Notes from the floor, not a newsletter.
Written by whoever on the team had something worth documenting, usually right after a client rollout turned up something worth remembering.
The 9% number should stop every HR leader mid-sentence.
Staffbase's research found that only 9% of deskless workers are satisfied with their company's internal communication, against 47% of desk-based employees. That's not a rounding error. It's a sign that whatever a company thinks it's communicating internally, most of its actual workforce isn't receiving it — and recognition is one of the first casualties.
Recognition programs fail at the manager, not the employee.
We've rarely met a frontline employee who didn't want to be recognized. We've met plenty of managers who gave up on a recognition tool because it took five extra steps during a shift that didn't allow for five extra steps. Design the tool for the busiest possible manager, and the rest tends to follow.
Gift cards to office lunch spots are a tell that a reward catalog was never tested with the actual workforce.
We ask every new client to have frontline employees review the reward catalog before launch, not just approve a budget for it. The catalogs that get redeemed are almost never the ones a benefits team assembled alone in a conference room.
The access audit usually surprises the client more than us.
Most HR leaders estimate their company email coverage generously, because the people they interact with daily tend to be the ones who have it. The actual number, once we count it location by location, is almost always lower than expected — which is usually the moment a client stops asking why we insist on a mobile-first design.
Wondering how much of your recognition program actually reaches your frontline teams today? Get in touch — that's usually how the first conversation starts.