Top 100 Employee Recognition Quotes To Celebrate Their Endeavours

Employees yearn for appreciation for their hard work. Good leaders understand this and always strive to prioritize, support, and thank their employees for going above and beyond. Thus, to urge all leaders to do the same, we have curated a list of the best employee recognition quotes.

We know that employee recognition doesn't come easy. But, with the right mix of rewards and recognition, you might be able to win half of the battle.

But the question is how? How can you express your gratitude and appreciate your employees? Nothing, in our opinion, can be more meaningful than some good old words.

Here is our compiled list of the best employee recognition quotes from some of the leading entrepreneurs and authors, recognizing employees, boosting motivation, and sincerely taking employee recognition.

1. You never know when a moment and a few sincere words can have an impact on life.
   ~ Zig Ziglar

2. It's very inexpensive to give a compliment.
   ~ Joyce Meyer

3. If you don't create a great, rewarding place for people to work, they won't do great work.
   ~ Ari Weinzweig

4. Feedback is the breakfast of champions.
   ~ Ken Blanchard

5. Keep your eyes open and try to catch people in your company doing something right, then praise them for it.
   ~ Tom Hopkins

6. I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way will treat your customers and that people flourish when they are praised.
   ~ Richard Branson

7. Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.
   ~ Arthur Conan Doyle

8. A brave man acknowledges the strength of others.
   ~ Veronica Roth

9. Appreciation can make a day, even change a life. Your willingness to put it into words is all that is necessary.
   ~ Margaret Cousins

10. Employees who report receiving recognition and praise within the last seven days show increased productivity, get higher scores from customers, and have better safety records. They're just more engaged at work.
    ~ Tom Rath

11. Always treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.
    ~ Stephen R. Covey

12. Brains, like hearts, go where they are appreciated.
    ~ Robert McNamara

13. Recognize and affirm people when they contribute to the mission you share. Do this, and you will ignite their purpose and potential.
    ~ Mike Byam

14. Take time to appreciate employees, and they will reciprocate in a thousand ways.
    ~ Bob Nelson

15. What gets recognized gets reinforced, and what gets reinforced gets repeated.
    ~ Anonymous

16. A culture of gratitude helps people realize how truly fortunate they are and instills a desire to pay that forward.
    ~ Karl Sun

17. Nothing is more effective than sincere, accurate praise, and nothing is more lame than a cookie-cutter compliment.
    ~ Bill Walsh

18. Employees who believe that management is concerned about them as a whole person - not just an employee - are more productive, more satisfied, more fulfilled. Satisfied employees mean satisfied customers, which leads to profitability.
    ~ Anne M. Mulcahy

19. The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement.
    ~ Charles Schwab

20. If you don't create a great, rewarding place for people to work, they won't do great work.
    ~ Ari Weinzweig

21. Good work requires an appreciation of the value of routine, ordinary, mundane rhythms of doing what needs to be done, each day and each week, thoroughly and with care.
    ~ Gordon T. Smith

22. Motivating employees to work at their full potential is the main premise of successful management.
    ~ Eraldo Banovac

23. You become strong by lifting others up, not pulling them down.
    ~ Matshona Dhliwayo

24. Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
    ~ Voltaire

25. You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.
    ~ Jim Stovall

26. Everyone wants to be appreciated, so if you appreciate someone, don't keep it a secret.
    ~ Mary Kay Ash

27. I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
    ~ Maya Angelou

28. A boss wants to pay for results, an employee wants recognition for effort. If a boss recognizes effort, they will get even better results.
    ~ Simon Sinek

29. When an employee truly understands the meaning of his work and gets recognition for his efforts, he performs the best.
    ~ Abhishek Ratna

30. A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.
    ~ Jim Rohn

31. Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.
    ~ Michael Jordan.

