There is currently a lot of talk about recognition. A Google search on Employee Recognition churns out more than 900,000 hits. Recognition is one of those principles of people management that we are routinely reminded about, and frankly, should be reminded about, because it can always be done better and more often.

The best organizations spend a substantial amount of money and resources on their recognition program. One only needs to look at the number of Google hits to see how many are related to employee awards and services being sold. Despite these investments, employees don’t necessarily feel they are being recognized for great work.

One of the more common inquiries on employee engagement surveys is some variation of, “I receive recognition when I do good work.” The norm score across industries and countries for this question is about 55 percent favorable. Meaning, on average, about half of all employees feel they are appropriately recognized. At the best companies—the top 10 percent—the score is about 66 percent favorable, not overly impressive when these companies have favorable scores in the 80 to 90 percent range in a number of other areas.

Compare this to the inquiry, “I feel valued as an employee of this company,” which is much less frequently asked (indicating that many organizations don’t even see the value in asking about employees feeling valued). The average score here is 41 percent favorable, with 32 percent marking an unfavorable response. In other words, on average, less thanhalf of the employees in a typical organization feel valued as an employee and one-third actively believe they aren’t valued. These findings also indicate that there is a difference between recognizing and valuing employees. As a whole, organizations are especially weak in creating an environment where employees truly feel valued.

This is more than a difference in semantics; it’s a difference in experience. Recognition is the identification or acknowledgement of something. When we recognize employees, we acknowledge that they are doing good work and lett them know we appreciate their efforts. Recognition is typically tied to what we do—not who we are.

Valuing is about appreciating the worth of something (someone) and of esteeming something (someone) highly. When we value employees, we appreciate them for who they are and what they bring to the organization. We acknowledge them not merely for tasks, but for the deeper intrinsic worth they add to the organization by just being there.

Recognizing an individual means successfully completing a project. Valuing someone is letting him or her know that you are glad he or she is on the team and that things wouldn’t be as good without them.

Research from several Kenexa clients that have included both value and recognition items in their surveys shows that, in general, valuing employees appears to be a driver of engagement (and often the top driver) more often than recognizing their efforts. In a limited sample of companies, feeling valued showed up as a driver 85 percent of the time, whereas recognition of efforts emerged only 30 percent of the time. Feeling valued seems to reflect a broad core of what people are looking for in an engaging work experience—that is, a primary element that connects people to their organization and motivates is a strong sense of feeling valued and appreciated. Recognition is important, but is more likely to be seen as a singular experience (event driven) than sustained (environment driven).

The two are interactive, however. Organizations that had high scores on valuing employees had higher scores on recognizing employees. But recognizing efforts didn’t always translate to people feeling valued.

Looking at dysfunctional organizations, one characteristic that emerges for some is rote recognition. These companies recognize people for anything and everything with no real purpose or thought behind it. It is as if someone was told, “recognition equals engagement” and so he or she just ran around patting everyone on the back saying “good job” regardless of the real effort or accomplishment achieved. This underscores the importance of showing your people you value, not just recognize, them.

Recognition without value, over time, will make the recognition hollow. It turns something that should be satisfying and special to employees into something rote and meaningless. Furthermore, without valuing employees, organizations fall into a dangerous zone where they fail to treat and see employees as people.

Valuing others isn’t a leadership thing, it’s a people thing, and it is probably the people thing that the majority of us cherish the most. If you think back to a moment in your life when you felt special and appreciated, it’s most likely a time when you were being valued in some way.

We can all do a better job of valuing those around us. For those doing the valuing, it’s not only rewarding, it’s where you feel the most vulnerable. This is why we don’t do it as often as we should. Instead, we censor ourselves— fearing our comments might be used against us. In most cases, it’s not a warranted fear, and the gains far outweigh any potential risk in making one’s deep appreciation of others known.

As you go through your end-of-year recognition rituals, take a few moments to show those around you how you value them. Maybe it’s because they make you feel good, or you learn something new from them every day, or they are warm to those around them, or they have the knack of diffusing tension in difficult situations, or they take care of the small stuff so you don’t have to. There are a million reasons to value others. Enough, in fact, to continue valuing others throughout the year, not just during yearend holidays.