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Life can come at you fast, and sometimes it can be hard to keep up. Nobody can say for sure what the future holds, but we do know one thing: recognition is more crucial than ever to keep teams cohesive, help engage employees, and encourage people at work amidst uncertain times.
As we’ve worked with our customers over the last year, we’ve been tracking some data points that we think are interesting, fun, and informative—and they may even help you see employee recognition in a new light for your own company.
Recognition Review 2020
Recognitions Given: 3,765,214
That’s a lot of gratitude and appreciation going out over the last year—more than double the population of Rhode Island, in fact. While this number is huge, there’s still room for improvement. Based on the numbers from our platform, the average employee is recognized about 1.5 times a year, and many of those recognitions are for a birthday or service anniversary. Those kinds of recognition are great, don’t get us wrong, but recognition should be more than once a year.
Total User Count: 2,375,538
Whoa, nelly. 2.3 millions users is a lot. That’s almost as many albums as Led Zeppelin sold in 1990 with their Led Zeppelin Boxed Set. Is it a coincidence that the tracks “Whole Lotta Love,” “Thank You,” “Celebration Day,” and “All My Love” are some of the biggest hits on that set? We think not.
Number of New Users Onboarded: 1,351,287
The keen-eyed will notice that this means that over half of our current user base was onboarded in 2020, which shows just how fast we’re growing. And we’re going to keep on growing because rewarding recognition is catching on fast.
Redemptions: 645,955
Not every recognition needs to include points or prizes, and we get that. In fact, there’s some research out there that says recognitions (or compliments, as the research calls it) are just as powerful in reducing stress and improving performance, and we stand by that, too. Still, it’s nice to see that there were over half a million redemptions in 2020, right?
Number of Service Awards Given: 112,638
Service awards are a staple of employee recognition and have been since...well, since the idea of the “modern” workplace began. It’s common sense that thanking people for their service is likely to help with retention, among other things. But with 2.3 million users and only 112,638 service awards, maybe there’s some room for improvement. Does your organization have a service award program? If not, maybe it’s time to consider it because they’re easier to implement and automate than you might think.
Number of Countries Serviced: 141
For reference, there are 195 countries in the entire world. That means Awardco operates in 72% of them. That’s a LOT. We’re truly delighted to offer something that appeals to such a wide range of cultures and works with multiple currencies, customs requirements, and shipping logistics. It’s clear that no matter where you are in the world, people appreciate being appreciated.
Rate of Recognitions: One Every 8.4 Seconds
Sit back for a second and consider this with us. Every 8.4 seconds someone is recognized across the world in Awardco’s platform. That’s pretty crazy. And it’s only getting faster. Sure, it’s not as impressive as the nearly 1 million tweets that happen every 8 seconds, but at least our messages are always positive.
And lastly, please enjoy the top 5 ordered items on our platform:
Top 5 Items Ordered:
#1: Battery Backup & Surge Protector & Uninterruptible Power Supply
We’re willing to bet this is because so many employees switched to remote work in 2020.
#2: Blackwire Headphones
Another holdover from remote work becoming more important, but hey, everybody needs good headphones, right?
#3: Apple AirPods Pro
This surprises no one. Although it IS kind of surprising that the Blackwire headphones beat out Apple on our platform.
#4: Echo Dot (3rd Gen) - Charcoal
“Alexa, play ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley.”
#5: AmazonBasics Silicone, Non-Stick, Food Safe Baking Mat
Quarantine brought out new talents in many of us, and it appears that many of our users became bakers during the pandemic. “On your marks, get set, BAKE!”
People, Not Numbers
We’ve gone over a lot of numbers in this post, which might be giving you flashbacks of high school math. Numbers can sometimes take the humanity out of things, but that’s not what we’re about. People are so much more than just numbers, and THAT’S what we’re about. People. We review the numbers to help us see how we’re doing and how we can improve—so we can help more individuals live better at work and outside of it. If you’d like to join us in making work better for those you work with, please let us know! We’d love to hear from you and be partners in rewarding recognition together.
