Industry:
Aerospace & Defence
Number of employees:
6,700
Number of locations:
46
Platform features:
Employee recognition, employee benefits
The challenge
In 2014, Thales’ annual people survey highlighted that employees didn’t think saying “thank you” was part of the Thales culture, with managers, in particular, feeling that they didn’t have the discretion to reward their employees for going the extra mile. To combat this, Thales put together a project team to implement a robust recognition offering which would link with organisational behaviours and business performance.
One of the biggest challenges facing the team was designing a program which would engage employees across the entirety of its workforce, including multiple and remote sites, shift workers, and offline employees. Any recognition offering had to appeal to people of all ages, as half of Thales' demographic is over 50.
The team carried out research and benchmarked against other companies to understand its approach. This was used to build the strategy and approach which would best fit its culture. From the outset, the team knew it would need to build a platform which was accessible and appealing to all, with the team’s vision for it to provide tools and understanding to drive Thales values and desired behaviours. Thales’ team turned to Reward Gateway, who already provided the company's employee benefits, to take its shared workforce understanding and turn the project into a tangible recognition offering.
The approach
Working with Reward Gateway, the team implemented a branded recognition hub which provides a “Recognition Toolkit” – a central area to educate employees on the importance of recognising colleagues and how they could do so. Key to the design of the hub was the focus on Thales’ values and behaviours, and how they help the business achieve its goals. To further encourage employees to interact, the recognition branding broke from the traditional Thales brand and used a bold, colourful design to encourage excitement.
Within the recognition platform, the team deployed a range of eCards which employees can send to each other at any time and from any device. With the eCards tailored to match Thales new recognition design, they covered simple sentiments such as Thank You and Congratulations, and also linked to desired behaviours. Monetary awards were introduced to allow Thales managers to reward their employees who go the extra mile. The team chose three levels of Bronze, Silver and Gold, with the equivalent values ranging $17 AUD to $87 AUD – with the awards linked to Thales’ desired behaviours. Employees can then redeem their reward at their retailer of choice through the recognition hub.
Thales’ team also introduced the “Above and Beyond Awards” with Reward Gateway's award nominating product, allowing employees and teams to nominate colleagues across five categories which are aligned to Thales’ values. Those who receive a voucher worth the equivalent of nearly $450 AUD to redeem at the retailer of choice through the hub, and teams that win can celebrate with a group activity of their choice up to the value of $175 AUD per person.
The results
The next annual people survey revealed the true success of the program. After launching the recognition hub, the team saw its engagement score continually increase to 72%. On top of that, 60% of employees are now actively using the recognition hub compared to 43% in the previous year.
Since the team launched the hub, over 2,500 eCards have been sent with the most popular being its “Thank You” eCard. The organisation has also seen great success with its manager-led monetary awards and over 3,200 of them have been sent since launch. Over a third of employees have had the joy of receiving a reward, and in the last year the team have seen the amount of rewards sent by managers increase by 57%.
There’s been a strong uptake with the “Above and Beyond Awards,” too. Employees have nominated 455 colleagues, with 370 employees being winners for their contributions either as an individual or team. To take this to the next level, the team is monitoring trends across the business to find ways in which they can improve the offering and further celebrate the success of those working at Thales.
