What Is YD?
Recognition of employees with measurable results and without complexity!. 🎯🔗💜🤝
Sep 30, 2025
💬 Constructive feedback or recognition: what really engages employees?
💡 Do you know what really engages your employees? In this article, we explore the differences between constructive feedback and recognition programs, and how each impacts organizational culture, talent retention, and employee engagement. Find out why feedback alone isn't enough — and how recognition can be the differentiator for a proactive, motivated, and above-average team.
At YouDeserve, we are experts in building employee recognition programs that value and engage each employee. One of the big questions we receive during our conversations with customers is: "Can I give feedback through the platform?" The answer is a generous no. Employee feedback and recognition are like cousins: They are from the same family, but have different goals and approaches. Both are crucial and should be used together to raise the quality of every company's culture and boost employee engagement. Although feedback can be positive, on a daily basis, what we see most is constructive feedback. Particularly, I like to say that the employee is often bombarded daily with negative reinforcement (constructive feedback) and little recognized for what he does in an exceptional way. This is exactly where a recognition program focused on valuing good deliveries comes in, positively reinforcing each employee so that they increasingly improve their best contributions. At this point in the championship, everyone should know the concepts of feedback, but I need to get everyone on the same page between employee recognition and feedback. ---
📊 Concepts
| Feedback: Focus on development | Recognition: The Fuel of Motivation |
|---|---|
| Feedback is communication, usually between two people and almost always private, with the aim of providing information that promotes continuous improvement or professional growth. It can be used to reinforce a positive aspect or, in a constructive way, point out areas for improvement in an empathetic way. Feedback is essential to align expectations about deliveries, develop technical and behavioral skills, and improve performance over time. | Employee recognition is the act of valuing behaviors, attitudes, or results that are aligned with the organization's goals and values. It is usually done in a public and personalized way for one person or team. Its objective is not only to value those who receive, but also to serve as an example and inspiration for other employees. Recognition is a powerful form of cultural communication that signals which behaviors and deliveries are valued by the company, in addition to serving as an intrinsic motivation mechanism. |
⚠️ The Danger of Mediocrity: Why Recognition Is Indispensable
In practice, if your company focuses only on feedback, it is likely that you are training mediocre employees. And I don't use the term here with a pejorative and negative connotation, but rather in the sense of an average or modest quality. Every employee, even the most senior, has a mix of deliveries, behaviors, and attitudes: within expectation, above expectation, and below expectation. ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/OcnsZvOT0V0sZWiAORaidzMs2o.png?width=840&height=320)
If only the feedback mechanism is activated (with rare exceptions), your company will train employees who remain within expectations. And being within expectations is nothing more than the average result. "Raul, but my culture and team are always charged for performance above expectations, we give financial incentives for that", is it really? Are your employees actually building behaviors and attitudes that bring consistent results in the long term, or are they just looking for their aggressive commission? ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/LDcSPs4iqF3iPqfK7nIa6L7FMk.png?width=840&height=320)
This is where an interesting point comes in: many CEOs and company directors talk a lot about employees having an owner's vision, that they need to be proactive and curious. But are we really valuing great deliveries and reinforcing these above-average attitudes to make this vision and dedication worth it? Developing an exceptional delivery, above expectations, is not always linked to overwork or aggressive goals, but rather to an environment conducive to making it happen. According to recent data, 88% of employees who receive strong recognition for their performance are proactive in innovation. Additionally, employee recognition not only boosts employee engagement but also increases productivity and loyalty to the company, leading to higher retention. So, the "state of the art" we're talking about: build a good feedback program, but never forget to build a robust recognition program, because this is where your culture will go from mediocrity to ABOVE average. ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/NG4wFdBNDVxKJETkEjkwF6trmEM.png?width=840&height=320)
🏗️ Program Structure
To help you build the two programs, I will detail here the step-by-step of each program, comparing them at each stage. Building a solid structure for each program is the basis for success and consistency in its implementation. And in this sense, we can use the same structure for both feedback and employee recognition. In general, we can set up a lean structure as follows:
1. Fundamental principles
2. Methods
3. Templates
4. Techniques
🎯 Principles
| I believe a lot in principles, principles are initial truths or assumptions that serve as a basis, foundation or guidance for every project we are starting. So let's start with them. | Principles of Feedback | Principles of Recognition |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Clarity All feedback should be specific and easy to understand. If it is confusing, it can make acquittal difficult and have the opposite effect. | 1. Clarity Just like with feedback, if it's not clear, it gets difficult, especially since acknowledgments are usually public. Everyone needs to understand the "why" of recognition. | |
| 2. Actionable Must have an improvement roadmap, i.e., feedback without guidance is not constructive. | 2. Personalization Nothing to be generic. It's not just a "thank you"; It is necessary to detail the specific reason for the recognition, connecting it to the action, behavior or result. | |
| 3. Frequency Being regular is essential to foster growth and avoid bottlenecks. Without rhythm, feedback can feel lost or overpowered. | 3. Frequency Recognizing only at the end of the year may be too late. Employee recognition must be ongoing and timely to maximize its impact. | |
| - | 4. Proportionality Especially when it involves rewards, recognition should reflect how positive the activity, behavior, or delivery is. |
