How Missguided Boosted Employee Satisfaction and Reduced Turnover by 30%

Learn how Reward Gateway client Missguided introduced creative recognition initiatives to boost satisfaction and lower turnover.

EEA2021_AwardWinners_Missguided_SianHerbert-14

Industry:

Retail

Number of employees:

381

Number of locations:

Platform features:

Employee communications, employee benefits, employee wellbeing

The challenge

As well as reinforcing behaviours led by the Vibes, the team at Missguided wanted to make employees feel valued, increase retention, improve engagement and help reinforce Missguided as an employer of choice.

Through employee feedback, the team realised that bigger prizes didn’t always equal better or more significant recognition. It became clear that people wanted to be recognised for their individual and team contributions to the greater success of the business.

The team wanted to come up with something creative that could be customised, cost-effective and agile. Traditional methods were quickly discarded in favour of more fun and meaningful initiatives that their people wanted. A key piece of the puzzle was making sure that the new strategy would seamlessly work with the recognition methods currently being used by some departments to complement the work already being done on recognising employees.

The approach

The team split recognition initiatives into three key areas: themed, structured and organic. Themed recognition, based around what's happening in and outside of the business, provided the opportunity to launch one-off tools and events. For example, to celebrate World Kindness Day, the team introduced the “Awesome Human Being” portal, where employees could nominate each other and award badges.

As part of the event, staff were also given a pack of Positivity Cards, linked to the Missguided Vibes, that they could write and share throughout the week. Employees were also encouraged to enjoy a coffee break through the Cup of Kindness program. In a similar vein, the Totally Terrific Treat Tree popped up at Christmas time and provided small thank you gifts.

Structured recognition celebrates colleagues for living the Missguided Vibes, for business contributions or for milestones in their own lives. The team introduced Wannasay cards, which encourage managers and colleagues to spread messages of praise and positivity – or even to say sorry – with a handwritten card. Cards can be picked up from Wannasay stations located throughout the office, with frequently changing designs.

Vibe Awards is another type of structured recognition, which allows employees to nominate each other for living the Vibes. The digital nomination goes directly to the colleague, with winners chosen by a separate group of colleagues. Instead of a typical award ceremony, a pop-up celebration travels to the winner, complete with confetti, music, balloons and a personalised cake for sharing so the entire team has a celebration, too. Plus, Missguidded celebrates big moments in an employee’s personal life – for example, the team introduced the Bump+Baby gift box for any member of staff about to welcome a child.

Organic recognition complements the more structured recognition to support departments to create and deliver their own recognition tools and events. Missguided’s wholesale and retail teams realised that they didn’t always pause to celebrate a job well done, so they introduced their Flock Star award. Nominations go into the What the Flock box, and senior management within the team then decide on the winner, who receives a flamingo-shaped trophy and the chance to spin the Happiness Wheel for a small prize like “hit the snooze button” (a half day’s holiday), “a cheeky day off” (a full day’s holiday) and even a bottle of champagne.

The results

The team’s new recognition strategy, along with other engagement initiatives, has contributed to a 30% reduction in employee turnover at Missguided over the last 12 months. The tools and events put in place have helped to embed the Missguided Vibes further.

Within 12 months, 2,500 physical Wannasay cards were awarded, with each employee personally delivering an average of eight cards to their colleagues. The Wannasay cards have had such a positive impact that all new starters are now provided a special pack of cards to write and share with people that have helped them during their first few weeks.

Feedback from the team’s most recent employee survey told Missguided that 92% of staff care about the company, 86% are proud to work for Missguided, 79% are usually happy and positive at work and 80% would recommend Missguided as a good place to work.