Talent & Tech Asia Summit 2024
The 5 types of employee personas and how to reward them

The 5 types of employee personas and how to reward them

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While the Socialisers and Achievers respond positively to more public recognition, the Taskers and Coasters prefer smaller presentations. Here's a quick, handy guide to identifying and recognising each persona.

With each employee personality, comes a preferred form of recognition at the workplace - some are big on monetary rewards (bonuses, incentives), while others would prefer verbal forms of recognition.

At the same time, some employees may enjoy a company-wide announcement on their achievements, while others would prefer a more intimate setting. 

In line with this, O.C. Tanner's 2022 Global Culture report has identified the five common types of employee personas and their preferred forms of recognition, as a guide when planning out or enhancing your rewards and recognition strategy.

Each persona is scored out of 10 for the following forms of recognition:

  • e-card
  • Monetary e-card
  • Public
  • Public + monetary

Persona #1: The Socialiser

On a score out of 10, this persona scored between seven and eight for preferring public and monetary recognition, six to seven for public recognition, a solid six for monetary e-card, and just below six for e-card.

Persona #2: The Tasker

This persona's most preferred form of recognition is public and monetary combined (score = eight), followed by a monetary e-card (six), e-card (between five to six) and public recognition (score of four).

That said, the report noted that for the often-introverted taskers, public praise has a negative effect on them, but eCards and monetary eCards are found to increase connection.

Persona #3: The Builder

Out of 10, the tasker scores an eight for public and monetary recognition, just slight more than only public recognition. Meanwhile, this persona also prefers monetary e-cards (between seven to eight) over an e-card (between six to seven).

According to the report, any form of recognition builds connection for this persona.

Persona #4: The Coaster

The coaster's least favourite form of recognition out of the four defined is e-cards, scoring a five out of10 for this; while monetary e-cards scored between five to six out of 10; public recognition scored a six, and finally, public and monetary recognition emerged top with a score of between six to seven.

Per the report, coasters are "highly responsive" to recognition with a significant lift in great work (19 times higher probability) when it occurs, as are taskers (4.5 times higher probability) and socialisers (4 times higher probability).

Persona #5: The Achiever

The achiever, also known as the more outgoing persona, scored the highest among its counterparts when it came to public and monetary recognition, scoring between nine to 10 out of 10.

The next closest score came for public recognition (between eight to nine). At the same time, both e-cards and monetary e-cards scored about an eight out of 10.

Overall, across all personas, the report highlighted that not every employee wants to be recognised in the same way with the same type of experience or award. The more reward-receptive groups (i.e., socialisers and achievers) respond positively to more public recognition, while taskers and coasters prefer smaller presentations.

Meanwhile, achievers want recognition to connect them to purpose, and both builders and achievers like a senior leader to be part of the experience.

Rewards and recognition ideas for each persona

Now that you know what each type of persona prefers, here are some ideas on how to recognise their efforts and reward them:

priya sep 2021 oc tanner 2022 global culture report employee personas recognition rewards 123rf


Lead image / 123RF

Table / O.C. Tanner

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