MODERATOR: Alright. Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's O.C. Tanner webinar. Thank you for joining us. We're gonna be talking about elevating your employer brand with recognition.
This webinar will be recorded and available later today. If you're submitting for HRCI or SHRM credentials, we'll share those codes at the end of the webinar.
Today, I'm pleased to introduce our two speakers.
Selma Mlikota is the director of marketing award lines here at O.C. Tanner. She has over twenty-five years of experience in leadership roles across sales, people operations, and marketing.
Selma is joined by Kelly Olsen, vice president, creative services at O.C. Tanner. Kelly partners with our clients and creative teams to create breakthrough brands and strategic communications that build awareness, deepen connection and change behavior inside the world's biggest and best company cultures. And with that, I'll turn the time over to you, Selma, and Kelly.
KELLY: Thank you. Thank you, Raven. Hi, everybody.
Selma and I are excited to be with you today to talk about the impact recognition can have on your employer brands.
And we're here to share some ideas that are relevant to all of us as we create workplaces that are productive and really good for people.
And of course, there are plenty of challenges that we're facing as HR teams.
Workers continue to call for flexible working situations and our organizations are figuring out just what that looks like to us.
And we wanna take advantage of the opportunities that flexible work give us, while we continue to develop workplace culture and maintain team cohesion and ensure consistent lines of communication.
And of course, part of that challenge is creating unique in-person experiences that employees value enough so that they'll want to get into their car or catch a train and actually come into the workplace.
And on top of all of these shifting expectations, we're seeing Gen-Z enter the workforce as well. And they're bringing in a lot of unique priorities to us.
Concerns like work life balance, diversity and inclusion, and continuous education are just a few that seem to rise to the top.
And actually educating and then re-educating our entire workforce is really imperative.
Empowering growth and teaching workers how to best utilize new technology and AI, as I'm sure you've heard, they're going to be essential to every business.
And all of this represents very real investments in our people. They become incredibly valuable assets to our companies and to other companies as well.
So to retain our very best talent, we in HR really have to give them reasons to stay.
And so these are just some of the challenges that we hear about when we speak with our clients. And I'm sure you resonate maybe with at least a couple of these. And there's really no clear roadmap for us.
We're all learning and we're all creating solutions in real time. And so we thought today what we'd do is we would dig into the power of employer brand and the benefits that that can bring to all of our organizations. Right, Selma?
SELMA: Yes. So true. And, in recent years, employer brands have become really a hot topic, right? They've been positioned as a top tool that helps all of us in people teams articulate value to our employees and helps us attract and retain the right workers.
And, just to be clear, you know, what is an employer brand? We love this definition from Harvard Business Review which says basically that your employer brand is made out of three things. The first one being your reputation, or how your organization is perceived in the talent market, by job seekers.
The second one is your EVP (employee value proposition) and we like to say that your EVP should answer the basic questions that every employee has on their mind which is, why should I work for you and what's in it for me?
Basically your EVP is the give and get, the expectations for performance and behavior. And then on the other hand, the rewards employees can expect from meeting those.
And then lastly, the employee experience, which plays a huge role in building your brand and your reputation as a place where people want to work and grow their careers.
And this employee experience is simply your ability to deliver on your EVP. And when people meet those certain expectations, and they're rewarded accordingly, they feel good about where they work and they have positive work experiences.
And today, Kelly and I are here to talk about the one thing that will actually impact all three which is one kind of a must have, that gives you real bang for your bucks as you grow your employer brand. And obviously, you know, we're talking about recognition.
As we consult with our clients and help them truly integrate recognition into their employee experience, we see that it helps their organizations accomplish things that are crucial for building their reputation, their EVP, as well as their entire employee experience.
So today, we're gonna take some time to maybe share six specific ways we see recognition and how it boosts employer brand for the clients that we work with. And we will share some examples and success stories from, you know, our real O.C. Tanner clients and prospects. So let's just dive into each one of these.
Let's talk a little bit about how do you embed your purpose and values?
And one thing that sets your organization apart from others is, in this particular job market, your unique purpose and value. Why is your organization doing the work and how do you go about doing it?
And ideally, you want to attract workers who love your purpose and who deeply identify with your values.
And those candidates then become people who help grow your business and define your corporate culture for years to come.
And recognition, we feel, is a wonderful tool to help you really show what you stand for and to embed your purpose and values in the fabric of the teams, and their everyday experiences.