Every company is unique, has an individual culture that derives from the initial behaviors of the founders, so understand that the principles above are just the starting point. I advise you to customize it, including the characteristics of your company's culture. Also remember that culture is alive, so principles are not immutable, you will probably evolve your concepts from experimentation. ---
🔄 Methodologies
| Going beyond principles, we need to talk about method. And this is where the methodologies of each program come in. As feedback has been widely used for a longer time, we have more variations than recognition programs, as shown below. | Feedback Methodologies: Tools for Growth | Recognition Methodologies: Celebrating Success |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Developmental Feedback Used to build technical and behavioral skills, helping employees to have a professional development. It can be applied in 1:1 sessions or training programs. It focuses on the progress of skills over time, seeking long-term improvements, with follow-up to check progress. | 1. Institutional Recognition This type of recognition can be a parallel to developmental or evaluative feedback. The objective is to hold celebrations and recognitions focused on elements that are part of the organizational culture. Common forms include: tenure, anniversaries, milestone achievements, "contributor of the month," culture value representative, and internal projects. | |
| 2. Behavioral Feedback Often used for observable activities with visible impacts. Its objective is to seek improvements in workplace interactions and correct any errors. You should focus on actions, not personal traits, seeking to be as objective and actionable as possible. | 2. Recognition Performed by Leadership This recognition is highly strategic. Studies show that 83.6% of employees feel that recognition affects their motivation to succeed at work. We can draw a parallel with developmental or continuous feedback, as leader recognition focuses on performance and behavior. It can be executed after the delivery of important activities, evolutions in internal projects, Individual Development Plans (IDPs), directly linked to what happens on a daily basis. | |
| 3. Continuous Feedback This is day-to-day feedback, which should be as close to the event as possible to generate greater absorption. Very common in agile environments, where speed is crucial for performance. | 3. Peer-to-Peer Recognition Here, we allow all employees to participate in the recognition program: leaders-leaders, employees-leaders, employees-employees. Generally used to recognize everyday actions and behaviors, such as help with activities, good technical delivery, or positive behavior. This type of recognition is super important, especially in very technical teams, where much of the effort is not seen by the leadership, but by the next person who will access the activity done. We can make a parallel here with behavioral and continuous, and of course, peer-based feedback. | |
| 4. Peer-to-Peer Feedback Great for capturing peers' and leaders' view of performance. Usually used in conjunction with tools that collect 360-degree feedback. It helps the employee to increase the "Johari Window", better understanding the perception of their peers and what they can do to improve. | - | |
| 5. Evaluative Feedback Last but not least, traditional evaluative feedback, which basically deals with annual reviews of employee performance, usually based on benchmarks and internal KPIs. | - |
🔺 The Triple Helix of Success in Recognition
To put it simply, in your company you will need the triple helix of success for a feedback or recognition program:
1. What the company can do: Institutional recognition feedback structures and policies. 2. How to encourage leadership: Engaging and empowering leaders to recognize and give feedback. 3. Accessibility for all: Ensure that all employees can participate and feel recognized and have guidance to improve. ---
📋 Templates
Now, for good programs, we need to have examples, or templates, which are usually a set of steps, rules, and procedures, organized and simplified to be used by several people, in a "standardized" way. Standardized in quotation marks because it's very difficult to standardize something that depends on the human factor, but it's good to have a guide that provides a path. If the program does not have the minimum standardization, a sense of injustice can begin to roll among employees. And it's very easy, it's just a manager being more generous in recognition than another that problems happen. So, let's move on to the models:
| Feedback Templates | Recognition Models |
|---|---|
| Dears, there are several models, as our focus here is recognition, I will only talk about 1 that will be very useful, but for research purposes, be the names of the models: CEE, SBI, DESC, STAR, IDEA, CEDAR. SBI Feedback: This is a very objective model and divides feedback into 3 clear, direct and impartial steps, always trying our best not to take personal characteristics into account. How to do it: 1. Situation: Here, we need to make it transparent about what situation (action, behavior, activity) we want to talk about. 2. Behavior: We must detail the observed action, with no room for interpretation. 3. Impact: What I consider most important, to make clear the effect of this action on the team, project or company. Example: "So-and-so, I noticed that during your coworker's presentation (situation), you continued to answer emails in the notebook (Action), this behavior made you lose important information from the presentation, and made you ask questions about items already commented, delaying our meeting." Finally, we can conclude with a recommendation for improvement. | The concept is the same as SBI feedback, but applied to recognition. Let's go straight to the examples: "So-and-so, I noticed that during your coworker's meeting (Situation), you stayed focused, even in the midst of distractions (Behavior), and managed to contribute effectively at the end of the presentation, bringing great ideas. Congratulations on the performance, this is part of our value 'being present'." It is always good to link employee recognition to the company's values. This is where recognition should be used to value a positive action. And, unlike feedback, which must be done privately, you can make this appreciation at the end of the meeting. R.I.S.E Recognition (Recognition, Impact, Specific, Emotion) Here, we detail recognition a little more: - Recognition: Which action we want to recognize and what is its reason. - Impact: What impact does this have on the team and the company? - Specific: Try to be as personalized as possible. - Emotion: How it positively affected the environment. Example: "So-and-so, I would like to highlight your focus and presence during the meeting (Recognition). This had a significant impact on the quality of the insights suggested at the end of the presentation (Impact), especially in introducing out-of-the-box ideas (Specific), enriching the debate and improving our initial idea (Emotion)." |