32. To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.
    ~ Doug Conant

33. Recognition is not a scarce resource. You can't use it up or run out of it.
    ~ Susan M. Heathfield

34. People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and rewards.
    ~ Dale Carnegie

35. There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread.
    ~ Mother Teresa

36. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
    ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson,

37. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.
    ~ Aristotle

38. Mary Kay knew that when you put people first and then surround them with processes and disciplines that recognize their efforts, performance will soar.
    ~ David C. Novak

39. I have always believed that the way you treat your employees is the way they will treat your customers, and that people flourish when they are praised.
    ~ Sir Richard Branson

40. You’ve got to get your team to not only understand your company brand, but also to understand their personal brand.
    ~ Amber Hurdle

41. Realize that employees and the customers both have to be engaged, at the same time, to move your business forward for sustainable success.
    ~ Robert G. Thompson

42. In behavioral economic terms, when we offer recognition we are acknowledging that the recipients have met a social ideal. They are behaving in a certain manner because they believe is the right thing to do. If we then recognize that behavior with praise or appreciation, we offer a confirmation that their behavior is desirable, and do so in a manner that recipients find meaningful.
    ~ Cindy Ventrice

43. When a manager recognizes an employee’s behavior, personally and sincerely, both feel proud, gratified, and happy. There’s a human connection that transcends the immediate culture to create a shared bond. The power of this bond is stronger than you might think; indeed, it’s the power that holds together great organizational cultures.
    ~ Erik Mosley and Derek Irvine

44. Correction does much, but encouragement does more.
    ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

45. If people did not compliment one another there would be little society.
    ~ Luc de Clapiers

46. What every genuine philosopher (every genuine man, in fact) craves most is praise — although the philosophers generally call it ‘recognition’!
    ~ William James

47. Praise does wonders for our sense of hearing.
    ~ Arnold H. Glasow

48. Nothing else can quite substitute for a few well-chosen, well-timed, sincere words of praise. They’re absolutely free and worth a fortune.
    ~ Sam Walton

49. Note how good you feel after you have encouraged someone else. No other argument is necessary to suggest that never miss the opportunity to give encouragement.
    ~ George Adams

50. Being told something positive about yourself, whether from someone you’re close to, or a passing acquaintance, should really lift the spirits. Just the fact that someone has taken the time to let you know, should have you feeling noticed and appreciated.
    ~ Paul Bailey

51. I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.
    ~ G.K. Chesteron

52. Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.
    ~ Alan Cohen

Also read - 152 Greatest Motivational Quotes for Work We Hand-Picked For You

53. Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.
    ~ Northrup Christiane

54. Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.
    ~ Jacques Maritain

55. It is a sign of mediocrity when you demonstrate gratitude with moderation.
    ~ Roberto Benigni

56. Feeling gratitude, and not expressing it, is like wrapping a present and not giving it.
    ~ William Arthur Ward

57. Life isn’t about getting and having; it’s about giving and being.
    ~ Kevin Kruse

58. Even a brief interaction can change the way people think about themselves, their leaders, and the future. Each of those many connections you make has the potential to become a high point or a low point in someone’s day.
    ~ Douglas Conant

59. Paychecks can’t buy passion.
    ~ Brad Federman

60. People want to be appreciated, cared for, loved, trusted, and respected. But they also want to be understood, and if you master the skills to achieve that, you truly become exceptional.
    ~ Joe Navarro

61. Gratitude is a currency that we can mint for ourselves, and spend without fear of bankruptcy.
    ~ Fred De Witt Van Amburgh

62. At times, our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.
    ~ Albert Schweitzer

63. Showing gratitude is one of the simplest yet most powerful things humans can do for each other.
    ~ Randy Pausch

64. Develop an attitude of gratitude. Say thank you to everyone you meet for everything they do for you.
    ~ Brian Tracy

65. No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.
    ~ James Allen

66. The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest.
    ~ William Blake

67. If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share.
    ~ W. Clement Stone

68. I think you need to love giving compliments as much as you love receiving them.
    ~ Yami Gautam

69. I was very pleased with your kind letter. Until now I never dreamed of being something like a hero. But since you’ve given me the nomination I feel that I am one.
    ~ Albert Einstein

70. Thanks will be a worthless word until a person tells it from heart. When a person thanks someone with full heart then the word will be big and worthy word and will have full meaning to the person. Or else it will remain small and valueless word if a person says it just for saying.
    ~ Salman Aziz

71. Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
    ~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.

