DAS achieves nearly 90% engagement in its digital rewards programme

DAS
Picture by Clint Randall www.pixelprphotography.co.uk

Legal expenses insurance organisation DAS has seen almost 90% of its 700 employees in the UK and Ireland actively log in to its RIGHT Here RIGHT Now recognition and rewards programme in the year since its launch.

The digital reward solution, developed by PeopleValue, allows managers and employees to generate instant ‘e-thank you’ messages for individuals or teams across DAS. These can then be upgraded by a line manager into a ‘manager’s award’, which allocates points for the recipient, to be spent via a redemption catalogue containing a range of approximately 30,000 rewards.

Upgraded e-thank yous are then further reviewed by the organisation’s employee engagement forum, which selects five monthly ‘RIGHT values champions’, who then receive an additional points award. Monthly winners are  are announced publicly via the DAS intranet, LinkedIn, departmental wallboards and digital signage. Employees can also ‘like’ or comment on public posts, allowing for further recognition and confidence building.

Previously, the organisation used various ad-hoc recognition initiatives, taking place in some departments across the business, but with no centralised or formal approach. DAS identified the need for a rewards programme after an employee survey in October 2016 highlighted recognition as being an area for improvement.

DAS sought a solution to increase employee engagement irrespective of function, department or seniority.

The RIGHT Here RIGHT Now platform was developed and launched as part of the organisation’s ‘values week’ in the summer of 2017, organised to celebrate values under the titles of: Respect, Improve, Go the Extra Mile, Honesty and Think Customer.

The values week included each member of the organisation’s executive management committee adopting one of the core values and explaining what it meant to them. There were also promotions such as RIGHT-themed ice creams.

The DAS HR department published a managers’ guide to the programme, and set up an independent, cross-functional judging panel to oversee the awards process. Workshops were set up to train users and communicate the benefits of the system to staff.

Since the launch of the programme, there have been 2,541 e-thank yous generated, with 1,972 individual recognitions being awarded. Some 569 employees have also received team recognition, and 1,304 e-thank yous have been upgraded to a manager’s award. Of the core value categories, Go the Extra Mile has been identified as the most commonly awarded.

The platform can also be used to recognise work-related service anniversaries, birthdays and important life events.

Matthew Glover, reward manager at DAS UK, said: “The new platform has enabled us to successfully kick-start our RIGHT Here RIGHT Now programme and we are seeing the first positive signs of greater collaboration across the whole organisation.

“In less than six months we achieved an engagement rate of 79% and received 2,500 e-thank yous out of a population of more than 700, which was extremely promising and a huge step in the right direction.”