Background
Diodes Incorporated is a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality semiconductor products. Like many organisations with a long history, elements of their company have evolved over time. Employee recognition was an element that evolved inconsistently—instead of a programme, their efforts were more a collection of different initiatives featuring inconsistent rewards.
Diodes isn’t alone. Some industry research indicates only 30% of international organisations offer structured recognition programmes and only 30% of UK employees feel meaningfully recognised at work. That gap has a cost. Research shows that recognition frequency has a direct relationship with employee retention, particularly in the critical early years. The lack of a unified programme can be a liability, as well, since HR professionals with programmes managed by in-house tools are roughly half as likely to say their programme is driving business results compared to those using an online solution.
The Challenge
At Diodes, different teams handled recognition in different ways. Priority levels were inconsistent. There was no shared platform, consistent standard, or way to track what was happening across the organisation. The recognition that was happening was impossible to analyse and wasn’t as impactful or efficient as it could be. As a result, Diodes was seeing diluted results, no real way to measure ROI of recognition, and no ability to find trends and influences over time.
When Diodes conducted their first-ever employee engagement survey, the results were somewhat sobering: Rewards and Recognition landed among the lowest-scoring categories.
This pattern is more common than organisations expect. When companies run their first formal engagement surveys, it often leads to uncovering blind spots that have been building quietly for years. Once employees finally have a channel to say what they’ve felt all along, the results can be jarring. It doesn’t mean that things have gotten worse, it’s just measurement has finally caught up with reality.
But that doesn’t make the issue any less urgent. Recognition is consistently one of the lowest-performing divers on engagement surveys across industries. Research shows only 23% of employees strongly agree their organisation has a system in place to recognise professional milestones, and just 15% strongly agree their employer recognises people for personal life events.
A follow-up employee survey done before the rollout of their programme found Rewards and Recognition trended even lower, indicating a problem that was only getting more acute over time.
The Solution
Because HR leaders at Diodes were already familiar with Terryberry, reaching out felt like a natural first step. As a result, they found a platform and strategy that fit just what they needed for their workforce.
Diodes was drawn to Terryberrry’s approach specifically because it offered social recognition in a platform that wasn’t overly complicated. Since they employ a seasoned and experienced workforce, Diodes wanted to focus on the features and tools they knew they needed without distracting employees or making the programme overcomplicated. A platform that was intuitive from day one meant adoption and ongoing engagement didn’t hinge on a massive rollout campaign.
Equally helpful was the quality of Terryberrry’s implementation support. The deployment process was characterised by a high degree of hands-on customer care, helping Diodes launch smoothly and with confidence.
“The team has been so supportive with design, implementation, launch, and even helping us promote this by talking to our employees about the platform and how to get the most from it.”
The Impact
The results at Diodes have been directionally clear: recognition and engagement are improving week-over-week since launch. The rollout of the program in the EU went so well, the company has since expanded it to the U.S. region.
The potential broader implications of this trajectory are significant.
Employee recognition is a hallmark of an effective company. Research in the UK has found that in organisations where recognition occurs, productivity and customer service are about 14% better than in those without and strong business outcomes are 12x more likely. Forty-one percent of companies with peer-to-peer recognition programmes have seen an increase in customer satisfaction. Analysis from Gallup found that doubling the number of employees who receive recognition or praise in a given week can result in a 22% decrease in safety incidents and absenteeism. For Diodes, a company where safety and precision matter, those numbers make a difference.
The impact recognition will have on retention is also significant. Great Place to Work UK has reported that companies with solid recognition programmes report a 25% improvement in workplace culture and a 33% reduction in employee turnover. When an effective culture of appreciation exists, burnout is 87% less likely among UK employees. More than making people feel good, recognition is a cost-effective lever for keeping and motivating a workforce.
“The more employees are recognized, the more they’re going to be engaged, therefore more productive.”
For Diodes, the shift from scattered, informal recognition to a unified platform will give HR leaders visibility they’ve never had. Tools to track recognition, to see who’s doing more recognizing, who’s getting missed, and where over-recognition is happening—not to mention the add-on benefit of making recognition more public—will yield long-term benefits not possible with their previous programme.
