Can you have recognition without reward?

I work for a 90,000+ employee global organisation which is considering introducing a global recognition scheme whereby employees who have gone "above and beyond" are thanked for their contribution but without any financial reward. This contrasts with our UK scheme whereby an employee who is recognised receives both an e-thank you card and a small award, usually between £20 and £100. This payment is made into an on-line account which they can use to purchase shopping vouchers or products from a catalogue.

I thank my team regularly either verbally or by email for their contribution but it does not have the same impact as turning up at their desk, publicly recognising them and presenting them with a small gift. I have experienced this myself when presented with a reward for the inconvenience to my family of being away from home over a series of weeks when I was presenting to groups of employees across the UK. My family have all enjoyed since the iPad that I purchased with that money.

I believe local, public recognition backed by a small financial reward is by far the most motivating experience. This is backed up by some research carried out by the Corporate Leadership Council which shows a greater return on investment in terms of employee engagement from a recognition arrangement than an annual bonus scheme.

If an employer were only to use a small proportion of their pay review budget to allocate to a recognition and reward program this can have a very positive impact on employee moral and engagement.
In the UK we use  0.1% of our annual pay budget in this way.

I will try to encourage my employer to introduce such a global recognition and reward initiative next year.