So, gonna share this example from our wonderful client called Marvell Technology.
They are a tech company and their goal is making technology that connects the whole world, right, technology that keeps us all connected.
You'll find Marvell Technology in all kinds of industries.
They are in transportation, in health, in manufacturing, and there's so much more. And what they do is actually pretty awesome.
They actually create and manufacture the silicone wafers that, you know, store and secure and transfer data. They literally help networks run fast and stay secure all around the world.
And when Marvell partnered with us to create an award to honor their employees' years of service, they had a vision of a custom award that wasn't just a beautiful object that would sit on a shelf, but also showed what they're really about, which is being at the forefront of innovation and shaping our future, right, technological future.
So in our planning meetings, we talked a lot what materials and shapes, you know, we could kind of use for this particular custom award.
And in the end, they chose wood, which really is cool choice because wood is a material that naturally kind of symbolizes growth and progress.
And then if you look at this design, central to the design is an actual retired silicone semi-conductor, which is a physical piece of their groundbreaking work.
And this wasn't done merely by, you know, as a decorative choice.
It was a way for Marvell to make their innovation tangible to their employees.
Putting a real piece of their tech into each award shows how proud they are of their work and shows their dedication to pushing that technology forward.
And a cool thing about this choice is that for a lot of their so-called, like, tech wizards and, you know, software geniuses, this might be the first time they get to see and touch the heart of what they work on, especially because these chips and these wafers are manufactured offshore, and many of the software developers are actually here in the US. And so this makes the huge impact of their work really feel real and tangible and personal.
So just a great example of Marvell's way of weaving that mission and values into something that is as special as an award they are giving to their employees.
It's just a really nice way to say thank you. And making it as groundbreaking as the tech that they come up with.
KELLY: That is a great story. Those are beautiful and so cool.
Well, this is an idea that Starbucks uses in every one of their stores across the country. These are easy to use thank you cards.
They call them green apron cards because all of their people wear green aprons in their stores and they're really meant to encourage their employees to look for the Starbucks values in action and then recognize their peers with these cards on the spot.
And when we ask our leaders and our teammates to look for values in action, it means that they have to really understand what those values mean. And when we ask them to celebrate people for bringing them to life, it makes those values, specific behaviors the heroes of the organization.
And so it also makes it clear that work that is aligned to our values is the most celebrated and most crucial.
And so it's our goal to make this type of recognition simple and meaningful and inclusive.
And these Starbucks screen apron cards have been part of the team experience for a long time, for years, and we recently had a chance to redesign the cards into this beautiful set that you see here.
And each card features a custom illustration that's aligned to their master brand and that represents each Starbucks value.
And individually, they are so beautiful. But when you put them all together, all five of the illustrations together, they actually form one big image. And this is a detail that allowed us to communicate how values and people are best when they work together.
And the illustrations also kind of serve to be a little bit of a collectible element as well.
And so these new creative paper cards really inspired Starbucks so much that they decided to convert the set of illustrations into a single life size mural that is now hanging in their London office.
So we love this and it's another great reminder of their values that they all share and what they mean to the organization.
So on our way to the next way that recognition can really elevate your employer brand. And that is, it can inspire people to do their best work. Now one thing that we really want as people from the work experience is that feeling of growth.
I really don't think anyone joins a new organization with the aim to coast or to stagnate or to just stay the same.
We all wanna progress. We wanna contribute.
We wanna do work that we can be proud of. And of course, you and your organization want this too.
And people doing their best work is really the fuel behind any company's success.
And when we know, or when people know that their hard work and their efforts are seen and valued and appreciated, they feel that.
They feel inspired and they wanna do their very best work. And recognition can really help motivate people to deliver again and again.
So we wanna share a Navy Federal Credit Union. They are a great example of this. Navy Federal is the world's largest credit union.
With approximately twenty-four thousand employees, they are serving over thirteen million members who represent all branches of the US armed forces and their families.
And Navy Federal has partnered with O.C. Tanner to help them create a new recognition experience that facilitates more meaningful recognition moments across the entire organization.
And when we began, they wanted to really find new ways to inspire and really unify their people.
And that's when Celebrate You was born to help them really prioritize community, integrity and service into their work every single day.
And if we want to truly inspire people, we must connect with every single employee authentically and emotionally.
