If you read nothing else, read this…
- World Duty Free Group revamped its recognitions schemes after listening to staff feedback.
- Employees are now more engaged with its suggestion scheme.
- More employees are now recognised in its peer recognition scheme.
Working with Red Letter Days for Business, the organisation has relaunched two of its employee recognition initiatives this year, its HearMe and Service Star Awards, after a one-year review and listening to staff feedback. It made adjustments to both initiatives to ensure the schemes had maximum and positive impact.
Employee suggestion scheme
The employee suggestion scheme, HearMe, has been designed to encourage all employees to share any innovative ideas they have that will improve: how the organisation operates; what is offered to customers; customer service; processes and cost efficiencies; and staff and customer environments.
An employee fills out an ‘ideas slip’, which is then discussed at a monthly local employee representative meeting, Voice. The employee is given feedback via a thank you postcard with the outcome of their idea. If the idea can be implemented in a location alone, it will be introduced locally. However, if the idea does not work on a local basis, yet is still a great suggestion, it is passed to the business panel at head office, which consists of representatives from all areas of WDFG, who review whether the idea can be implemented across the organisation.
Karen Waterman, UK reward and HR systems manager, says: “We want our employees to feel they play a huge part in the organisation, because they do. It’s our employees who live and breathe World Duty Free every day, therefore it’s our employees we should listen to as they know their peers and our customers better than anyone else.”
Everyone who submits an exceptional HearMe idea is rewarded with a £10 Red Letter Days for Business Lifestyle voucher that can be redeemed in shops, bars, restaurants and holiday agents and on experiences. The business panel also rewards employees’ ideas on a quarterly basis, which may be via vouchers, a hamper or money in their pay. The value of this prize is determined depending on the value of the chosen idea.
Increased engagement with offline scheme
When the HearMe scheme originally launched, staff were asked to submit ideas online via a dedicated web portal. WDFG found ideas were being shared. However, not all employees were engaged with the programme; it was felt the process took too long and feedback was not received in a timely manner. After review, WDFG took the programme offline and launched the ‘ideas slips’.
“The change has proved to be a success, with a 20% increase in ideas submitted compared with this time last year. The £10 lifestyle voucher and thank you cards have also gone down well, giving employees instant recognition and a choice of how to spend their award,” says Waterman.
Staff recognition scheme
The Service Stars Awards is a peer-to-peer recognition programme with employees nominating colleagues for carrying out exceptional customer service. The Voice team, with senior management at each WDFG location, decides who the top nominated employees are every quarter, and these employees are rewarded with an all-expenses-paid lunch with their regional or senior manager.
Each location also nominates one employee who has delivered exceptional service over the course of the year, who is crowned Customer Service Champion of the Year. These customer service champions are treated to a one-off memorable day out. The group of champions from 2014 had a day out at Legoland, Windsor.
Amends were made to the Service Stars awards in 2015 in order to recognise more employees. Last year’s scheme rewarded one regional winner each quarter, compared with 12 to 16 with the new scheme.
Becky Gledhill, UK benefits administrator, who co-ordinates the scheme, says: “We found lots of employees were nominated for great work but not enough of them were being recognised. Since the change, we have received great feedback about how employees’ invited to the quarterly lunches have felt motivated and valued. It’s the exact result we were hoping for.”
Communication is key
WDFG makes its employee campaigns come alive by communicating the programmes clearly and efficiently. Waterman says: “Along with an intranet, campaign posters and daily or weekly ‘huddles’, we have benefits champions in every location to communicate with staff about the schemes, get everyone excited so they want to get involved and provide feedback to help with future reviews. The benefits champions are the people that make the campaigns come to life; we’d be lost without them.”
Both employee campaigns were launched following an employee engagement survey two years ago and benefit focus groups. So far the organisation has noticed an improvement in staff motivation, which will be reviewed with any future engagement activities.
