Global Manufacturing Company: Becoming an Aspirational Employer Brand Through Rewards and Recognition

A global manufacturing company believes in providing the best employee experience for their people.  As one of India’s leading tire manufacturers with a strong global presence, the company is a forward-thinking, innovative, customer-centric company, with a goal to be an aspirational brand for talent and a great place to work for its employees.

Situation

The company’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources, strongly believes employees want to see a link between their work and what the organization accomplishes. “While compensation is very important, the intrinsic motivation and public recognition can be more important: knowing my work impacts the organization, feeling that I’m significant, that people care for me and consider me as part of the larger organization ecosystem.”

The company recently looked to identify what would make them a great place to work. What do employees look forward to at work? “We found having a robust reward and recognition mechanism is vital to create a culture of appreciation and performance, and we wanted to strengthen that,” explains the SVP of HR.

While recognition was happening in the organization, it wasn’t given consistently or in a timely manner. Different areas of the company were providing different recognition experiences. Recognition framework and experiences needed to be enhanced. Being a quality organisation, the team conducted an assessment of the current rewards and recognition framework, conducting in-depth insighting interviews, sending out a user feedback survey, and examining the touchpoints of the rewards and recognition experiences employees were currently having.

The team was looking to create continuity in recognition usage as well as have the ability to give spot, quarterly, and annual awards. After searching for a potential partner, they selected O.C. Tanner’s technical platform for administering eCards and Spot Awards with a social wall, at a reasonable cost.

“We wanted a dedicated framework and platform for rewards and recognition, and a framework which makes instantaneous rewarding a habit—something that gets engraved in the DNA of the company and all our employees. At the same time, the quarterly and annual awards part of the framework ensure that good work and effort are recognized at a bigger platform and our employees get rewarded for it,” says the SVP of HR.

“We wanted a dedicated platform for rewards and recognition, and a framework which makes instantaneous rewarding a habit—something that gets engraved in the DNA of the company and all our employees.”
—SVP of HR

Solution

The new recognition platform, powered by Culture Cloud®, empowers every employee to recognize outstanding contributions through ecards, spot awards, and quarterly and annual awards for performance. The company’s CEO sent a custom eCard to all employees to introduce the employee recognition software.  

“Whether it's day-to-day accomplishments or above-and-beyond results, we recognize, honor, and celebrate the individuals and teams who are at the core of our success,” says a manager.   

The platform allows employees to immediately recognize and reward one another for their contributions and has a Wall of Fame to give employees instant visibility across the organization for their achievements. In the first year, 65% of their employees received a recognition award—over 14,000 awards across locations.

Senior leaders encourage their managers to give recognition often. Employees enjoy the consistency and immediacy of the recognition, but also the visibility that the Wall of Fame brings.

The company knows recognition is something everyone wants, but sometimes forget to give to others. They’ve set the expectation that each month, every manager gives at least 2 awards each month, and set up ongoing “recognition weeks” to promote the program. These gentle reminders have resulted in slow, steady, consistent growth in usage. “The platform has provided visibility and people know their work is being seen, which gives satisfaction to many employees,” says the SVP of HR.

He credits the business unit leaders in helping make the program successful. “We are more successful when our line partners embrace the program, so it’s not just HR pushing it. They help us take the value of the program and cascade it down. Our job is to bring these programs on board, but it’s their contribution that makes it work,” he says.

“[Recognition] encourages us to come up with innovative ideas to improve product and process quality to keep our customers happy at all times.”
—Manager

Results

The company has seen a tremendous impact of recognition on employee motivation as well as collaboration and performance on teams. Recognition has inspired employees to be proactive in breaking down barriers and achieve cross-functional teamwork. Employees have overcome functional boundaries to work towards the company vision and purpose without feeling insecure about their individual functional agendas. And it’s had a huge impact on performance. 

“Recognition encourages employees to go above and beyond their role, help others, and seek help from others. This platform has impacted the motivation of our people. Employees are contributing significantly. In all of the company’s performance, financial metrics, and efficiency parameters, you can see the reflection of recognition,” says the SVP of HR.

The company looks forward to growing recognition even more: reaching 100% usage, expanding the program to incorporate other types of recognition, and including the family in the recognition experience.

They have also embarked on a journey to provide continuous learning and improve the quality of life for all employees. By setting aside approved time for learning and providing new e-learning opportunities, as well as implementing various wellness initiatives and adjusting company policies to further work-life balance, the company is actively creating a culture where employees can be and do their best work.

It’s these types of initiatives, and their robust employee recognition programs, that are creating a workplace culture where employees can thrive and are quickly making them an employer of choice in India.

“Recognition encourages employees to go above and beyond their role, help others, and seek help from others. This platform has impacted the motivation of our people. Employees are contributing significantly. In all of the company’s performance, financial metrics, and efficiency parameters, you can see the reflection of recognition.”
—Senior Vice President of Manufacturing

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