My recommendation, to be simple: Use the SBI model for both programs, as it is an easy structure to be absorbed and that slightly standardizes all actions. Again, if you want to bring some element of your culture, feel free to increase the model a little more, to have the face of your company's culture. ---
🛠️ Techniques
| Finally, we need to implement techniques to recognize and give feedback, helping in the execution on a daily basis. | Feedback Techniques | Recognition Techniques |
|---|---|---|
| **1. Oldschool sandwich , much criticized, but effective. Here, during feedback, you can put constructive feedback between two positive feedbacks, or even between recognitions. I don't particularly understand the reasons for the criticism, because the 50% feedback is the responsibility of the receiver, so mitigating it can be a good thing. | 1. Direct Use the method objectively, bluntly, focused on action and results. Perfect for meeting endings, celebrations, or something more institutional. | |
| 2. Pendleton Here, the basic strategy is not just to talk, but to interact and debate on the topic, in the following steps: 1. Ask the receiver what went well 2. Tell the receiver what went right in your vision 3. Ask what didn't work so well and can improve 4. Tell us what in your vision didn't work and what can be improved It's more appropriate to use it when you have quality time, as it requires a little more conversation, but it's highly effective. | 2. Storytelling Turns employee recognition into a narrative. After all, who doesn't like a good story? It helps create emotional connection, inspires other employees, and reinforces culture. I advise you to do it in places that serve as a record, as these will probably be the ones you will highlight. Example: "During this month, we were under tight deadlines with customers and at risk of losing a contract. That's when So-and-so appeared, with an idea that, at first, I thought was a little crazy, but in the end it proved to be a watershed for us and our customers. So-and-so took the lead in this initiative and executed [specific action] that brought us more agility and made us meet deadlines, without the need to work overtime." I'm "bad at storytelling", but you get the idea: in your company, you probably have talents in storytelling! | |
| - | 3. Connected with Values and Goals Effective employee recognition needs to be connected with the company's values and its main objectives. Therefore, it is always important, at the end of the recognition, to link the company's values, explain why the action represents these values and how it impacts the results. This helps to reinforce strategic alignment, directing everyone to where we should go, and also "acculturates" employees, because we are living the values. |
🚀 The Synergy That Drives Engagement and Retention
Finally, with principles, methodology, models, and techniques, your recognition programs will be a success. According to Gallup, the combination of employee feedback and recognition can lead to a 21% reduction in turnover in business units with high turnover and 51% in units with low turnover. When we build company culture, we sometimes forget how we are going to live it. And it is in these rituals of recognizing and improving that we can fully experience it. One of the main reasons for voluntary departures is the lack of a sense of belonging and employee engagement. Only 20% of employees who feel they don't belong are engaged, compared to 91% of those who do. One of the big reasons for this lack of belonging is feeling lost, without understanding the goals and culture. Everyone likes to know where they're going. Help them know about it through a well-structured recognition program and constructive feedback. ---
📚 Keep Learning
Did you like this content? We have many more materials and resources to help you build a culture of exceptional recognition in your company. Access our exclusive resources and materials →
References
[1] SemosCloud. 21 Key Employee Recognition Statistics Leaders Must Know (2025). Available at: https://semoscloud.com/resources/blog/employee-recognitionstatistics/
[2] Gallup. The Importance of Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact. Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236441/employee-recognitionlow-cost-high-impact.aspx
[3] Sociabble. 12 Employee Recognition Statistics You Need to Know in 2025. Available at: https://www.sociabble.com/blog/employee-engagement/employeerecognition-statistics/
[4] Gallup. Employee Engagement vs. Employee Satisfaction and .... Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employeesatisfaction.aspx
[5] Qualtrics. Belonging at Work: The Top Driver of Employee Engagement. Available at: https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/belonging-at-work/
At YouDeserve, we are experts in building employee recognition programs that value and engage each employee. One of the big questions we receive during our conversations with customers is: "Can I give feedback through the platform?" The answer is a generous no. Employee feedback and recognition are like cousins: They are from the same family, but have different goals and approaches. Both are crucial and should be used together to raise the quality of every company's culture and boost employee engagement. Although feedback can be positive, on a daily basis, what we see most is constructive feedback. Particularly, I like to say that the employee is often bombarded daily with negative reinforcement (constructive feedback) and little recognized for what he does in an exceptional way. This is exactly where a recognition program focused on valuing good deliveries comes in, positively reinforcing each employee so that they increasingly improve their best contributions. At this point in the championship, everyone should know the concepts of feedback, but I need to get everyone on the same page between employee recognition and feedback. ---
📊 Concepts
| Feedback: Focus on development | Recognition: The Fuel of Motivation |
|---|---|
| Feedback is communication, usually between two people and almost always private, with the aim of providing information that promotes continuous improvement or professional growth. It can be used to reinforce a positive aspect or, in a constructive way, point out areas for improvement in an empathetic way. Feedback is essential to align expectations about deliveries, develop technical and behavioral skills, and improve performance over time. | Employee recognition is the act of valuing behaviors, attitudes, or results that are aligned with the organization's goals and values. It is usually done in a public and personalized way for one person or team. Its objective is not only to value those who receive, but also to serve as an example and inspiration for other employees. Recognition is a powerful form of cultural communication that signals which behaviors and deliveries are valued by the company, in addition to serving as an intrinsic motivation mechanism. |