So our teams at O.C. Tanner work really hard to understand the details of our client's brand, their culture, their goals. And with that understanding, we create compelling branded employee experiences.
And in the case of Navy Federal, the brand that we've created for them really echoes the warmth and positive feel and personal nature of their master brand.
And their look and feel, the look and feel that we've developed are celebratory and friendly and really demonstrate that each person can make an impact and deserve to be recognized for their effort.
And we use the branded look and the crafted messages to create a real consistent and cohesive experience that builds with each and every touch point.
SELMA: Yes. So we took the same brand and carried it into physical awards as well. It's to keep that consistent and cohesive experience. So as you can see here, we've created an ecosystem that really feels connected and purposeful and unified when it comes to our recognition brand.
What you're looking at on your screen is a Careerscape, a personalized, customized, collectible award given to each employee at Navy Federal that grows with an employee's career.
These are not static trophies that sit on a shelf. They are living stories. They evolve with each milestone and each success.
They actually feature a fully customized acrylic background, in this case, with blue, Navy Federal blue colors.
But they are really colorful, digital prints and obviously customized to capture the history and personality of of your organization.
And then the foundation of each award is either made out of aluminum or a warm wood, featuring three rows that are designed to host a collection of custom icons.
Now when we look at these icons, you know, these are not just decorative icons that sit in a Careerscape. They're honestly more badges of honor that each represent a significant achievement in an employee's career.
Each specific icon tells a story of a significant moment in a person's career. Now some of these symbols might commemorate company-wide triumph or in the case of Navy Federal, they celebrate their 90th anniversary, and they gave everybody an icon to celebrate that. But some icons are also accolades for a team or even personal achievement.
And as the NFCU recognition ecosystem took root, we ended up witnessing a beautiful transformation.
What started as a recognition program almost blossomed into a movement. NFCU employees started looking ahead and envisioning and thinking about their next career milestone, each potential icon to add to their Careerscape.
People wondered, you know, what's the next chapter in my Careerscape? And so we keep coming up with new icons celebrating new achievements.
But then there's also times when we need to celebrate something really special maybe a career pinnacle, such as the case of the Lockard Award for NFCU, one of their biggest awards of the year. So very few selected people in the organization will receive this honor and this achievement.
So again, we got to work and we created an award as a beautiful, big, heavy, solid crystal trophy, echoing the achievement and that really feels worthy of the occasion, and at the same time fits seamlessly into their recognition ecosystem.
But then additionally to that, the recipients actually take the miniature trophy, a miniature icon that is the symbolic representation of their achievement that is then added to their Careerscape.
So again, as Kelly explained, the goal here is to create a unified recognition program that celebrates each person's unique journey, but also shows how their particular journey is connected to your company's common goal.
You want to be able to highlight how every job and every task helps tell that bigger story of your organization so that everybody feels noticed and valued and appreciated, which in turn will motivate them to give their best effort.
And then moving on to the third point on how recognition can help you elevate your employer brand is connecting people to each other.
If you've learned anything over the last few years of remote and hybrid work, that is that creating and maintaining strong connections among team members is really essential if we want to create the best possible employee experience.
The connections we make at work really boost our morale and they make us happier day by day.
They make it more likely that we'll come up with new ideas and we will work well together. And if you don't have those personal connections, then things just don't run as smoothly. Right?
And according to O.C. Tanner's global culture reports, we've actually found out that there's a three times higher likelihood that employees will leave an organization within the first three years if they don't feel connected to their leaders and teams. And that's a significant investment when you have your people turning over that frequently.
But people really want to work for organizations that facilitate those meaningful and purposeful connections, and recognition, again, is one of the most powerful ways that you can use to connect leaders to their teams, and team member and to a team member, and then teams and departments across your entire organization.
So, you might ask yourself, like, how do you do that? You know, how do you create those meaningful connections?
And we tend to think that storytelling is a powerful tool that you can use to create those connections.
If you think about that throughout human history, we've always been storytellers and symbol users. You know, we've drawn on cave walls and we've carved into stone and we told tales around the campfires and we've done all of this to share to remember and to belong.
And in today's workplaces, we continue this tradition with symbolic awards.
We think of our symbolic awards as modern day cave paintings that tell the story of our collective journey.
And we just love symbols because they transcend the language.
If you look at this image filled with different symbols.