72. The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.
    ~ William James

73. It does not matter who is in your team, what matters is who they will become because of you.
    ~ Sunday Adelaja

74. Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.
    ~ Frank A. Clark

75. A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.
    ~ Jim Rohn

76. People want to be understood and respected as individuals. Years ago, an executive editor of mine said, ‘You should count the number of times you praise somebody and then double that.’ Even the toughest, steeliest writer or editor often really wants to be told, ‘Hey, that was a great piece.’ Early in my career as a manager, it probably took me a while to realize that everyone wants that. It’s just a human need.
    ~ Cindi Leive

77. Make sure everybody in the company has great opportunities, has meaningful impact and is contributing to the good of the society.
    ~ Larry Page

78. People are the most important thing. Business model and product will follow if you have the right people.
    ~ Adam Neumann

79. What we need to do is always lean into the future; when the world changes around you and when it changes against you- what used to be your tail wind is now your head wind. You have to lean into that and figure out what to do, because complaining isn’t a strategy.
    ~ Jeff Bezos

80. Treat your employee right so they won’t use your Internet to look for new jobs.
    ~ Mark Zuckerberg

81. The way your employees feel is the way your customers feel. And if your employees don’t feel valued, neither will your customers.
    ~ Sybil F. Stershic

82. Productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager.
    ~ Peter F. Drucker.

83. If I had to run a company on three measures, those measures would be customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and cash flow.
    ~ Jack Welch

84. Every employee can affect your company’s brand, not just the frontline employees that are paid to talk to your customers.
    ~ Tony Hsieh

85. Treat your employees like an investment, not a cost.
    ~ Dan Sullivan

86. Good management consists of showing average people how to do the work of superior people.
    ~ John D. Rockefeller

87. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies.
    ~ Lawrence Bossidy

88. In order to build a rewarding employee experience, you need to understand what matters to your people.
    ~ Julie Bevacqua

89. Human resources isn’t a thing we do. It’s a thing that runs our business.
    ~ Steve Wynn

90. Treating employees benevolently shouldn’t be viewed as an added cost that cuts into profit, but as a powerful energizer that can grow the enterprise into something far greater than the leader could envision.
    ~ Howard Schultz

91. In the end, all management can be reduced to three words: people, products and profits. People come first.
    ~ Lee Iacocca

92. Coming together is the beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success.
    ~ Henry Ford

93. Don’t worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition.
    ~ Abraham Lincoln

94. Management is about arranging and telling. Leadership is about nurturing and enhancing.
    ~ Tom Peters

95. Being told you’re appreciated is one of the simplest and most uplifting things you can hear.
    ~ Sue Fitzmaurice

96. Recognition is a reward in itself. Any form of appreciation, even a small word, is important.
    ~ Vikrant Massey

97. The human brain has an amazing ability for pattern recognition, sometimes even better than a computer.
    ~ Tabetha S. Boyajian

98. Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.
    ~ Theodore Isaac Rubin

99. It's always an honour to receive recognition, but I always consider them more important when they come from your colleagues.
    ~ Michael Laudrup

100. Everybody is looking for validation, no matter who you are, and I think that's a need of the human condition - to look for affection or recognition or validation.
     ~ Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

Wrapping up

These quotes from top leaders and notable figures highlight how crucial it is to appreciate your people. They will be ideal for recognizing employees at your organization.

And as Zig Ziglar said, “You don’t build a business. You build people, and then people build the business.” So share these quotes with your team to nurture them, encourage them to fly higher, and show that you care.

This article is written by Braja Deepon Roy. He works as a Content Creator and Digital Marketer at Vantage Circle. He actively participates in the growth of corporate culture and keeps himself updated in this space. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com