⚠️ The Danger of Mediocrity: Why Recognition Is Indispensable
In practice, if your company focuses only on feedback, it is likely that you are training mediocre employees. And I don't use the term here with a pejorative and negative connotation, but rather in the sense of an average or modest quality. Every employee, even the most senior, has a mix of deliveries, behaviors, and attitudes: within expectation, above expectation, and below expectation. ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/OcnsZvOT0V0sZWiAORaidzMs2o.png?width=840&height=320)
If only the feedback mechanism is activated (with rare exceptions), your company will train employees who remain within expectations. And being within expectations is nothing more than the average result. "Raul, but my culture and team are always charged for performance above expectations, we give financial incentives for that", is it really? Are your employees actually building behaviors and attitudes that bring consistent results in the long term, or are they just looking for their aggressive commission? ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/LDcSPs4iqF3iPqfK7nIa6L7FMk.png?width=840&height=320)
This is where an interesting point comes in: many CEOs and company directors talk a lot about employees having an owner's vision, that they need to be proactive and curious. But are we really valuing great deliveries and reinforcing these above-average attitudes to make this vision and dedication worth it? Developing an exceptional delivery, above expectations, is not always linked to overwork or aggressive goals, but rather to an environment conducive to making it happen. According to recent data, 88% of employees who receive strong recognition for their performance are proactive in innovation. Additionally, employee recognition not only boosts employee engagement but also increases productivity and loyalty to the company, leading to higher retention. So, the "state of the art" we're talking about: build a good feedback program, but never forget to build a robust recognition program, because this is where your culture will go from mediocrity to ABOVE average. ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/NG4wFdBNDVxKJETkEjkwF6trmEM.png?width=840&height=320)
🏗️ Program Structure
To help you build the two programs, I will detail here the step-by-step of each program, comparing them at each stage. Building a solid structure for each program is the basis for success and consistency in its implementation. And in this sense, we can use the same structure for both feedback and employee recognition. In general, we can set up a lean structure as follows:
1. Fundamental principles
2. Methods
3. Templates
4. Techniques
🎯 Principles
| I believe a lot in principles, principles are initial truths or assumptions that serve as a basis, foundation or guidance for every project we are starting. So let's start with them. | Principles of Feedback | Principles of Recognition |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Clarity All feedback should be specific and easy to understand. If it is confusing, it can make acquittal difficult and have the opposite effect. | 1. Clarity Just like with feedback, if it's not clear, it gets difficult, especially since acknowledgments are usually public. Everyone needs to understand the "why" of recognition. | |
| 2. Actionable Must have an improvement roadmap, i.e., feedback without guidance is not constructive. | 2. Personalization Nothing to be generic. It's not just a "thank you"; It is necessary to detail the specific reason for the recognition, connecting it to the action, behavior or result. | |
| 3. Frequency Being regular is essential to foster growth and avoid bottlenecks. Without rhythm, feedback can feel lost or overpowered. | 3. Frequency Recognizing only at the end of the year may be too late. Employee recognition must be ongoing and timely to maximize its impact. | |
| - | 4. Proportionality Especially when it involves rewards, recognition should reflect how positive the activity, behavior, or delivery is. |
Every company is unique, has an individual culture that derives from the initial behaviors of the founders, so understand that the principles above are just the starting point. I advise you to customize it, including the characteristics of your company's culture. Also remember that culture is alive, so principles are not immutable, you will probably evolve your concepts from experimentation. ---
🔄 Methodologies
| Going beyond principles, we need to talk about method. And this is where the methodologies of each program come in. As feedback has been widely used for a longer time, we have more variations than recognition programs, as shown below. | Feedback Methodologies: Tools for Growth | Recognition Methodologies: Celebrating Success |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Developmental Feedback Used to build technical and behavioral skills, helping employees to have a professional development. It can be applied in 1:1 sessions or training programs. It focuses on the progress of skills over time, seeking long-term improvements, with follow-up to check progress. | 1. Institutional Recognition This type of recognition can be a parallel to developmental or evaluative feedback. The objective is to hold celebrations and recognitions focused on elements that are part of the organizational culture. Common forms include: tenure, anniversaries, milestone achievements, "contributor of the month," culture value representative, and internal projects. | |
| 2. Behavioral Feedback Often used for observable activities with visible impacts. Its objective is to seek improvements in workplace interactions and correct any errors. You should focus on actions, not personal traits, seeking to be as objective and actionable as possible. | 2. Recognition Performed by Leadership This recognition is highly strategic. Studies show that 83.6% of employees feel that recognition affects their motivation to succeed at work. We can draw a parallel with developmental or continuous feedback, as leader recognition focuses on performance and behavior. It can be executed after the delivery of important activities, evolutions in internal projects, Individual Development Plans (IDPs), directly linked to what happens on a daily basis. | |