Maybe if you pay attention to the flags here, you look at the flag for Great Britain, it might immediately kinda, evoke feelings of, oh, okay. That makes me think about, you know, history and tradition, maybe the king and queen, the Canadian flag, I don't know, personally makes me think of maple syrup immediately.
But maybe for somebody that lives in Canada or in Great Britain, it means so much more. You know, their flag means belonging. It means community.
It means familiarity. It means pride. You know?
And so the symbols in your organization will do the same thing. Without really saying one word, they articulate a meaning and they connect your employees through their shared identity.
They foster a sense of unity.
They tell your employees that they're part of something bigger, part of their community.
And it's this shared identity that's crucial in building strong, connected teams.
This next story that I'm gonna share is a story that, it's just really near and dear to my heart, and it's a story of our Canadian client, CIBC, they actually did a big return to work program welcoming everyone back. And they just gave everybody this fun, awesome backpack and a custom card and included a little CIBC pin.
And then they decided that this is going to become part of their culture because they wanted to welcome all the new hires into their organization with the same gift.
So now as a new hire when you join, you feel like you immediately belong because you're now part of the club. Right? You're no longer missing out and you're no longer "Oh I missed out" because you weren't there when these backpacks were given out.
So the best story comes from one of the new hires who posted their personal experience on LinkedIn and that's where I snatch the story.
But this person writes, Let me read their comment. It says "I took my new CIBC branded backpack on my vacation last week, and on my flight back, a woman tapped me on my shoulder and said, 'Hey, do you work at CIBC? I work there too, and we have one more of us down the line.' We couldn't contain our excitement at meeting, off meeting our fellow teammates even on our off days." How incredible is that?
So I was thinking about this comment and thinking truly how incredible is that? You know, you have two complete strangers feeling that immediate connection and belonging, you know, thousands of feet in the air.
The power of symbolic recognition transcends that physical space of work. And in this case, gonna permeate it into an aspect of everyday life.
And turn that opportunity--turn that into an opportunity to connect.
So it's really a testament to the fact that even on off days, the sense of belonging and being part of a larger family remains.
Another fun story comes from our client Southwest, and we all know Southwest. We know them as an airline with the heart. Right? Their promise is to deliver unmatched hospitality, love, and care for their customers, but also for their employees.
So appropriately to that, their retirement gift is a custom aluminum, heart-shaped box.
And inside of this box, when you take off the lid, there is a space to keep their heart pins that they have collected throughout their career.
As well as their like...they get an alumni flight card, which gives them a certain flight privileges. I'm not quite sure, you know, how that works, but it's kind of a key to the skies, right, after they retire.
And so for a retiring employee, this is more than just a box, you know? It's a symbol of a career spent in the skies and maybe a symbol of countless journeys they've had, the connections that they made along the way. But at the same time it's a physical manifestation of their employer brand and their commitment to employees.
And so this is just a wonderful opportunity to create brand messengers for life. You know, you're sending these people, they're retiring, leaving your company, but they're committed and a brand ambassador forever.
So just a fun story and a wonderful example of how recognition can strengthen your brand.
KELLY: Yeah. I mean, that's just beautiful.
Another smart and engaging example of this and maybe more simple are these team connect card decks that we've developed to provide leaders a way to create authentic and deep connections within their teams. And again, this idea is super simple, but very powerful.
So during key team huddles and interactions, the leader pulls a single card from this deck and they share it with the group.
And the cards carry a variety of prompts, questions and challenges, and maybe storytelling or recognition moments that really help everyone learn more about each unique teammate, and the company too. And this really sets a strong foundation for recognition.
And each card activity only takes a few minutes but it still includes the whole team.
SELMA: That's so fun.
KELLY: I know! I mean, the opportunities are really, to create these deeper connections within teams are really endless.
You just have to think about where and how your teams work and then get creative.
For Dow, they have almost forty thousand employees.
And the Accelerate Great recognition experience that we've developed together with them really has helped their employees feel like they are part of this employee experience and it is part of the fabric of the employer brand.
And when employees feel seen and appreciated in a public way through Accelerate Great, they feel connected to each other and the organization.
And here are some creative pieces that make up the employee appreciation event kit that we developed with Dow, and every piece in the kit was designed to encourage everyday appreciation.
