

Workday recently decided to ditch cash bonuses in order to award employees for a major cross-functional achievement, allowing them to redeem points through the Achievers platform for items such as a concert or a television projector instead. The thinking was that being recognized by colleagues would make the reward more “valuable and lasting,” Carter said. He added that the point system gave employees the flexibility to decide which reward would be most meaningful to them.

“We could give you cash,” he said. “We really want to have a tangible impact felt with this recognition. And you get to decide what that what that might be.”

Continuous feedback loop. Compensation remains the top consideration for workers when it comes to total rewards, according to a recent ADP survey, and cash is certainly one way to attract and retain workers, particularly during periods of financial anxiety.

But cash isn’t always an option for employers seeking to recognize achievements among their workforce, Will Frederick, VP of total rewards and HR operations for Cineplex, a Toronto-based movie chain, said.

Frederick said three-quarters of Cineplex employees in operational roles are recognized on a monthly basis through the company’s Achievers program. “Is it going to change your take home pay on a daily basis? No,” he said. But for employees in operational roles, “it’s about the value of getting that high five, the kudos, and feeling great about what you did for our guests.”

Recognition in the AI age. Workday’s offering hits on two factors that appear to be increasingly valued in total rewards packages: flexibility and recognition.

A 2024 survey from Gallup found that employees were twice as likely to consider quitting if they didn’t feel adequately recognized at their organization.

When total rewards teams are weighing a gift card of small monetary value ($50) against some non-monetary form of recognition, Kayla Velnoskey, a director of HR research with the consulting firm Gartner, said the latter wins out among a majority of workers, according to a Gartner survey.

A public thank you or a letter from the CEO “can feel really meaningful, especially when it’s appropriate to the achievement,” she said.

Carter predicted this consideration will become even more vital for HR leaders as their organizations invest deeper in AI.

In a competitive AI labor market, “You’ve got to differentiate yourselves,” Carter said. “If you’re not thinking about ways that scale and meet people where they are…you’re just going to miss out on that opportunity. And your traditional award systems are just going to fall behind.”