Zions Bancorporation: Strengthening Community with Recognition
Zions Bancorporation is a collection of great banks—and great people. They prioritize relationships with their clients, community, and nearly 10,000 employees in locations across the country, with affiliate banks in 11 states in the western United States. The company uses recognition to create a culture of caring and community.
Situation
Recognition has always been part of the company culture at Zions Bancorporation, with each of their affiliate banks and enterprise divisions using unique recognition tools and programs to show appreciation. The company knows recognition is key to building community and connection with their employees and clients. “Promoting a culture of recognition is a tool to support really strong relationships and encourage behaviors that translate into positive business outcomes,” says Jamie Issowits, SVP HR Manager.
A recent employee survey found the strongest driver of employee satisfaction is feeling appreciated and valued. But while many employees within each bank could recognize one another, there was no easy way for employees to recognize across banks, locations, or divisions.
As certain functions within the company began to centralize, HR leaders decided to create a recognition platform to help streamline and facilitate more effective, consistent recognition within and across bank and back-office functions and various locations. The company partnered with O.C. Tanner, as they could tailor the recognition platform to each group’s varying needs. “Our customization needs could be met through O.C. Tanner’s platform,” says Issowits. “They are so receptive to listening and providing constant communication. We really value the partnership, proactiveness, and how engaged they are.”
Solution
Zions Bancorporation’s Value You platform, powered by Culture Cloud®, allows all employees to recognize one another, no matter where they work, with eCards and award nominations. Value You launched with an educational webinar to get people excited about the new recognition tools, a targeted communication strategy customized to each affiliate bank and division, and promotion in quarterly all-employee calls with executive leadership.
Each affiliate bank had their own recognition tools and program, but everyone was siloed so you couldn’t recognize across department or state lines. Value You now makes that very easy,” explains Kim Hagans, HR Program Administrator. “It’s so user-friendly, the transition was seamless.”
Employees love the Outlook integration and mobile app, which makes recognition easy, and HR leaders enjoy seeing the live stats through the dashboards and recognition via the Social Wall. “The Social Wall is uplifting—it’s so great to read the words of recognition that people are sharing constantly,” says Issowits. Group point deposits are also used widely to recognize great work. “It’s such a great tool for managers and groups to customize the recognition with their brand, logo, and award employees are receiving,” adds Hagans.
“The launch of Value You has brought a lot more prioritization of fostering a culture of recognition across the organization.”
—Jamie Issowits, HR Manager
Value You is a nice complement to Zions Bancorporation’s long-time Anniversaries program, which awards employees celebrating career milestones with a YearbookTM filled with peer and leader comments, and a custom numeral with a landscape background featuring scenery found in the Western US. They also give a branded retirement box and generous gift to retiring employees.
Recognition and the Value You program are promoted well at Zions Bancorporation. Local leaders send regular communication about the importance of recognition, leaders often receive direct emails reminding them to recognize. “Once a manager uses Value You, they keep using it again and again because they see results and the impact of using the platform,” says Issowits. Value You is promoted in benefits fairs and group trainings, featured in the company’s Wellness Wednesday Webinars, and championed through engaged users throughout the company.
Zion Bancorporation’s CEO, Harris Simmons, regularly shares with employees how important recognition is to him and uses the Value You platform himself. He calls employees who are celebrating big milestones directly to congratulate them. “He’s so personally invested in recognition. To see the CEO being that committed to our culture of recognition is really incredible,” says Issowits. Prioritizing recognition has trickled down to other senior leaders as well; on the top of the agenda for the new President of the National Bank of Arizona is to send eCards through the Value You program to celebrate upcoming employee anniversaries. “We are trying to make upcoming anniversaries more transparent and make people aware of the Value You program, and there’s no better way to do that than to use the tools themselves,” says Hagans.
Results
Since the launch of Value You, Zions Bancorporation has seen:
- 131,874 recognition moments in 2023 (361 recognition moments per day)
- 91% of employees have used the platform
- Recognition has also helped strengthen relationships between back office and front-line staff
Hagans has seen an increase in people using Value You, particularly Group Deposits, for their local and individual recognition programs. She also started sending direct emails to managers to remind them of upcoming anniversaries and to write comments in employees’ Yearbooks, and began posting upcoming anniversaries internally to enhance the communication around the importance of recognizing milestone anniversaries. As a result:
- 94% of Yearbooks include peer comments (up from 71% prior)
- 91% of Yearbooks include leader comments (up from 77% prior)
Value You has helped support the culture of recognition throughout the organization. It’s helped build community, reinforce behaviors that align with company values and strengthen connection for employees, which translates into better relationships with clients and the communities they serve.