| 3. Continuous Feedback This is day-to-day feedback, which should be as close to the event as possible to generate greater absorption. Very common in agile environments, where speed is crucial for performance. | 3. Peer-to-Peer Recognition Here, we allow all employees to participate in the recognition program: leaders-leaders, employees-leaders, employees-employees. Generally used to recognize everyday actions and behaviors, such as help with activities, good technical delivery, or positive behavior. This type of recognition is super important, especially in very technical teams, where much of the effort is not seen by the leadership, but by the next person who will access the activity done. We can make a parallel here with behavioral and continuous, and of course, peer-based feedback. | |
| 4. Peer-to-Peer Feedback Great for capturing peers' and leaders' view of performance. Usually used in conjunction with tools that collect 360-degree feedback. It helps the employee to increase the "Johari Window", better understanding the perception of their peers and what they can do to improve. | - | |
| 5. Evaluative Feedback Last but not least, traditional evaluative feedback, which basically deals with annual reviews of employee performance, usually based on benchmarks and internal KPIs. | - |
🔺 The Triple Helix of Success in Recognition
To put it simply, in your company you will need the triple helix of success for a feedback or recognition program:
1. What the company can do: Institutional recognition feedback structures and policies. 2. How to encourage leadership: Engaging and empowering leaders to recognize and give feedback. 3. Accessibility for all: Ensure that all employees can participate and feel recognized and have guidance to improve. ---
📋 Templates
Now, for good programs, we need to have examples, or templates, which are usually a set of steps, rules, and procedures, organized and simplified to be used by several people, in a "standardized" way. Standardized in quotation marks because it's very difficult to standardize something that depends on the human factor, but it's good to have a guide that provides a path. If the program does not have the minimum standardization, a sense of injustice can begin to roll among employees. And it's very easy, it's just a manager being more generous in recognition than another that problems happen. So, let's move on to the models:
| Feedback Templates | Recognition Models |
|---|---|
| Dears, there are several models, as our focus here is recognition, I will only talk about 1 that will be very useful, but for research purposes, be the names of the models: CEE, SBI, DESC, STAR, IDEA, CEDAR. SBI Feedback: This is a very objective model and divides feedback into 3 clear, direct and impartial steps, always trying our best not to take personal characteristics into account. How to do it: 1. Situation: Here, we need to make it transparent about what situation (action, behavior, activity) we want to talk about. 2. Behavior: We must detail the observed action, with no room for interpretation. 3. Impact: What I consider most important, to make clear the effect of this action on the team, project or company. Example: "So-and-so, I noticed that during your coworker's presentation (situation), you continued to answer emails in the notebook (Action), this behavior made you lose important information from the presentation, and made you ask questions about items already commented, delaying our meeting." Finally, we can conclude with a recommendation for improvement. | The concept is the same as SBI feedback, but applied to recognition. Let's go straight to the examples: "So-and-so, I noticed that during your coworker's meeting (Situation), you stayed focused, even in the midst of distractions (Behavior), and managed to contribute effectively at the end of the presentation, bringing great ideas. Congratulations on the performance, this is part of our value 'being present'." It is always good to link employee recognition to the company's values. This is where recognition should be used to value a positive action. And, unlike feedback, which must be done privately, you can make this appreciation at the end of the meeting. R.I.S.E Recognition (Recognition, Impact, Specific, Emotion) Here, we detail recognition a little more: - Recognition: Which action we want to recognize and what is its reason. - Impact: What impact does this have on the team and the company? - Specific: Try to be as personalized as possible. - Emotion: How it positively affected the environment. Example: "So-and-so, I would like to highlight your focus and presence during the meeting (Recognition). This had a significant impact on the quality of the insights suggested at the end of the presentation (Impact), especially in introducing out-of-the-box ideas (Specific), enriching the debate and improving our initial idea (Emotion)." |
My recommendation, to be simple: Use the SBI model for both programs, as it is an easy structure to be absorbed and that slightly standardizes all actions. Again, if you want to bring some element of your culture, feel free to increase the model a little more, to have the face of your company's culture. ---
🛠️ Techniques
| Finally, we need to implement techniques to recognize and give feedback, helping in the execution on a daily basis. | Feedback Techniques | Recognition Techniques |
|---|---|---|
| **1. Oldschool sandwich , much criticized, but effective. Here, during feedback, you can put constructive feedback between two positive feedbacks, or even between recognitions. I don't particularly understand the reasons for the criticism, because the 50% feedback is the responsibility of the receiver, so mitigating it can be a good thing. | 1. Direct Use the method objectively, bluntly, focused on action and results. Perfect for meeting endings, celebrations, or something more institutional. | |
| 2. Pendleton Here, the basic strategy is not just to talk, but to interact and debate on the topic, in the following steps: 1. Ask the receiver what went well 2. Tell the receiver what went right in your vision 3. Ask what didn't work so well and can improve 4. Tell us what in your vision didn't work and what can be improved It's more appropriate to use it when you have quality time, as it requires a little more conversation, but it's highly effective. | 2. Storytelling Turns employee recognition into a narrative. After all, who doesn't like a good story? It helps create emotional connection, inspires other employees, and reinforces culture. I advise you to do it in places that serve as a record, as these will probably be the ones you will highlight. Example: "During this month, we were under tight deadlines with customers and at risk of losing a contract. That's when So-and-so appeared, with an idea that, at first, I thought was a little crazy, but in the end it proved to be a watershed for us and our customers. So-and-so took the lead in this initiative and executed [specific action] that brought us more agility and made us meet deadlines, without the need to work overtime." I'm "bad at storytelling", but you get the idea: in your company, you probably have talents in storytelling! | |
