‘It’s about getting to know who your people are and connecting recognition to what they’re passionate about’
Walmart went viral this week on social media after a previously deleted Facebook post of an employee’s 44th work anniversary resurfaced, shared by Complex magazine.
The post shows a longtime employee standing in front of a Walmart sign, holding a bouquet of flowers, with a caption from the store congratulating her on the milestone and thanking her for her service.
While the full story behind the post is not known, it sparked an online conversation about how employers honour and recognize long-term employees — and whether a bouquet of flowers is enough.
Walmart offers a bonus program for part-time, long-term workers based on set years of experience. The program was introduced in 2024. For employees between one and five years, there is a potential to earn $350, and for employees of 20 years, up to $1,000, according to City News.
“In terms of tenure specifically, this has historically been one of the oldest primary ways organizations recognize employees — the classic story about the gold watch after so many years,” says Alan Saks, professor of organizational behaviour at the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario.
In this day and age, he says employee recognition can be effective when done right — however, when done wrong, it falls flat.
“Today, especially in this age of quiet quitting and retention challenges, if you want to retain employees and demonstrate your appreciation for them, you should have some type of recognition tied to tenure,” he says.
Saks notes tenure recognition only makes sense if retention is part of the goal for an organization. “If an organization says it doesn’t care whether employees stay long-term and prefer to bring in new people, then rewarding tenure at five, 10, or 15 years wouldn’t make sense,” he says.
“It has to be right for the organization given its strategy and its culture.”
Recognition needs to match culture
To create any recognition program, Saks says employers need to focus on two aspects: what is being recognized, and what is relevant to the organization’s culture.
“Good programs focus on specific behaviours and outcomes that are important and relevant for the organization. It could be safety, demonstration of core values, and innovation. Whatever it is, it has to matter for the organization,” he says.
“When that behaviour is realized, you have to decide how you will recognize it — and that depends on the organization’s culture as well as what employees want and prefer.”
An example of a recognition program that executes this well, Saks says, is Steam Whistle, a Canadian brewing company in Toronto.
Every year, the company sends employees who have reached five years of service on an all-expenses-paid trip to Europe, where they tour breweries in Munich or the Czech Republic. The trip, Saks explains, fits the culture of the organization and helps properly demonstrate appreciation for those committed to the company.
For a company like Walmart, sending employees on a brewery tour would not align with the organization’s mission or identity the way it does for Steam Whistle, he says.
"Notice that the travel reward fits the culture of the organization. They go to Munich for Oktoberfest and tour breweries in the Czech Republic. It fits exactly what kind of company they are. You wouldn’t send Walmart employees to Oktoberfest — that wouldn’t make sense," he says
Recognizing employees in public
Public recognition and celebration also play an important role, he says.
“It not only rewards the employee who receives it, it sends a signal to everyone else in the organization about how much tenure is valued and celebrated.”
According to Saks, Steam Whistle now plans to add recognition for employees at 20 and 25 years of service, and the company has a low turnover rate.
However, not all employees prefer public recognition — some prefer private acknowledgment, according to the Incentive Research Foundation. In a survey of 1,000 U.S. employees, the foundation found that 32 per cent preferred public or private recognition equally, 23 per cent said they somewhat preferred private recognition, and 15 per cent said they preferred public recognition.
Personalization and a human-centred approach
So, how do you implement these programs, or figure out what employees actually want?
Sean Raible, founder of Game Plan Total Rewards Consulting Inc. in Vancouver, says any recognition program — even for long-tenure employees — needs to take a human-centred approach.
“It’s about getting to know who your people are and connecting recognition to what they’re actually passionate about, so it doesn’t feel like a checkbox,” he says.
Raible explains it is not best practice to assume what employees want, or even how they want to be recognized — so figuring that out has to be an ongoing conversation for any rewards program. There can be cultural differences, generational differences, and even differences around the accessibility of rewards and recognition. Because of that, he recommends giving employees agency over their own rewards structure.
For example, Shopify created a rewards wallet where employees could shift between the chance to get equity and cash, giving employees choice, he explains.
Raible also says the value of recognition should scale with tenure. In the early years — at year one, three, or five — recognition and a reward can be something modest that helps “create stickiness.” However, at 20 or 25 years, the reward needs to be genuinely substantial.
“The arc is small, medium, large, to something genuinely significant at the 20- or 25-year mark. That’s considerable time. You can’t hand someone flowers,” he adds.
Surveys and an ongoing conversation
To help figure out what employees want and how to make recognition and rewards feel personal and thoughtful, Raible says employers need to keep an ongoing conversation going — through surveys, a communications strategy, and feedback.
“A total rewards project should include a thoughtful survey of all your programs — sent to both employees and managers, across different groups. Ask whether people are satisfied. Ask about trade-offs: would they accept slightly lower cash for more time off? Start surfacing what actually matters to people,” he says. “Then follow up with focus groups. Use those to validate and deepen what the survey is telling you, then bring a summary to your leadership team.”
It needs to be a two-way conversation with transparency, Raible says.
“It’s a two-way conversation. And that includes being upfront about budget. Employees often don’t realize what things cost. That dialogue — ‘We can’t pay everyone a million dollars, but here’s how we’re creating as much flexibility and choice as we can’ — that builds trust," he says.
According to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), gifts and awards provided for long service can be treated as taxable employment benefits. The CRA states that any non-cash gifts and awards given in a year below $500 are tax-free. However, any cash gifts or near-cash gifts — such as prepaid Visa cards or gift cards — over $500 can be taxable.
Take holistic approach to recognition
A lot of the time, Raible notes, recognition programs can end up at the bottom of the list — with bonuses, base pay, and benefits holding the bigger seat. So, to build a successful programs, especially around tenure, the best strategy is to look at them holistically as part of the total rewards and recognition picture.
“Thinking about programs in silos rather than asking, ‘What is the full deal we’re offering in exchange for someone working here?’ Everything — monetary and non-monetary — should be part of a coherent strategy and philosophy,” he says.
To create these programs, he says employers and organizations need to look at what they want to offer, what the market offers in comparison, and how they can compete within budget.
Raible says the goal of building better recognition programs is less about getting it perfect and more about staying committed to the process.
“We’re never done. But we can always make things better,” he says.