Either with a personal thank you note with the cards or with simple instructions for how to use their Accelerate Great mobile app. And with this design, we feature all their colors and some crafted messaging that really aligns with their master brand. And then we added stickers and buttons, and this was just a way to encourage learning and fun and sharing with each other.
So kinda cool. Well, next up, we have grow feelings of pride and belonging.
I love this one. In our global culture report research, it shows that seventy-two percent of employees said it's important for them to feel that they're part of a community at work.
And community is all about helping people feel that they belong and giving them the opportunity to buy into your purpose and feel proud of the work the organization accomplishes together.
And recognition allows you to really create genuine emotional experiences with your employees helping them feel this pride in being part of your organization and really making it clear to them that they belong.
SELMA: Yeah. So true. But another thing to to point out is that, you know, growing those feelings of pride and belonging, you really should start even before the employees embark on their journey with your organization, reaching out to your new hires and not just with the standard new hire paperwork, right, that they understand.
But also welcoming them into your organization is so important. That's so important. And, you know, over the last several years, we've seen this increase of onboarding swag boxes and a need for those to, you know, they're sent directly to the recipients to their door before they actually start working for an organization.
And, the impact of a well thought out onboarding box cannot be overstated. Over the last several years, you know, it's become really common to see employees now on social media sharing their excitement and pride, letting the world know, hey, I just joined a new company. Here's my cool new swag that I received.
And it's not just the items they are excited about.
Although, you know, I will make a mention that selecting relevant and desirable items is really critical. You know, the items really need to be carefully curated to ensure that they're relevant. And something your people wanna use and not just toss in a garbage. Right? It's not just about those items. It's also about the message that this little box will send out to your new hire, and it's the feelings that it evokes.
It's the feeling of you know, I belong here. Hey, they really care about me.
And so an employee will immediately feel that part of organization and they'll get even more excited and let the whole world--again becoming that little ambassador saying, hey, I've just joined this cool organization. I can't wait to begin a new chapter.
So I couldn't help myself but add this little slide and share this image of Grace.
Grace here is just so excited. She's the newest addition actually on my team as an award designer at O.C. Tanner and she was just super excited to receive this welcome box from O.C. Tanner and she sent us these images and wrote this little quote for her social media saying, Gosh, you know, so cool. It was a great surprise. It was such a warm welcome. I didn't even set a foot in the office, but I already felt truly valued and appreciated.
And this is actually really crucial for those of us that are in people teams and have that that kind of a background. We know that even after an employee accepts that job offer, they're still kinda wavering and wondering, did I make the right choice? Am I gonna regret this decision?
So when you receive this little note of appreciation in the form of a fun box, filled with some thoughtful items, maybe even a personalized note, that kinda tends to erase any lingering doubts. Right?
It's a physical representation of the company's commitment to me knowing that I made the right decision. They care about me. Right? I'm joining a great organization who will value me and appreciate my efforts. Right?
So when you work with O.C. Tanner and we worked with countless clients on creating their own onboarding boxes to welcome their new hires, our process is really intentional and collaborative with you.
We will partner to understand your particular needs and expectations. And, you know, the goal is always to integrate your culture and your values into each package.
We've got merchandising experts that will recommend items that are market relevant and culturally appropriate.
Often those are things like shirts and hats and water bottles, etcetera, but there's really not a hard and fast rule as to what must be included.
The goal again is to delight your new employees and offer things that they will want to use. And at the same time, reinforce the company's brand and values.
We also have a team of graphic designers that will work with you on creating your onboarding theme. You know, what message do you do you want to convey with to your new hires?
This is kind of a fun speculative artwork we've done for our client Tractor Supply.
We chose a theme of chicks, and this was again no coincidence.
It was our fun way to, a fun nod to Tractor Supply brand and their view of new employees is new hatchlings, you know, they're fresh and full of potential.
And, whatever that might look for your organization, we're here to help you craft that story and help you create incredible first impressions on your new hires.
And the impression that will actually reinforce that they made the right decision to come and and choose to work for you.
Kelly, back to you.
KELLY: Yeah. We have another example of how Starbucks is working hard to really nurture an employee experience, an experience where the people feel a strong sense of pride for their team and their organization.
And Starbucks has empowered their managers with ways to reward their people who really step up in unexpected ways. And they have a Partner of the Quarter award, they refer to their employees as partners, and they also have the MUG award and MUG stands for moves of uncommon greatness.
