More employers are turning to employee recognition programs to answer the challenge of employee retention, a Society for Human Resource Management survey finds.

The SHRM survey shows that respondents considered employee retention/turnover to be their top workforce management challenge in 2016. Almost one-half of the surveyed organizations (46%) cited it as a top challenge in 2016.

The other top workforce management challenges cited by at least one-third of organizations were employee engagement (36%), recruitment (34%) and succession planning (33%).

The majority of respondents indicated that their employee recognition programs had positive impacts on employee engagement, workplace culture, retention and employee happiness.

More organizations also are tying employee recognition efforts to their core values with good results. Overall, 81% of the organizations surveyed reported having employee recognition programs, and 60% said their programs were tied to their organizational core values, an jump from the 50% who reported the same thing in 2012.

“HR professionals were more likely to rate their organization's employee recognition efforts highly if the program was tied to organizational values compared with those that were not tied to values," said Tanya Mulvey, the survey’s lead researcher.

Programs tied to organizational values saw greater benefits regarding return on investment (70% vs. 38%); instilling and reinforcing corporate values (88% vs. 57%); and maintaining a strong employer brand (80% vs. 49%).

Additionally, when employers dedicate 1% of their payroll to recognition programs tied to their values, it results in greater impacts on financial outcomes such as cost-control goals and ROI.

The survey also found that many organizations also choose to use other retention efforts, including deploying health and wellness programs (81%), and learning and development programs (80%)