San Francisco and Toronto, June 13, 2012 – [Achievers](https://www.achievers.com), the leader in employee rewards and recognition software, today announces research that recognition is the untapped lever of employee engagement that drives business performance. The data suggests that employers that fail to incorporate employee recognition in the workplace are ignoring the opportunity to retain top talent and build employee engagement, which negatively affects business success.
The data comes from [“The State of Employee Recognition in 2012”](https://https://www.achievers.com/resources/webinar/hr-rockstar-tour) report from [Bersin & Associates](http://www.bersin.com/), a membership-based company empowering human resources, talent and learning organizations to drive bottom-line impact through world-class research and advisory services. The research reveals organizations with recognition programs highly effective at improving employee engagement have 31 percent lower voluntary turnover than organizations with ineffective recognition programs.
“Our research shows that modern recognition programs can have a huge impact on organizational performance,” said Josh Bersin, chief executive officer and president, Bersin & Associates. “In today’s difficult economic times, business leaders should look to re-engineer these programs and integrate them directly with talent and performance management strategies.”
Not only are business leaders not taking advantage of the secret potential of employee recognition, they have an inaccurate view of the current state of employee recognition in the workplace. Achievers recently released research that uncovered that CEOs are overly optimistic that recognition is occurring, HR is pessimistic and employees are saying their leaders are disconnected from reality.
Highlights from the *Achievers Intelligence: Insight into Today’s Workforce* study include :
46% of employees ranked “being valued and rewarded” as one of the top three factors when choosing where to work. When on the job, the reality is:
+ 57% of CEOs strongly agree or agree that employees are regularly recognized
+ Only 9% of employees strongly agree they are regularly recognized
“There are three sides to every story, CEOs, HR and the truth, which is employees,” says Razor Suleman, founder and chairman of Achievers. *The Achievers Intelligence: Insight into Today’s Workforce* study proves that business leaders have blinders on when it comes to understanding recognition and how it builds employee engagement. To win the war-for-talent and retain top performers, employers must understand the current workforce and create a talent strategy that continually strives to create happy employees and loyal customers.”
Access this ground-breaking research and bonus videos presenting the research to an exclusive group of HR professionals and executives last month at, Achievers Presents: The HR Rockstar Tour, in six major cities. You can download it all [HERE](https://www.achievers.com/resources/webinar/hr-rockstar-tour).
