AAA–The Auto Club Group: Celebrate as One—Creating a Recognition Culture Where Employees Thrive

AAA–The Auto Club Group’s mission is to ensure AAA members enjoy life’s journey with peace of mind. They achieve this by offering advocacy and innovative solutions, including membership benefits for automotive services, travel, finance, and insurance, whenever and wherever needed. And it’s their people who are the source of their great services. ACG has transformed their decades-old recognition programs to one that helps create a culture where their 9,000 employees thrive.

Situation

The Auto Club Group (ACG) celebrated career anniversaries and implemented various ad-hoc recognition programs across different locations. However, they needed a more efficient system to align and track these recognition activities and their associated costs. As ACG continues to grow, they frequently adjust and rebrand to meet evolving company goals and employee needs.

“We’ve been doing recognition for over 40 years. We’ve seen tremendous growth. Our world has changed, our population has changed, our products and services have changed,” explains Eric Bain, AVP of HR Optimization.

The company wanted to establish an enterprise-wide recognition platform, expand recognition, improve access to recognition tools, and establish metrics to measure recognition impact. They needed a solution that was flexible for their business units and provided meaningful recognition to their employees. They turned to O.C. Tanner for help.

“Our partnership with O.C. Tanner has been tremendous. They’ve brought in everyone to support us. They brought the research, creative, consulting. They give us options, accessibility, and flexibility.”
—Eric Bain, AVP of HR Optimization

“The data and research that O.C. Tanner has helps us tell our story of heart to executives. It helps us tell the story of why we need to do recognition,” says Megan Williams, CHRO.

Solution

ACG’s Celebrate as One recognition solution includes eCards, award nominations, Initiatives to recognize and incentivize specific behaviors or accomplishments, and career milestones (including a Yearbook^TM and branded Numerals). The new recognition platform improves the accessibility, inclusivity, and alignment of recognition.

All employees can give and receive recognition, and mobile capabilities and Outlook and Teams integrations improve access to recognition tools. All territories are on the same platform, and the Initiatives feature allows leaders to create their own recognition campaigns, criteria, award values, and approval paths. Budgeting tools enable leaders to better see their team’s budget and prevent overspending, and new metrics measure program activity as well as cultural and business impact.

New physical and virtual Yearbooks celebrate career anniversaries in a meaningful way. “Each part of this new program provides appreciation to peers throughout all stages of the employee life cycle, from our individual contributors to executives. This redesign allows more opportunities for everyone to be appreciated,” says Toi Johnson, Employee Programs and Experience Specialist.

“One of the biggest things we did in our program refresh is aligned recognition to our core values. Instead of generic reasons to recognize, recognition is aligned to who we want to be,” says Bain. ACG provided training and communication about Celebrate as One and how to recognize in meaningful ways that are aligned to the company’s core values, so employees know how their work directly impacts the organization’s mission.

A crucial part of Celebrate as One’s success is ACG’s recognition champions team, who were pivotal in building engagement and adoption. Their 181 champions are employee volunteers who help promote a culture of appreciation every day. Armed with a new recognition champion logo and branded swag, training and alignment, and passion, champions are empowered to make changes and customizations in the platform. They prepare and present training, communication pieces, and events about Celebrate as One, and inspire and influence peers to recognize. Champions also provide real-time feedback to ACG on how to improve recognition tools and experiences.

“Our champions network operates in 3 roles. Trainers focus on educating. Coaches focus on engaging. Influencers work on promoting recognition with all forms of media,” says Johnson.

“Champions feel so empowered to create things to make a difference in their workplace and they are very inspired. The two ways they help most with engagement and usage is in communicating messages and providing us feedback.”

“I get to share something that’s powerful and wonderful and encourage employees to pass that along to their peers. Empowering others to understand the importance of recognition is what’s great about being an appreciation champion on the front line,” says Steven McLemore, Member Representative and a recognition champion. Chat groups for recognition champions, breakout sessions where they can learn and create together, and book clubs help engage and connect them. “I love to see people smile and laugh. We try to support each other. And recognition helps us do that,” says McLemore.

“Our champions program is so vital to the overall success of ACG as it provides the opportunity to recognize team members. My efforts have a powerful impact on the overall morale and well-being. Simply put, I find joy and am passionate about making someone’s day,” says another champion.

Results

As a result of transforming recognition, ACG has seen improvements in usage, alignment, and culture:

• 97% of employees recognized
• 33,000 ecards sent each year
• 89,000 award nominations given
• The score for “I feel valued by ACG” is up 7%
• “My manager recognizes great work” improved 5%
• “I am recognized for outstanding performance” increased 7%

For the first time in its history, ACG has been recognized as a Top Workplace for the past four years. They have received Top Workplace culture awards for Innovation, Remote Work, and DE&I Practices as well as regional awards from the Detroit Free Press, Charlotte Observer, and Tampa Bay Times. Additionally, organizational effectiveness has improved with each initiative.

“We’ve seen critical improvements in sense of belonging and engagement, which ultimately reduces turnover and improves organizational health. We’ve seen it working, and it helps us build a culture of who we want to be,” explains Bain.

“We’re always looking for ways to improve the employee experience. Launching a new solution was a huge learning experience with ups and downs, but we use the data to tell the story of why recognition matters,” adds Williams.

“We have the opportunity, especially with everything that is happening in the world today, to step up our game and value the wonderful people we have here at ACG. What we are seeing right now is that companies who truly value their people are going to not just survive but thrive.”
—Senior Executive, ACG