And these are just a couple ways that Starbucks recognizes teammates who have delivered in a significant way or have done work that was just unexpected and above and beyond.
And each recipient receives recognition points, a small gift card, these beautiful wearable pins that you can see here on the right. These are just so fun and pretty. And then a favorite drink on the house also.
So I can just imagine the pride that each recipient feels as they are honored by their manager in front of their team and as they wear their pin on their iconic green aprons in every store throughout their days. And just last week, one of my teammates Theresa came in the morning and she said I just went through the Starbucks drive-through and the person that helped me had their MUG award pin on their green apron.
So we're seeing them out there and it's really fun to see that, that recognition, and that pride that is being built that way.
I love that. Moves of uncommon greatness.
We love that. So next we have, create equitable experiences for all. And as we build our employer brands, we know how important it is to make sure that experiences we're creating are equitable, that we're keeping all of our employees in mind when we create policies and benefits and programs and initiatives.
In most of our workforces, we have a lot of diversity and our employees work in different places and they work with different tools and technology and in different ways. And we wanna think about how can we make sure that every employee feels valued and appreciated no matter where they work, no matter how they work. And recognition that really reaches people where they work is a great way to make sure that employees feel included and also considered.
And so, as we've been thinking about in our teams, offline, frontline, other critical employees, who have less autonomy, they have less flexibility and opportunity to participate in recognition due to the nature of the work that they do.
We were really working hard to provide access to the recognition experience so that they can really feel like they have influence and they also have a voice at work. And here you see our design that we've created of a self-contained small footprint take-a-thanks break recognition toolkit.
This is a beautifully branded box that includes thank you cards and value cards and fun stickers that really provide access for our teams to say thank you, and appreciate those they see doing great work and living their values no matter where they are. And this box is small enough that it can fit in workspaces that don't have a lot of extra space for that. So it just is giving us a chance to integrate in those maybe not so easy to integrate spots.
SELMA: Yeah. Love love the idea of a small footprint and self-contained. That's so cool.
KELLY: So here we have another example.
Of course, American Airlines is an iconic organization.
And they're really striving to genuinely build a supportive experience for all of their employees no matter where they work. And among them are almost a hundred and thirty thousand employees.
Many of them are in departments like flight operations and under wing teams, and they literally are on the move daily. And, we want to be sure that they're included as well. So as we've worked to build awareness for nonstop thanks, which is the recognition experience for American Airlines, our O.C. Tanner Creative team took on the challenge and developed a plan that we call the nonstop thinks roadshow.
And this plan included a team of select American employees who were outfitted in nonstop thanks t-shirts and backpacks.
And they were dispatched to key American hubs around the world. And in their backpacks, they could find a tablet for sharing the nonstop thanks demo of their recognition tools. They can send e-cards to each other for everyday great work. They can also do nominations for above and beyond work.
There was swag in the backpack and marketing collateral. And this way, our team could bring everyone at American Airlines into the experience no matter where they were in the field to help them know what was new and also help them get hands on with recognition. So pretty cool on the road.
So, finally, we have, boost growth and tenure. And all of these efforts we've been discussing today are really investments in your people who work for your organizations.
And we want them to see our companies as places where they can stay and they can grow, and they can really build a purposeful and rewarding careers.
And of course, we want to reward them and celebrate their achievements, as they do that.
And this is what creates that loyalty and commitment over time.
And along those lines, we love all the work that we been able to do with Wellstar, to help them celebrate the growth and tenure of their people. And Wellstar is a nationally ranked health care system.
They are serving one out of every six people who live in the state of Georgia.
And their culture is very people oriented, very caring, as you can imagine, very community focused.
They have been named a great place to work.
They are one of Fortune 100's best companies to work for.
And as part of their people care employer brand, we worked with Wellstar to create pride and celebration through a more consistent anniversary experience.
And when it comes to celebrating career anniversaries and their team's contributions over time, Wellstar wants their people to really feel seen and feel that they matter.
So we love this colorful and authentically branded yearbook that we've created for Wellstar.
You can see the yearbook in the upper left hand corner of this slide. It's essentially it's a seven inch by seven inch printed brochure, but it is a personalized anniversary piece that incorporates personal memories, personal notes from key leaders and coworkers, and even family and friends.
And each yearbook is aligned with and radiates what is most important to Wellstar and their employer brand experience.
