Shaping the Future of Work: Workhuman® Live Customer Awards
4-minute read
One of the greatest pleasures of my role here at Workhuman® is the customer awards night at our annual conference, Workhuman® Live. I get to stand up in front of the people leaders who are truly at the heart of what we do and honor them.
But Workhuman is more than a conference – more than even a company – it’s a movement, a global community, a way of being. We like to call ourselves a mission with a company. But what I know to be true is that it’s never about us: it’s about the 4+ million people who are working more human every day because leading global companies have chosen the Workhuman® Cloud to connect their people to shared purpose.
These companies are mavericks and innovators, true pioneers who understand so astutely that when people have a greater sense of purpose and meaning, it motivates and empowers them to do the best work of their lives. Great organizations like these know that the more gratitude in a company, the better it performs. And that’s something to celebrate.
This year in Nashville, that’s just what we did. Gathered at the iconic Wildhorse Saloon, nearly 500 of our customers sat down to a family-style dinner and enthusiastically rang cowbells as their peers accepted well-deserved awards. I want to call out our recent winners, who brought passion, integrity, and authenticity to each category.
The Culture Award
Abbott and Baker Hughes, a GE Company were recognized for bringing Workhuman values to life to drive deeper connections between their employees. During times of acquisitions, common in the healthcare industry, Abbott has leveraged its recognition program to quickly welcome new joiners, unify the workforce, communicate what’s important, and broadcast what good looks like. Last year, Abbott also welcomed more than 30,000 St. Jude employees to its extraordinary culture and workplace. Baker Hughes, a GE Company launched a re-brand of its recognition program, designed to meet the needs of its global workforce, creating energizing opportunities for every employee, in every job function, in every corner of the world.
The Amplify Award
We honored ICON Plc., Mastercard, and The Procter & Gamble Company for being world-class communicators – strategic, thorough, and innovative both in how they revealed and continuously thrived with their Social Recognition® solution. ICON Plc. co-hosted webinars on its recognition program for employees newly joined from an acquisition and partnered in sharing ideas and best practices for speaking to its workforce about these communication-focused program enhancements. Mastercard built and leveraged an ambassador network to help carry out local launch day events across the globe. And Best in Class, The Procter & Gamble Company, a longtime customer and early pioneer of social recognition, relaunched an impressive, modernized program of peer-to-peer awards with economic value, creating a fresh and look and feel, and developing robust communications and training to further support adoption of the program.
The Accelerate Award
Customers with the best recognition program launch last year were Edwards Lifesciences, First Tech Credit Union, Momentive Performance Materials, and BP. Edwards Lifesciences targeted its communications efforts on many channels to raise awareness and influence a positive perception of the program, leading to excellent six-month program metrics. First Tech Credit Union launched Social Recognition and Conversations® together and were extremely focused on educating leaders across the company and setting expectations for Conversations as its primary performance management solution. First Tech Credit Union has seen fantastic program metrics since the launch, including 97% recognition reach. A record-setting launch with fantastic turnaround times saw Momentive Performance Materials going above and beyond best practices at every stage of its inspirational program. Additionally, the company implemented a robust communications and training program, and included ambassadors to ensure continued success. BP, as Best in Class, delivered impressive global launch events that included a video, Zumba classes, a flash mob, and field day activities. It also has a perfect program structure that’s well-aligned to best practices.
The Luminary Award
This year, our beacon was Cisco Systems, Inc. for illuminating the benefits of the modern social recognition program for its peers and exemplifying the passion, engagement, and success we hope to see in all our customers and their programs. Cisco Systems, Inc. recently conducted an analysis on how connected recognition correlates with employee engagement. For 2019, its goals are right in line with what we would recommend: more frequent, smaller awards from more people across the company. This correlated directly to employee engagement measurements and proved the ROI of a continuous stream of gratitude across the company.
How do I feel seeing this kind of success among our customers? Grateful. We’re so lucky to partner with some of the world’s most admired companies. And I’m not embellishing when I say they’re like family to us because that’s what living Workhuman values means – a focus on human connection, gratitude, and belonging.
About the Author
Topic(s):
Future of Work