| - | 3. Connected with Values and Goals Effective employee recognition needs to be connected with the company's values and its main objectives. Therefore, it is always important, at the end of the recognition, to link the company's values, explain why the action represents these values and how it impacts the results. This helps to reinforce strategic alignment, directing everyone to where we should go, and also "acculturates" employees, because we are living the values. |
🚀 The Synergy That Drives Engagement and Retention
Finally, with principles, methodology, models, and techniques, your recognition programs will be a success. According to Gallup, the combination of employee feedback and recognition can lead to a 21% reduction in turnover in business units with high turnover and 51% in units with low turnover. When we build company culture, we sometimes forget how we are going to live it. And it is in these rituals of recognizing and improving that we can fully experience it. One of the main reasons for voluntary departures is the lack of a sense of belonging and employee engagement. Only 20% of employees who feel they don't belong are engaged, compared to 91% of those who do. One of the big reasons for this lack of belonging is feeling lost, without understanding the goals and culture. Everyone likes to know where they're going. Help them know about it through a well-structured recognition program and constructive feedback. ---
📚 Keep Learning
Did you like this content? We have many more materials and resources to help you build a culture of exceptional recognition in your company. Access our exclusive resources and materials →
References
[1] SemosCloud. 21 Key Employee Recognition Statistics Leaders Must Know (2025). Available at: https://semoscloud.com/resources/blog/employee-recognitionstatistics/
[2] Gallup. The Importance of Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact. Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236441/employee-recognitionlow-cost-high-impact.aspx
[3] Sociabble. 12 Employee Recognition Statistics You Need to Know in 2025. Available at: https://www.sociabble.com/blog/employee-engagement/employeerecognition-statistics/
[4] Gallup. Employee Engagement vs. Employee Satisfaction and .... Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employeesatisfaction.aspx
[5] Qualtrics. Belonging at Work: The Top Driver of Employee Engagement. Available at: https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/belonging-at-work/
At YouDeserve, we are experts in building employee recognition programs that value and engage each employee. One of the big questions we receive during our conversations with customers is: "Can I give feedback through the platform?" The answer is a generous no. Employee feedback and recognition are like cousins: They are from the same family, but have different goals and approaches. Both are crucial and should be used together to raise the quality of every company's culture and boost employee engagement. Although feedback can be positive, on a daily basis, what we see most is constructive feedback. Particularly, I like to say that the employee is often bombarded daily with negative reinforcement (constructive feedback) and little recognized for what he does in an exceptional way. This is exactly where a recognition program focused on valuing good deliveries comes in, positively reinforcing each employee so that they increasingly improve their best contributions. At this point in the championship, everyone should know the concepts of feedback, but I need to get everyone on the same page between employee recognition and feedback. ---
📊 Concepts
| Feedback: Focus on development | Recognition: The Fuel of Motivation |
|---|---|
| Feedback is communication, usually between two people and almost always private, with the aim of providing information that promotes continuous improvement or professional growth. It can be used to reinforce a positive aspect or, in a constructive way, point out areas for improvement in an empathetic way. Feedback is essential to align expectations about deliveries, develop technical and behavioral skills, and improve performance over time. | Employee recognition is the act of valuing behaviors, attitudes, or results that are aligned with the organization's goals and values. It is usually done in a public and personalized way for one person or team. Its objective is not only to value those who receive, but also to serve as an example and inspiration for other employees. Recognition is a powerful form of cultural communication that signals which behaviors and deliveries are valued by the company, in addition to serving as an intrinsic motivation mechanism. |
⚠️ The Danger of Mediocrity: Why Recognition Is Indispensable
In practice, if your company focuses only on feedback, it is likely that you are training mediocre employees. And I don't use the term here with a pejorative and negative connotation, but rather in the sense of an average or modest quality. Every employee, even the most senior, has a mix of deliveries, behaviors, and attitudes: within expectation, above expectation, and below expectation. ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/OcnsZvOT0V0sZWiAORaidzMs2o.png?width=840&height=320)
If only the feedback mechanism is activated (with rare exceptions), your company will train employees who remain within expectations. And being within expectations is nothing more than the average result. "Raul, but my culture and team are always charged for performance above expectations, we give financial incentives for that", is it really? Are your employees actually building behaviors and attitudes that bring consistent results in the long term, or are they just looking for their aggressive commission? ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/LDcSPs4iqF3iPqfK7nIa6L7FMk.png?width=840&height=320)
This is where an interesting point comes in: many CEOs and company directors talk a lot about employees having an owner's vision, that they need to be proactive and curious. But are we really valuing great deliveries and reinforcing these above-average attitudes to make this vision and dedication worth it? Developing an exceptional delivery, above expectations, is not always linked to overwork or aggressive goals, but rather to an environment conducive to making it happen. According to recent data, 88% of employees who receive strong recognition for their performance are proactive in innovation. Additionally, employee recognition not only boosts employee engagement but also increases productivity and loyalty to the company, leading to higher retention. So, the "state of the art" we're talking about: build a good feedback program, but never forget to build a robust recognition program, because this is where your culture will go from mediocrity to ABOVE average. ! [](https://framerusercontent.com/images/NG4wFdBNDVxKJETkEjkwF6trmEM.png?width=840&height=320)
🏗️ Program Structure
