Global Metal Manufacturing Company: Instant recognition that leads to a high-performance culture

“Recognition takes such little effort and creates instant joy”
—CHRO

SITUATION

One of the world’s largest metal manufacturing companies counts on their over 20,000 employees as their defining resource.

The company’s recognition strategy included annual and Chairman’s awards for major accomplishments, as well as award nominations for individual and team contributions. They were searching for a way to celebrate everyday wins and recognize the day-to-day achievements of their people. Through this, they also wanted to empower employees to recognize colleagues for their extra efforts in the right way.

SOLUTION

The company partnered with O.C. Tanner to create a solution to recognize the day-to-day achievements of their people. This platform provides instant recognition as well as a social wall to share accomplishments across the organization. “It’s been seven years since we launched, and we have had multiple changes and updates on this platform and recognition methods to remain relevant to users with the changing times. Our partnership with O.C. Tanner has been wonderful,” says their Leader of Organization Effectiveness.

Their new recognition solution with O.C. Tanner added three new key features to their recognition strategy.

1. Empowered leaders to recognize.

One of the key features is that there is no approval block. You don’t need any special authorization—everyone is empowered to recognize everyone.

2. Introduced a social Wall of Fame to showcase employee accomplishments.

Now recognition is visible across the organization, and employees can not only see their colleagues’ great work but can also cheer them on with likes and comments. The cross-functional and social aspects of recognition help motivate employees even more because others will see their accomplishments.

3. It’s in the hands of people all the time.

A mobile app makes it easy for employees to give recognition anywhere, anytime.

Keeping recognition top of mind

The company launched their new solution with a celebration that included senior leaders. A special edition of the quarterly employee newsletter was dedicated to recognition and included testimonials about the initial experiences of employees on the platform. This was backed up by a full six-month communication plan and initial training for unit-level administrators.

Each year on the anniversary of the launch, the company celebrates appreciation month, with activities and events to promote the program and encourage people to recognize. Past events have included recognition workshops with theater artists and managers to kick off dialogues on recognition, giveaways for employees on the shop floor, and creating an appreciation corner in each unit.

RESULTS

The new recognition solution has been well received by employees and has seen tremendous results:

• Recognition usage has gone from 15% to 70% over the past seven years
• Scores for “When my work is good, my contributions and accomplishments are recognized” on the recent employee survey increased 3 points (6 points higher than other high-performance companies).
• Overall employee engagement also increased 5 points to 86%.
  

“People live the new behaviors and if we can quickly recognize that, what better way to cement the changes that we want in our culture,” says the company’s CHRO.

Recognition reinforces the behaviors that lead to a high-performance culture. “It motivates employees to work more and deliver better on a continuous basis.”

“Whatever gets recognized gets repeated. It’s a very powerful tool in shaping our teams and building the culture of our organization.”
—President of HR, Learning, and Talent

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