Amway: Celebrating Meaningful Moments Every Day

Amway is the world’s largest direct selling company who manufactures and distributes products that help customers live healthier, better lives. They use employee recognition to ensure their 15,000 global employees feel appreciated and celebrated every day.

Situation

Amway was looking to integrate recognition in a meaningful way, so all their employees feel seen and valued.

“When employees don’t feel valued and don’t feel seen, they will leave. A simple thank you can brighten someone’s day. It has meaning and sparks joy. How do we create those moments in a way that make them feel part of a community?” explains Doni Lenhart, Senior Benefits Specialist.

The company worked with O.C. Tanner to develop a new recognition solution, Spark.

“We have an incredible team at O.C. Tanner. They innovate with us and help us push what’s possible.”
—Jenni Lee, Director of U.S. Benefits, Payroll, and Employee Programs

Solution

Spark, through Culture Cloud®, enables Amway to celebrate the contributions and achievements of their employees around the world. There are eCards, points, nominations, and Group Point Deposits to celebrate small wins, great work, annual company milestones, and recognition events.  

The company celebrates employee anniversaries and retirement with Yearbook™.

“Yearbook really helps us tell the stories of our employees, because everything links back to our values and who we are in our organization. The Yearbooks integrate and weave that imagery in,” says Lee.

The company also provides life event gifts, curated around Amway’s brand, for new hires, births and adoptions, graduations, marriages, and to celebrate new citizenship. They integrate their products into the recognition to celebrate what matters most to employees.

“The true gift was knowing my colleagues cared about such an important milestone in my life. After seven years of living here, I finally get to call this country home. Amway reminded me that I belong here, both in this country and in this company.”
—Employee who received a New Citizen box

Amway’s best practices for success:

1) Amway uses Spark to provide consistent and equitable recognition across the globe while also allowing flexibility to customize recognition to each region’s unique culture.

“We recommend connecting your global leads to the O.C. Tanner strategists in that local area because they can help further localize the solution to meet their needs. That’s been a huge driver of success,” explains Lenhart.

2) Amway empowers their frontline leaders to use Spark but also customize recognition to meet the needs of their teams and set team performance goals.

“Our manufacturing and distribution teams have really taken the platform and run with it in unique ways to recognize the amazing work that happens in our facilities. They are our top users—the biggest users of the mobile app to recognize on the go,” says Lenhart.

3) They build recognition into every touchpoint in the employee lifecycle.

‍Amway worked with O.C. Tanner’s Culture Consultants to ensure their recognition strategy was aligned with their employee journey. “We have a wide array of gifting opportunities at Amway, because Celebrate and Uplift Personal Worth is one of our core values. It really defines how we recognize and champion and support employees as a whole person,” says Lee. “You can create a recognition program and not carry it through. But if you build it the right way you can see results. You have to make sure you have the right strategy, all the time.”

“We integrate recognition into everything that we do. We are very intentional in how we approach it—what are those moments that we want to make matter? Where are the opportunities for employees to gain pride before they start, when they start, and when they move into their future? As they go through that journey, we bring teams together to celebrate.”
—Doni Lenhart, Senior Benefits Specialist.

Results

Amway continues to benchmark globally, find new gaps, and work with their O.C. Tanner team to identify ways to improve. “We continue to push ourselves and innovate and say what’s next. This isn’t where we stop. We must keep growing and inspiring and identify unique options to magnify the work and special events in our employees’ lives,” says Lenhart.