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Saurabh Deshpande
Saurabh Deshpande is Director of the Centre of Excellence for People & Culture (C-PAC) at Vantage Circle, a global employee engagement platform. He brings more than 20 years of experience across HR consulting and line HR, and leads the research and advisory division that helps clients drive measurable ROI from their recognition programs.
What Separates Recognition "Leaders" From Everyone Else
Before Vantage Circle, Saurabh worked with top-tier consulting firms Hewitt Associates (now Aon) and Mercer Consulting, and held line HR roles at InMobi, India's first unicorn startup. At Vantage Circle, he co-authored the company's 2025 Global Recognition and Rewards Report with Great Place to Work India, analyzing over 5.7 million employee voices to identify what he calls "recognition leaders": organizations that score highly on engagement, behavioral reinforcement, and productivity all at once. His research found these leaders don't win by spending more; they recognize three to five times more employees annually while keeping award budgets modest, largely by using the AIRe Framework, Vantage Circle's proprietary model built around appreciation, incentivization, reinforcement, and emotional connection.
Topics Saurabh speaks on
- What data separates recognition "leaders" from everyone else
- The AIRe Framework for total rewards and performance
- Why frequency and design matter more than reward size
- Building scalable HR practices for start-ups and growth-stage companies
- Measuring ROI from recognition programs
Sessions with Achieve
Saurabh is a featured presenter on the Achieve webcast "Recognition That Works: Turning Global Rewards & Recognition Insights into a Living System" (February 19, 2026), where he walked through Vantage Circle's 2025 Global Recognition and Rewards Report and the AIRe Framework, then joined colleague John Land in moderating a client panel with Amy Latham (LPL Financial), Daniel Cano (Lummus Technology), and Kaitlyn Heilweil (Edelman Financial Engines).
Connect
Want more on what the research actually says separates recognition programs that stick from the ones that don't? Learn more about the Achieve Leadership Network.