Recognition and rewards traditionally flow from top to bottom, but companies that encourage lateral, peer to peer recognition can boost their R&R programme significantly. And employees seem keen to engage in such recognition once they have the means.

Recent figures released by Wipro and Vantage Circle showed that over the last few years, Wipro employees have been participating in more and more non-monetary peer recognition. For instance, employees distributed 97.5% more badges and appreciation tokens to their peers from 2021 to 2023. Wipro employees received more than 550,000 awards from their coworkers in the last two years  from over 25,243 unique nominators, or over 768 awards per day - meaning that 4.5% of Wipro's 230,000 employees have been regularly recognising their coworkers.

These numbers were drawn from Wipro's 'Winners' Circle' platform, a global peer to peer rewards and recognition programme built with the support of Vantage Circle to recognise high performers, acknowledge employee efforts, and sustain motivation through timely and frequent recognition. It is set up to align with Wipro’s 5 cultural habits of Being Respectful, Being Responsive, Always Communicating, Demonstrating Stewardship, and Building Trust.

Sunita Cherian, Senior Officer and Chief Culture Officer at Wipro, said, “We firmly believe that when appreciation becomes a habit, excellence becomes the norm. Our recognition programme, Winners’ Circle has been instrumental in embedding recognition into our daily work life and culture. Over 57% of our associates received recognition in the last fiscal year."

The platform supports employees in recognising their coworkers for significant moments of impact on business objectives and behaviours aligned with Wipro's cultural values. It also supports with celebrating employees who reach service milestones.

Jo Debecker, Managing Partner and Global Head of Wipro FullStride Cloud, said: “Consistent recognition isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have for cultivating engaged, high-performing teams. Our recognition programme empowers everyone to celebrate success at all levels of interaction, transforming colleagues into cheerleaders who champion each other’s victories and create a culture of mutual respect and admiration.”