The recognition gap: what UK HR really thinks about gifting and recognition

Two thirds of UK HR professionals believe that gifting and recognition has a positive impact on culture and retention.

Only 1.2% are actually tracking whether it does.

That's the central finding from Huggg's benchmarking report, which surveyed 85 verified HR and people professionals across 80+ UK organisations. And it's the gap that three experts spent an hour unpacking in a live panel discussion in April 2026 - Louise Shepherd, head of culture and communications at Stowe Family Law; Adam Horne, co-founder of Open Org; and Mac Schimm, managing consultant at Cape Consulting.

This is what they said.

Two thirds believe it works. Barely anyone can prove it.

The data paints a clear picture: recognition matters to HR teams. Most feel in their gut that gifting has a positive impact on retention, engagement and culture. But when it comes to actually measuring that impact, almost nobody is doing it.

Just 1.2% of respondents were tracking ROI on their gifting programme.

That's not laziness. As Mac put it: "Sometimes you have to do what you know will be right - not just what you're able to get a KPI telling you is right."

For smaller organisations especially, recognition is less a line item to be optimised and more a reflection of the kind of company you're trying to be. A founder buying their team coffee out of their own pocket isn't thinking about return on investment. They're thinking about the person in front of them.

The challenge comes when organisations grow, headcount increases and finance teams start asking harder questions.

Budget is the biggest blocker - but not the only one

59% of respondents in the report named budget as their top challenge. Building the business case, getting sign-off, proving the value - it came up again and again across company sizes.

But the second biggest challenge was manager participation. Getting managers to actually use recognition schemes, gift budgets and in-the-moment tools. And this one gets harder as organisations scale.

Enterprise businesses were the most likely to have no ROI tracking in place. They were also the ones most likely to struggle with manager engagement. The bigger the company, the harder it is to maintain a culture where recognition happens consistently - rather than just in the teams lucky enough to have a naturally thoughtful manager.

The manager problem - it's not what you think

Adam had a pointed take on why manager participation is so difficult to fix: "Companies frankly promote the wrong people into manager roles. Too many promote the highest performers as individual contributors into management, rather than the people who have the highest EQ."

It's those people with emotional intelligence and genuine human instinct who do recognition well. Not because a system told them to, but because they notice when someone's covering a shift or having a tough week - and they act on it without being prompted.

Louise has taken a practical approach at Stowe. Over the last 18 months, she's given each manager a small quarterly budget and clear guidance on how and when to use it.

"Our managers have all embraced it. I'm constantly getting them asking for top-ups."

But she was clear that the budget alone isn't the answer. "Any gifting you do needs to be part of a whole package of what you're doing to recognise and reward and engage your people."

The guardrails matter too. Managers were given guidance on what the budget was for, the kinds of gifts that work, and the moments worth marking - so they weren't starting from scratch every time.

Why cash is the lazy option

Of all the gift types in the report - experiences, gifts with choice, gift cards and cash - cash scored the lowest on perceived retention impact.

Mac explained why that made sense to him: "It's really easy to get rid of cash as a consumer. That moment passes very quickly."

Adam agreed: "Cash feels like a lazy option unless it's genuinely significant. Gifts are a far more meaningful way to recognise someone."

That doesn't mean salary isn't important - it's the foundation. But when it comes to the moment of recognition, the gesture matters as much as the value. A coffee card sent on a bad Wednesday lands differently than a line on a payslip three weeks later.

Louise described how Stowe uses Huggg for in-the-moment recognition across a hybrid workforce: "I think having something that enables you to do that little 'go team' - go grab a coffee from your nearest coffee shop and join a Teams call - just those things make a difference in the way people are working now."

It's also practical in a way that in-person gestures can't be. No need to know everyone's address. No dietary requirements to navigate. The recipient chooses what works for them.

How to build the business case without losing your mind

For people teams trying to get budget signed off, the panel had a consistent message: you don't need to prove everything. You need to find one thing you can attach a number to.

Adam's advice was direct: "Work out what makes your CFO or founder tick. Some people won't need the ROI argument at all. Others care deeply about numbers - and it's your job to speak their language."

Practical starting points: empty chair costs, exit interview themes, team-level engagement scores. Most HR teams already have some of this data. The gap is usually in connecting the dots and presenting it in terms finance will engage with.

For smaller organisations, the calculation is different. Mac was characteristically blunt about it: "If you've got 20 people in your workforce, you should be thinking about what is the culture and ethos of working here. Not: I'm going to give you a ten-pound Starbucks voucher, what am I getting back?"

And then there's a counter-argument worth naming: Mac's metric for getting it right wasn't a dashboard figure. "What you actually want is people thrilled to be at work, staying, and helping you attract more great people. That's the measurement."

What actually changes when you get it right

One of the sharpest moments of the panel came when Mac described something he'd observed with smaller clients. Companies that care about recognition, he argued, tend to care about everything else too.

"I think it's probably a chain reaction. The organisations that bother with recognition are more likely to check in on wellbeing, more likely to invest in career development, more likely to think about safety. Rather than this equals that - it's a series of behaviours that create an environment where people can do their best work."

That's harder to put in a spreadsheet. But it might be exactly why so many HR teams feel in their gut that recognition matters - even when they can't yet prove it.

Thinking about how to structure your gifting and recognition programme? Whether you're setting up manager budgets, building the business case or just getting started, Huggg is free to use. No platform fees. No per-send charges. You pay for the gifts, and that's it.

Try Huggg for free