Employees want to feel valued at work. But new Women of Influence polling suggests the recognition that matters most may have less to do with praise and more to do with what happens next.

There is no shortage of advice for organizations looking to recognize employees.

Celebrate accomplishments. Say thank you. Hand out awards. Highlight great work at a town hall. Send a thoughtful note from a senior leader.

Those gestures can matter. But they may not be what employees value most.

When Women of Influence asked 5,610 LinkedIn respondents what type of recognition mattered most to them, 58 per cent chose meaningful opportunities. Tangible rewards came a distant second at 25 per cent, followed by private appreciation at 10 per cent and public acknowledgement at just seven per cent.

It is a significant distinction.

Employees are not necessarily saying they do not want appreciation. They are saying that one of the most meaningful ways to recognize what they have already accomplished is to trust them with what comes next.

Recognition can change a career

A meaningful opportunity can take many forms.

It might be leading an important client relationship, joining a high-profile project, managing a larger team, presenting to the board, gaining P&L responsibility or being considered for a stretch role before feeling completely ready for it.

Unlike a thank you, those opportunities can have a compounding effect. They create experience, visibility and relationships that can qualify someone for the next opportunity after that.

Gallup has made a similar connection between recognition and advancement, noting that recognition can help determine who receives key experiences and assignments and, ultimately, who gets promoted.

For women, that distinction matters.

The 2025 Women in the Workplace study found that women continue to receive less career support than men, particularly at the beginning and senior ends of the pipeline. Four in 10 entry-level women surveyed had not received a promotion, stretch assignment or opportunity to participate in leadership or career training in the previous two years.

The report also found that employees with sponsors had been promoted at nearly twice the rate of employees without them.

Sponsors are powerful precisely because they turn recognition into action. They do more than tell someone they are doing a good job. They advocate for that person when opportunities are being discussed.

Praise and opportunity are not interchangeable

This creates an important question for leaders.

Who gets thanked, and who gets tapped?

An employee can receive glowing performance reviews year after year without being given the assignment that would position her for promotion. She can be publicly celebrated as a strong team player without being offered the opportunity to lead the team. She can be told she has enormous potential while watching someone else receive the experience required to demonstrate it.

That is why recognition and advancement cannot be treated as completely separate conversations.

There is also a risk that some of the work for which women are most frequently recognized does not necessarily move their careers forward.

Research has long examined the disproportionate amount of non-promotable work women can take on in organizations, from administrative responsibilities to helping colleagues and supporting workplace culture. Being known as the person who will always step in can make someone extremely valuable to a team without necessarily making her more promotable.

Recognition should therefore consider not only who is contributing, but what kinds of contributions organizations are rewarding with opportunity.

The role of sponsorship

This is also where sponsorship differs fundamentally from mentorship.

A mentor provides advice. A sponsor has enough influence to put someone’s name forward for an opportunity.

Gallup describes sponsors as people who actively promote growth, provide access to opportunities and advocate for another employee’s advancement. Its research found employees with formal sponsors were 48 per cent more likely to strongly agree that their workplace offered equal opportunities to advance into senior management.

For women who have historically had less access to influential informal networks, that advocacy can be particularly important.

It also requires leaders to think differently about how talent is developed.

Instead of waiting until someone perfectly matches every requirement of a bigger role, leaders can ask what experience would help that person become ready. Instead of repeatedly giving high-profile assignments to people who have already proven themselves, they can use those assignments to develop the next generation of leaders.

Recognition should open a door

None of this means organizations should stop thanking people.

A thoughtful acknowledgement from a leader can be deeply meaningful. Compensation matters. Awards can create visibility. Celebrating success helps reinforce the behaviours an organization values.

But the Women of Influence poll suggests employees are looking for something more.

They want recognition that has momentum attached to it.

For leaders, that creates a simple test. The next time someone does exceptional work, do not only ask how you can acknowledge it.

Ask what door you can open because of it.

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