A UK insurance company: Recognition in an uncertain time

The challenge

The goal – Embedding company values through OneHub | Recognition

After introducing a culture transformation programme, the insurance company were well on their way to developing a working culture that delivers the best possible people experiences to all staff.

Two years into the transformation, along with a refreshed set of values (renamed principles), the natural progression was implementing a social recognition tool.

With new values (or, as they call them, principles) including ‘Customers First’, ‘Think Big’ and ‘Inspire’, their revamped core principles revolve around everyone as a customer, taking responsibility, collaboration, being open and challenging.

OneHub | Recognition was the perfect accompaniment – an intuitive social platform focussed on peer-to-peer interaction that would be the ideal companion to the company’s refreshed employee value proposition.

Not only could OneHub | Recognition reinforce the company’s new principles by encouraging employees to recognise their colleagues against these very behaviours, but it would nurture existing interdepartmental relationships, and help cultivate new ones.

“We’ve seen a definite culture shift. Some people have been with us 15/20 years, and a year ago they were still working to the old ways; whereas now both with new people and long-time employees they can see why we actually needed to change, and they’re changing as well.” – HR Operations Manager

The solution

Launching in uncertain times

Benifex and the customer planned to launch OneHub | Recognition – under the name Spotlight – to employees in mid-March 2020. First, they needed to make Spotlight a reality.

To do this, Benifex’s recognition and communication experts worked closely with the HR team to create their very own recognition brand, tailored to the insurer’s values, culture, and people. This included:

• An intuitive, easy-to-use desktop site
• Branded iPhone and Android apps
• Recognition TV, which allowed the Spotlight feed to be displayed with live stats, anywhere, in real-time!

Unfortunately, despite best-laid launch plans, Spotlight’s launch had to be quickly put on hold when the UK went into lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At first, it seemed Spotlight’s launch would be pushed back, but after an influx of employee shoutouts and requests for public thanks during their virtual town hall meetings, it was clear that recognition was needed more than ever because of Covid-19. Teams like the IT department, who usually functioned in the background, were now being publicly recognised. And, despite teams being separated and working remotely, recognition was becoming more frequent than ever: all they needed was a platform. Despite the uncertainty, lockdown was in fact the perfect time to launch Spotlight.

Seeing the pressing need for recognition, the team decided to bring the launch of Spotlight forward, despite the difficulties presented by a virtual launch to an all-remote workforce. Spotlight kicked off with a launch campaign provided by Benifex, introducing the company’s employees to the platform and encouraging engagement.

A manager-specific training course was also given, to promote top-down interaction from kick-off. A few weeks after the initial launch, they offered a prize draw to maintain engagement and spark interest from those who had not yet interacted with the platform – for every recognition people gave they would be entered with a chance to win an Amazon voucher.

Results

Just one week after launching Spotlight, employee engagement was at 25% – a level other businesses usually garner after several months. While momentum of engagement with any new platform typically builds over time, the insurer’s employees were immediate enthusiasts.

It was clear that the very circumstances disrupting (and then accelerating) launch had created the perfect environment for recognition to thrive. With such a timely launch, employee engagement skyrocketed:

• 40% of employees logged on in the first week.
• 64% engagement score (10% higher than average).
• 70% of recognitions are team-based.

The power of ‘thank you’

While Spotlight was a clear hit with employees, it also gave administrators some fantastic insights into their people and culture.

Thanks to the analytical capabilities of OneHub | Recognition, administrators can see when recognitions are given, as well as who is being recognised. The company’s HR team noticed employees using Spotlight in the evening, on weekends, and are able to see first-hand which employees are championing their new culture.

One impressive statistic shows over 70% of recognitions are awarded to a whole team, the highest level we’ve seen on OneHub | Recognition so far. OneHub | Recognition offers the ability to recognise individuals, multiple people, or even a whole department. Employees consistently give full-team recognitions; truly living and breathing their values of teamwork and collaboration.

“We’ve found Spotlight is so useful for quickly showing your appreciation or saying ‘thanks’ to someone. You can do it between meetings, while waiting for your coffee or on Saturday when you suddenly remember. I know from being on the receiving end that it makes you feel so good to be recognised, so if by recognising someone else I’m making them feel good too – that’s fantastic.” – A happy team manager