Reigniting Recognition: How Anglian Water Doubled Employee Participation

Their challenge

Anglian Water serves almost seven million people and employs over 5,000 staff. Their GEMS recognition scheme had lost momentum following scheme changes and inconsistent practice, reducing participation. Keen to reinvigorate recognition as a key enabler of staff motivation and engagement, Innecto were brought on board to support internal team members, bringing external expertise and insights to revive recognition activity.

Our solution

Innecto reviewed recognition activity, employee perspectives and leadership behaviours to identify barriers to participation. We engaged the Executive Team through personal storytelling, collated insights and with our own fresh external perspective, developed a practical recognition roadmap of quick wins, longer-term actions and targeted activities. This directly addressed inconsistent practice by rebuilding leadership ownership, improving visibility, and making recognition easier and more meaningful. This was underpinned by a communication strategy – key to building a recognition culture.

The outcome

• Recognition activity more than doubled within months, rising from 757 nominations in January to over 1,567 by October. 

• Participation increased without relying solely on financial rewards, with many nominations recognising the value of a simple thank you. 

• Management information is now shared with HRBPs, improving visibility and enabling more consistent recognition conversations. 

• Recognition has become embedded through myth-busting sessions, department meeting updates, success stories and platform push notifications. 

• Employee lifecycle recognition is being implemented, supported by a dedicated recognition manager to keep recognition central to the employee proposition.