Georgia Aquarium Cares for its People

Recognition needed an update

As a mission-driven organization, Georgia Aquarium understands the importance that recognition plays in highlighting the impact staff have on inspiring awareness and preservation of our oceans and their inhabitants.

Equally important is the impact they have on the day-to-day guest experience.

A few years ago, recognition meant being handed a scratch‑off recognition ticket. This was a fun idea, but this recognition could only come from leaders, was hard to track and could only be redeemed from a catalog of pre-determined reward options. The scratch tickets also carried a couple of liabilities – namely that the point value was unknown, and there was no redemption window in place, as old cards resurfaced as much as 10 years later for redemption! Without online metrics, the program also made it difficult to see which leaders were (or weren’t) using recognition.

Finally, in an organization with a growing group of long-term employees, anniversary acknowledgments – an important moment to foster belonging and pride – were inconsistent and too easy to miss.

Georgia Aquarium rolls out “The Reef”

With an initial goal of enhancing recognition, Georgia Aquarium partnered with Reward Gateway | Edenred to create a simple, always-available hub they titled “The Reef.” With many employees not at desks and a large temporary, seasonal and on‑call population, the centralized hub quickly became something larger – a mobile-friendly platform where employees could also find key information on discount offers, values and benefits.

The Reef extends recognition power to all employees with eCards like Great Teamwork, You’re a Star, and “You’re Otter this World” that appear on a public social wall for all to see. Managers still provide rewards for above and beyond actions – the “Sand Dollar Reward” is worth $5 and allows managers to reward great work right from their mobile phones. Reward redemption options have expanded to include hundreds of retailers – like Kroger and Amazon – in the online catalog, alongside more unique opportunities, such as a chance to watch the hammerhead sharks being fed or a tour behind-the-scenes at the dolphin show.

For employee anniversaries and birthdays, The Reef ensures important dates don’t get missed by sending an eCard on the day of the event, as well as alerting managers a week in advance so they can plan to send more spontaneous best wishes day of.

Engage a diverse workforce.

The Aquarium spans multiple roles and motivations – scientists, guest-facing hospitality, operations and more – with different time constraints and preferences. Some seasoned employees view “the paycheck as the recognition,” while highly independent individual contributors rely on more intrinsic motivations. The program needed to meet all of their people where they are.

Build culture intentionally and measurably.

The organization is investing in culture improvement, but many outcomes (camaraderie in hallways, social energy between meetings) are more easily felt than measured. HR wanted ways to observe usage patterns, link actions to values and identify where leaders might need help showing appreciation.

The Reef drives connection across the aquarium

When asked about what the impact of The Reef has had on the culture at Georgia Aquarium, Angie Bryant, Manager of Employee Engagement first noted, “It's helping with the storytelling of what is going on between different departments.” With so many people working independently and in different ways to support the mission, even managers might not know that a staff member did a presentation on the aquarium for their university. Those above and beyond actions could get lost.

Additionally, the “People Directory” on the platform has been a useful resource for people to confirm the names and faces of folks in other departments before meeting with them or sending them recognition. The team is making great use of their profile pictures as well – with a quick scan of pictures revealing someone posing with a stuffed whale shark and someone else diving with a jack-o-lantern. “People are having better interactions in the hallways. As meetings are letting out, there's just greater socialization than there was,” explains Angie.