HR Heroes: Reaching a hybrid workforce with digital recognition and reward

How ORBIS Corporation modernized its approach to better connect hybrid employees

Boosting morale and connections in the workplace has never been more important, as employees are more stressed and distracted than ever before. Today, many organizations have newly-created hybrid workforces, where employees are working together or in isolation – on-site, at home or on the front lines – and it’s become a challenge to consistently recognize employees during times of crisis. One of our clients, ORBIS Corporation, a manufacturing organization with 2,900 employees, took steps towards engaging its hybrid workforce with new forms of employee recognition to increase visibility and connectedness.

Before the pandemic, ORBIS did a company-wide survey and found that one of the lowest scoring categories across the business was recognition. But when COVID-19 hit, the need for embedding company values in the workplace and shining a spotlight on achievements only became more apparent.

For ORBIS, its manufacturing employees were considered essential and corporate employees started working remotely. It became harder to see all the day-to-day work happening at different locations with everyone spread out.

ORBIS already had a strong values-based culture, known as its “LEAF culture,” but the team needed to modernize and digitize their approach, which was paper-based and hard to track. This led to the launch of its employee engagement platform, “The Loop,” which offers a centralized place for employees to find reward and recognition, alongside employee surveys.

Since launching The Loop, there’s been a shift in how people feel about being recognized and the organization is transforming company culture to reach its dispersed workers. The number of recognitions continues to increase, with 5,447 eCards sent since August 2019 and over 1,000 awards and counting. 

Read the full ORBIS Corporation story for a closer look at how the organization is reaching a hybrid workforce with values-based recognition and reward.