And in addition to the yearbook, we've created many customized symbolic awards, to help create a cohesive recognition experience. Right Selma?
SELMA: Yes. This was probably one of my very favorite projects to work on.
Loved working with Wellstar and our team on designing their Careerscape, and other custom awards.
And, as you mentioned, you know, they just have such a lovely culture, they're very inclusive, they have exceptional doctors and caregivers as you can imagine, but their love for their community is really remarkable, you mentioned one out of every six Georgians being served by them. That's just amazing to me.
But their brand actually is really bold and vibrant, which makes it really fun to carry that brand into their custom awards.
And so they had lots of great stories that we were capturing with our symbolic awards. And as you can see here, you mentioned that they have a great love for the community which is this, a heart-shaped icon here.
This is their little community icon right here representing different members of the community. You know, this is their D&I icon right up here in the corner.
Another fun icon that we can mention is this megaphone here, which is just basically their commitment to honor every voice.
Another one is this icon of joy, which is the word joy, and then the the letter o is replaced with the Wellstar logo.
And according to Wellstar, ninety percent of their employees say that they have joy at work.
So they honor people with the chief joy officer symbols.
So just really fun, bold, vibrant, brand and we were able to carry all of that through their symbolic awards and now these little icons are just really fun, conversation starters, you know, there are symbols and they are really awesome conversation starters to continue telling that Wellstar story about their commitment to their community and well-being of everybody that they serve.
So as you can see from all these examples that we've shared with you today, at O.C. Tanner, we really, we have fun working on these brands, but we also pride ourselves on helping organizations create specific recognition programs and experiences that really speak to their employees and appeal to their ideal recruits.
And honestly, Kelly, don't you think that we could sit here for a couple more hours and share hundreds of other success stories, but we know that we can capture your attention only so long. So I'm gonna stop here.
And really share maybe the last couple thoughts with you that, what really truly excites us is not what we've done so far although that's awesome and fun, but it's also what we can do for you. You know, with our deep expertise and research and teams of strategists and consultants and designers and writers and developers, we're here and ready to aid you in creating equitable recognition experiences that help embed your purpose and values, connect people, and create feelings of belonging and then boost growth and tenure across all of your organizations.
We feel that together, we can create solutions that not only align with your employer brand, but really amplify it, making your organization not just any place to work but a place to grow and to contribute and to thrive.
And we're so excited to have had you here. Thanks for joining us today. And, with that, I am going to turn it over to you Raven.
MODERATOR: Awesome. So if you just wanna show those, HRCI and SHRM codes so people can get those credits.
We did have one question come through from Erica. In many of our leadership courses, recognition is very personalized. What are your thoughts on personalized recognition in terms of awarding what is important to your employees, not always a tangible token or symbol of a pre-creation? Any thoughts on that?
KELLY: Sure. I can jump in on that. I mean, one thing that we do work on a great deal is helping to communicate with the leaders of our organizations that we work with, to help them understand how important it is to know your people and to know what makes them tick and to know how they are most comfortable in being recognized.
And when you can tailor those recognition moments for who they are, as people, their natural selves.
That gives it even more power beyond what you intended in many cases. So, we think it is really important to help leaders understand that and to put that into action as much as you possibly can.
SELMA: Yes. Couldn't agree more.
One thing that I might add is that in our research we have found out that, symbolic awards, you know, if you have been honored or recognized for something, if that recognition moment was followed with a symbolic tangible piece, then you are three times more likely to remember that specific moment.
So we like to include those symbolic tangible things just because, you know, when you engage multiple senses, in this case touching and feeling an award, in this world where everything is turning online and in web.
People crave that physical experience and so touching and feeling something is that lasting memory in your brain, but then as Kelly mentioned, you know, for with Wellstar, for an example, they also get a personalized brochure, custom brochure that's actually filled with different awards.
Recipients then get to take home this brochure and they have a personalized access code that lets them go into their website and then select the gift of their choosing. So in a sense you're giving them a chance to choose their own award but also giving them that symbolic piece that, once they see it, they'll always remember that specific moment.
So hopefully that answers your question.
MODERATOR: Thank you so much. Well, I think that wraps up today's webinar. You've heard us talk a lot about our research, and next month we'll have two of our senior researchers talking about equitable workplace flexibility and what the data shows. So make sure to join us again next month. Thank you, everybody.
Thanks, everyone. Have a great day.
