Employee Recognition and Performance: A Field Experiment

TLDR

The study examines the causal impact of public recognition on employee performance. The experiment involved over 300 employees performing a three‑hour data‑entry task, with a random subset of work groups receiving unexpected public recognition after two hours. Recognition substantially boosts subsequent performance, especially when awarded only to top performers, and the effect is driven mainly by those who did not receive recognition, suggesting a conformity preference.

Abstract

This paper reports the results from a controlled field experiment designed to investigate the causal effect of public recognition on employee performance. We hired more than 300 employees to work on a three-hour data-entry task. In a random sample of work groups, workers unexpectedly received recognition after two hours of work. We find that recognition increases subsequent performance substantially, and particularly so when recognition is exclusively provided to the best performers. Remarkably, workers who did not receive recognition are mainly responsible for this performance increase. This result is consistent with workers having a preference for conformity.