Why One Company Said No to Digital High-Fives: A Lesson in Employee-Centric Culture

I recently spoke with a company that didn’t want recognition as an option in their performance tool, even the demo request explicitly said “No shout-outs or High fives”.

I was so curious because it seemed to be going against the science and best practices. On the call, I asked the HR person, why no high fives?

She explained they had thought this through a lot. They were building a culture where they really wanted this type of recognition to be in-person or verbal.

The concept of shout-outs or high-fives on a tech platform was not for them. In fact, she explained the type of workforce they have would think the concept of ‘high fives’ would feel forced and the feature would end up making people feel uncomfortable; and those not getting them would feel left out of a popularity contest.

Once again, when it comes to employee experience, we see best practices as too cookie-cutter. I love that this organisation had the strength to go against the grain and place more weight on the view of their employees.

They designed their own way of making feedback and recognition effective, while feeling natural and authentic for employees.