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85%
employees active on platform
100%
C-suite executives active on platform
40%
staff sending recognition
6k+
recognition moments / year
90%
average retention rate
84
engagement score against industry benchmark of 71
About Ulteig
Ulteig is an engineering and consulting company with more than 1,700 employees spread across three countries. The team at Ulteig is committed to connecting with employees and supporting engagement across their distributed workforce. With employees spread across various locations, Ulteig recognized the need for a centralized platform to make sending recognition and redeeming rewards easier to foster connection and engagement consistently and efficiently.
Industry:
Engineering
Number of employees:
1,700+
Work modes:
In-office, remote
Platform features:
Employee recognition, employee reward
The most recognition, with minimal administration
The team wanted their recognition to speak to lots of situations – living the day-to-day values, providing rewards for above and beyond actions and highlighting those that innovate and push the company forward. With employees often on-site and in the field, the program needed to be easy to use with rewards redeemable in all three countries. And given leadership’s focus on creating engaged teams and driving results, the reporting needed to be clear.
Company-wide recognition to support a consistent culture
Ulteig implemented Reward Gateway | Edenred’s Employee Experience Platform – which they call Bravo – as a central hub for their employee recognition strategy. The platform now powers multiple recognition programs:
Owning the Values peer-to-peer eCards
Employees can send eCards themed to fit with Ulteig’s core values to highlight the ways their colleagues that support Client Success, Integrity, Enthusiasm, Inclusion, Agility and Innovation.
Nominees can receive physical stackable bricks – one designed for each year – so they can create a wall to display at their desks, or they can donate the cost of a brick to charity.
Job Well Done rewards
A spot bonus program that allows leaders to quickly recognize employees for above and beyond achievements, with monetary rewards that are flexible and can increase for higher impact actions.
First Penguin innovation awards
In addition to the eCard for Innovation, the team at Ulteig has taken things a step further and encourages employees to celebrate those that demonstrate courage, take smart risks and lead innovation, inspired by the idea that one penguin must bravely jump first into unknown waters.
The Innovation and Ideation lead of their Corporate Strategy team reviews submissions, and winners are are given a stuffed penguin with an Ulteig t-shirt to add to their wall of bricks.
Professional certification incentives
Employees that achieve a new certification (e.g. Professional Engineer license, Project Management Professional, etc.) receive a cash award for their efforts and public acknowledgement of the impact their growth will have on the company.
Service milestone recognition
The Bravo site provides managers automatic reminders for employee birthdays and service anniversaries so they can be celebrated by the team. At key milestones (2, 5, 10, and 15 years), the site also allows employees to select branded apparel and receive a monetary amount to expense on items of their choice.
Annual Awards Program & Celebration Dinner
Bravo drives Ulteig's flagship annual award program and celebration event. Ulteig received 287 nominations this year across six award categories, including Quality Champion and Culture Champion. Employees can nominate colleagues or teams that are deserving of an annual award, and winners are publicly acknowledged and thanked for their contributions in front of peers at a companywide Town Hall.
Winners are also invited to travel to one location for an annual celebration dinner with members of the C-suite, which has become many Senior Leaders’ favorite event of the year.
Leaders take ownership of team engagement
Erin shared that the team at Ulteig takes engagement, and its measurement, seriously. They run quarterly and annual surveys, as well as holding listening sessions to keep leaders in touch with changes in culture and specific requests of the teams. Another measure of culture that leaders can access is recognition participation trends; these reports enable the team to celebrate progress and set improvement goals to keep the focus on appreciation and gratitude high.
“Leaders recognize that team engagement has a lot to do with the gratitude and the experience that their employees are having. And the Bravo platform plays a huge role in that."
- Erin Stenger, Culture Program Manager
In addition to using the range of existing tools, some departments have built out custom programs to highlight actions that are especially important in their group. The Finance Team celebrates Continuous Improvement Champions, and the Energy Solutions team gives out an Athena Award to excellent mentors or teachers. Allowing the teams to get creative and show their unique flair within the bounds of the program encourages everyone to be invested and engaged.
