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Employee Recognition Programs: A Strategy for Success
June 05, 2008
Edited by Jeremy Cohen
It takes more than the occasional pat on the back, "thank you" or gift card to create a successful employee reward and recognition program—it takes a strategy.
That's the take-home message of a new case study by the Stanford Graduate School Business. The Stanford team had collaborated with Globoforce, Inc—a provider of on-demand strategic employee recognition solutions—to evaluate the employee recognition program the latter helped implement at financial software and services provider Intuit, Inc.
What they found was that "Spotlight," Intuit's employee recognition program had helped create a performance-driven culture just three years following implementation. Spotlight also helped motivate Intuit's workforce of 8,200 global employees through relevant, meaningful, on-the-spot rewards tied to company values.
"The Spotlight program nicely brings into focus two related issues," says Hayagreeva Rao, a Stanford Graduate School of Business professor. "Is recognition valued when it is scarce or does it work better when it is frequent, and whether recognition works best when it is a 'surprise' or when it is expected by employees."
While highly successful right from the start, Spotlight was not Intuit's first attempt at employee recognition. Three years earlier, the company had launched a catalog-based rewards program that saw strong initial success, only to stall within the first year. Plaguing the program were expensive catalog items, outdated electronic gift items and excessive delivery time on gifts. The program remained at a static, ineffective level for three years, with 5,000 to 5,500 awards given in the organization annually.
With Globoforce's aid, Management revamped the program, largely based on manager and employee feedback. Among the changes implemented:
• Awards given at Intuit jumped by 400% within the first three months.
• 85% to 90% of all eligible Intuit employees received an award within two years.
• Company-wide rewards immediately recognized a job well done. Rewards were linked to business outcomes, uniting employees behind a common goal.
• Spotlight provided a variety of gift card options, which were preferred over cash, enabling employees to choose from thousands of desirable, locally relevant gifts in the categories of stores, restaurants, entertainment and travel outlets–even charitable donations.
Spotlight was an immediate success, with 20,000 rewards given in the first year of implementation, followed by 26,000 the following year. 85% of Intuit's employees received awards each year, and employee opinion surveys showed that employees felt their accomplishments were recognized by the company. By the end of 2007, the program was embedded into the company's culture.
"Saying 'thank you' in a meaningful way is a powerful lever as part of an organization's overall performance feedback mechanisms," says Jim Grenier, vice president of human resources at Intuit. "Having the right tools that are easy for employees to use can increase adoption of a rewards program. Most importantly, however, is how the different pieces of a program are all connected to drive the right messages to teams and individuals, while building momentum for success and growth."
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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