Companies that focus on creating a “human-focused workplace” will reap significant rewards in terms of employee wellbeing, engagement, and retention, according to a survey by Globoforce’s new WorkHuman Research Institute.

The Institute’s 2016 survey examines key practices that are most effective in creating a human workplace, and how those practices resonate with employees. The report also explores what employees value about their work culture, and what is further needed to engage employees and produce a sense of wellbeing and optimism that can propel company culture forward.

The survey results show that when organisations create a culture of recognition, metrics that indicate an employee’s intent to stay with a company, such as happiness and trust, dramatically improve.

When employees believe leaders are actively trying to create a more human workplace, culture metrics improve.

Employees who feel they work for a human-focused company are more likely to experience a sense of belonging to the company, feel a passion for shared company values and believe their company is a best place to work.

Findings include:

— When employees believe their leaders are creating a human workplace, they’re almost three times more likely to feel their company cares about them as a person (89 per cent compared to 31 per cent).

— Recognition has a strong influence on employees’ perceptions of leaders. Employees that were recognised within the last month are more than twice as likely to believe leaders cared about a human workplace (84 per cent) than those who had never been recognised (40 per cent).

— Recognition significantly improves engagement, commitment, pride, and overall happiness.

When US workers are recognised, they are more likely to feel appreciated, be happy at work and at home, and become more satisfied in their jobs, yet 40 per cent of employees have not been recognised in the past year.

Findings include:

— Receiving recognition at work makes people feel more appreciated (92 per cent); prouder of their work (86 per cent); more satisfied with their job (85 per cent); happier at work (86 per cent); more engaged (83 per cent); and more committed to the company (81 per cent).

Workers who have been recognised in the last month feel more than twice as engaged at work than those employees who had never been recognised (66 per cent compared to 30 per cent).

Engagement has a direct impact on happiness — 97 per cent of highly engaged workers say they are happy at work, compared to only 65 per cent of disengaged workers.