How to Build a Business Case for Employee Recognition

A business case is a great way to present your recommendation for an employee recognition program. You can use it to either secure approval and funding prior to finding a recognition partner, or you can find a partner first, and then build your business case together.

There are seven sections to include in your business case:

1. Executive Summary
2. Introduction
3. Overview of the Business Need
4. Needs Analysis
5. Solution Options
6. Recommendations
7. Conclusion

Important: Write the executive summary last, as it needs to summarise the entire document. Commonly, this is the only section that a decision maker reads. 

Overview of the Business Need

Link this back to the organisation’s business strategy, ideally relating it to a financial impact. For example, employee recognition creates a highly-engaged staff. Data shows that highly engaged workforces have higher customer satisfaction, greater productivity, higher quality output, lower employee turnover, fewer safety incidents and higher shareholder return.

Needs Analysis

Use the needs analysis section to provide hard evidence of why this need is important to address, who it affects and how it costs the organisation.

Solution Options

It’s helpful to include a Good-Better-Best set of recognition programs options. What is the minimum action that you could take, what is the maximum, and what option fits in the middle. You might also consider an option of doing nothing. Then, discuss the benefits, risks, costs and timeline for each option. This section is also a good place for a cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate the potential gains and risks of the recognition program.

Recommendations

Provide the details of the option you’d like to implement. If you have already selected a recognition partner, that partner will help you include an outline of a project plan, implementation timeline, KPIs, measurement plan, training, communications campaign and investment summary. As part of the benefits included in this option, your partner will be able to provide recognition benchmarks, best practices and results from similar organisations and a plan for ongoing support post-launch.

Conclusion

Use this section to remind your decision-maker why it’s important to address this employee recognition as a business need; why the current system isn’t working or could work better. Make sure your recommendation is clear and the best way to address the need. Include the next steps you will take and any actions required of the decision-maker. The conclusion may seem a little redundant because of the executive summary – but remember: you should build the entire business case first, then write the summary to include the highlights of each section.