To help you build the two programs, I will detail here the step-by-step of each program, comparing them at each stage. Building a solid structure for each program is the basis for success and consistency in its implementation. And in this sense, we can use the same structure for both feedback and employee recognition. In general, we can set up a lean structure as follows:
1. Fundamental principles
2. Methods
3. Templates
4. Techniques
🎯 Principles
| I believe a lot in principles, principles are initial truths or assumptions that serve as a basis, foundation or guidance for every project we are starting. So let's start with them. | Principles of Feedback | Principles of Recognition |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Clarity All feedback should be specific and easy to understand. If it is confusing, it can make acquittal difficult and have the opposite effect. | 1. Clarity Just like with feedback, if it's not clear, it gets difficult, especially since acknowledgments are usually public. Everyone needs to understand the "why" of recognition. | |
| 2. Actionable Must have an improvement roadmap, i.e., feedback without guidance is not constructive. | 2. Personalization Nothing to be generic. It's not just a "thank you"; It is necessary to detail the specific reason for the recognition, connecting it to the action, behavior or result. | |
| 3. Frequency Being regular is essential to foster growth and avoid bottlenecks. Without rhythm, feedback can feel lost or overpowered. | 3. Frequency Recognizing only at the end of the year may be too late. Employee recognition must be ongoing and timely to maximize its impact. | |
| - | 4. Proportionality Especially when it involves rewards, recognition should reflect how positive the activity, behavior, or delivery is. |
Every company is unique, has an individual culture that derives from the initial behaviors of the founders, so understand that the principles above are just the starting point. I advise you to customize it, including the characteristics of your company's culture. Also remember that culture is alive, so principles are not immutable, you will probably evolve your concepts from experimentation. ---
🔄 Methodologies
| Going beyond principles, we need to talk about method. And this is where the methodologies of each program come in. As feedback has been widely used for a longer time, we have more variations than recognition programs, as shown below. | Feedback Methodologies: Tools for Growth | Recognition Methodologies: Celebrating Success |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Developmental Feedback Used to build technical and behavioral skills, helping employees to have a professional development. It can be applied in 1:1 sessions or training programs. It focuses on the progress of skills over time, seeking long-term improvements, with follow-up to check progress. | 1. Institutional Recognition This type of recognition can be a parallel to developmental or evaluative feedback. The objective is to hold celebrations and recognitions focused on elements that are part of the organizational culture. Common forms include: tenure, anniversaries, milestone achievements, "contributor of the month," culture value representative, and internal projects. | |
| 2. Behavioral Feedback Often used for observable activities with visible impacts. Its objective is to seek improvements in workplace interactions and correct any errors. You should focus on actions, not personal traits, seeking to be as objective and actionable as possible. | 2. Recognition Performed by Leadership This recognition is highly strategic. Studies show that 83.6% of employees feel that recognition affects their motivation to succeed at work. We can draw a parallel with developmental or continuous feedback, as leader recognition focuses on performance and behavior. It can be executed after the delivery of important activities, evolutions in internal projects, Individual Development Plans (IDPs), directly linked to what happens on a daily basis. | |
| 3. Continuous Feedback This is day-to-day feedback, which should be as close to the event as possible to generate greater absorption. Very common in agile environments, where speed is crucial for performance. | 3. Peer-to-Peer Recognition Here, we allow all employees to participate in the recognition program: leaders-leaders, employees-leaders, employees-employees. Generally used to recognize everyday actions and behaviors, such as help with activities, good technical delivery, or positive behavior. This type of recognition is super important, especially in very technical teams, where much of the effort is not seen by the leadership, but by the next person who will access the activity done. We can make a parallel here with behavioral and continuous, and of course, peer-based feedback. | |
| 4. Peer-to-Peer Feedback Great for capturing peers' and leaders' view of performance. Usually used in conjunction with tools that collect 360-degree feedback. It helps the employee to increase the "Johari Window", better understanding the perception of their peers and what they can do to improve. | - | |
| 5. Evaluative Feedback Last but not least, traditional evaluative feedback, which basically deals with annual reviews of employee performance, usually based on benchmarks and internal KPIs. | - |
🔺 The Triple Helix of Success in Recognition
To put it simply, in your company you will need the triple helix of success for a feedback or recognition program:
1. What the company can do: Institutional recognition feedback structures and policies. 2. How to encourage leadership: Engaging and empowering leaders to recognize and give feedback. 3. Accessibility for all: Ensure that all employees can participate and feel recognized and have guidance to improve. ---
📋 Templates
Now, for good programs, we need to have examples, or templates, which are usually a set of steps, rules, and procedures, organized and simplified to be used by several people, in a "standardized" way. Standardized in quotation marks because it's very difficult to standardize something that depends on the human factor, but it's good to have a guide that provides a path. If the program does not have the minimum standardization, a sense of injustice can begin to roll among employees. And it's very easy, it's just a manager being more generous in recognition than another that problems happen. So, let's move on to the models:
| Feedback Templates | Recognition Models |
|---|---|
