Height for Hire | Success Story | Employee Recognition

The challenge

Height for Hire is a global machinery rental company with a challenging demographic – it’s headquartered in Ireland, with a diverse, mostly offline workforce scattered across many different countries. To bring all areas of the dispersed workforce together, the team decided to put a recognition strategy in place.

The industry as a whole was reflected in the company, which often holds outdated values when it comes to employee communications and engagement. In fact, before implementing its employee engagement platform – named “The Hub” – in 2016, the company’s owners didn’t believe in rewarding employees with anything other than their salary.

Employee satisfaction levels, measured by the team via a survey every month, was averaging at an unsatisfactory 6.2 out of 10. The organisation also had a low retention rate, with employees frequently leaving for employers who offered better rewards and recognition. The team needed to make staff feel valued and connected to colleagues across the globe.

The approach

The team decided on a creative communications tactic: setting up automated eCards for birthdays, as well as sending personalised eCards to all staff on particular holidays, including St Patrick’s Day, St George’s Day, St Andrew’s Day, St David’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Father’s Day and Mother’s Day.

Getting a primarily offline workforce to engage with this online form of recognition was a big challenge for the team. They actively encouraged staff – through posters and email communications, as well as at team meetings held by managers – to send eCards to their colleagues to say “thank you,” “well done” or “congratulations.” The extra attention paid off: eCards became a particular favourite of Height For Hire staff, so much so that they print them off and pin them to the wall or display them on their desk.

The Hub features eCard leaderboards, showing the members of staff that have sent and received the most cards, which encourages other employees to get involved and send some themselves. The team is also in the process of developing an initiative that would financially recognise the eCard recipient who best demonstrated the company’s values that month, as well as the person who sent the card, furthering the education and adoption of company values.

The results

Since launch, more than 4,400 eCards have been sent on The Hub. The most popular card of the 18 available to send on the site is the “thank you” eCard. Even better, the data shows that there’s a fairly even split of cards being sent from employees in Ireland and from those in the UK — showing the focus on collaboration and uniting the dispersed staff.

The team’s recognition strategy has resulted in positive changes across the business. Height for Hire is growing, with employee figures increasing from 185 to 203. Over the last year, the team has also seen the employee turnover rate drop from an extremely high 35% to just 12%.

Recruitment has also become easier for the team, as they can now mention a benefits and recognition package in job advertisements, which wasn’t possible before. Potential job candidates now see Height for Hire as a forward-thinking, employee-focussed company, which gives it an edge over a lot of its competitors.

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Machinery hire company introduces tailored eCards to employee benefits platform, sees 65% decrease in turnover

Summary

The challenge

The approach

The results

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