| Dears, there are several models, as our focus here is recognition, I will only talk about 1 that will be very useful, but for research purposes, be the names of the models: CEE, SBI, DESC, STAR, IDEA, CEDAR. SBI Feedback: This is a very objective model and divides feedback into 3 clear, direct and impartial steps, always trying our best not to take personal characteristics into account. How to do it: 1. Situation: Here, we need to make it transparent about what situation (action, behavior, activity) we want to talk about. 2. Behavior: We must detail the observed action, with no room for interpretation. 3. Impact: What I consider most important, to make clear the effect of this action on the team, project or company. Example: "So-and-so, I noticed that during your coworker's presentation (situation), you continued to answer emails in the notebook (Action), this behavior made you lose important information from the presentation, and made you ask questions about items already commented, delaying our meeting." Finally, we can conclude with a recommendation for improvement. | The concept is the same as SBI feedback, but applied to recognition. Let's go straight to the examples: "So-and-so, I noticed that during your coworker's meeting (Situation), you stayed focused, even in the midst of distractions (Behavior), and managed to contribute effectively at the end of the presentation, bringing great ideas. Congratulations on the performance, this is part of our value 'being present'." It is always good to link employee recognition to the company's values. This is where recognition should be used to value a positive action. And, unlike feedback, which must be done privately, you can make this appreciation at the end of the meeting. R.I.S.E Recognition (Recognition, Impact, Specific, Emotion) Here, we detail recognition a little more: - Recognition: Which action we want to recognize and what is its reason. - Impact: What impact does this have on the team and the company? - Specific: Try to be as personalized as possible. - Emotion: How it positively affected the environment. Example: "So-and-so, I would like to highlight your focus and presence during the meeting (Recognition). This had a significant impact on the quality of the insights suggested at the end of the presentation (Impact), especially in introducing out-of-the-box ideas (Specific), enriching the debate and improving our initial idea (Emotion)." |
My recommendation, to be simple: Use the SBI model for both programs, as it is an easy structure to be absorbed and that slightly standardizes all actions. Again, if you want to bring some element of your culture, feel free to increase the model a little more, to have the face of your company's culture. ---
🛠️ Techniques
| Finally, we need to implement techniques to recognize and give feedback, helping in the execution on a daily basis. | Feedback Techniques | Recognition Techniques |
|---|---|---|
| **1. Oldschool sandwich , much criticized, but effective. Here, during feedback, you can put constructive feedback between two positive feedbacks, or even between recognitions. I don't particularly understand the reasons for the criticism, because the 50% feedback is the responsibility of the receiver, so mitigating it can be a good thing. | 1. Direct Use the method objectively, bluntly, focused on action and results. Perfect for meeting endings, celebrations, or something more institutional. | |
| 2. Pendleton Here, the basic strategy is not just to talk, but to interact and debate on the topic, in the following steps: 1. Ask the receiver what went well 2. Tell the receiver what went right in your vision 3. Ask what didn't work so well and can improve 4. Tell us what in your vision didn't work and what can be improved It's more appropriate to use it when you have quality time, as it requires a little more conversation, but it's highly effective. | 2. Storytelling Turns employee recognition into a narrative. After all, who doesn't like a good story? It helps create emotional connection, inspires other employees, and reinforces culture. I advise you to do it in places that serve as a record, as these will probably be the ones you will highlight. Example: "During this month, we were under tight deadlines with customers and at risk of losing a contract. That's when So-and-so appeared, with an idea that, at first, I thought was a little crazy, but in the end it proved to be a watershed for us and our customers. So-and-so took the lead in this initiative and executed [specific action] that brought us more agility and made us meet deadlines, without the need to work overtime." I'm "bad at storytelling", but you get the idea: in your company, you probably have talents in storytelling! | |
| - | 3. Connected with Values and Goals Effective employee recognition needs to be connected with the company's values and its main objectives. Therefore, it is always important, at the end of the recognition, to link the company's values, explain why the action represents these values and how it impacts the results. This helps to reinforce strategic alignment, directing everyone to where we should go, and also "acculturates" employees, because we are living the values. |
🚀 The Synergy That Drives Engagement and Retention
Finally, with principles, methodology, models, and techniques, your recognition programs will be a success. According to Gallup, the combination of employee feedback and recognition can lead to a 21% reduction in turnover in business units with high turnover and 51% in units with low turnover. When we build company culture, we sometimes forget how we are going to live it. And it is in these rituals of recognizing and improving that we can fully experience it. One of the main reasons for voluntary departures is the lack of a sense of belonging and employee engagement. Only 20% of employees who feel they don't belong are engaged, compared to 91% of those who do. One of the big reasons for this lack of belonging is feeling lost, without understanding the goals and culture. Everyone likes to know where they're going. Help them know about it through a well-structured recognition program and constructive feedback. ---
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References
[1] SemosCloud. 21 Key Employee Recognition Statistics Leaders Must Know (2025). Available at: https://semoscloud.com/resources/blog/employee-recognitionstatistics/
[2] Gallup. The Importance of Employee Recognition: Low Cost, High Impact. Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236441/employee-recognitionlow-cost-high-impact.aspx
[3] Sociabble. 12 Employee Recognition Statistics You Need to Know in 2025. Available at: https://www.sociabble.com/blog/employee-engagement/employeerecognition-statistics/
[4] Gallup. Employee Engagement vs. Employee Satisfaction and .... Available at: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employeesatisfaction.aspx
[5] Qualtrics. Belonging at Work: The Top Driver of Employee Engagement. Available at: https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/belonging-at-work/
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© 2021 - 2025 YouDeserve. All rights reserved | Made with ♥ in Lages.
© 2021 - 2025 YouDeserve. All rights reserved | Made with ♥ in Lages.
© 2021 - 2025 YouDeserve. All rights reserved | Made with ♥ in Lages.
© 2021 - 2025 YouDeserve. All rights reserved | Made with ♥ in Lages.