Eaton: Driving Retention with Recognition

Eaton, founded in 1911, is a leading global power management company with approximately 95,000 employees around the world. With an innovative vision of improving quality of life and the environment through the use of power management technology and services, Eaton products are used by customers in more than 175 countries.

At the heart of Eaton’s success is the Eaton Business System – a common set of practices that make the entire organization more efficient and innovative. Employee recognition is a key part of the Eaton Business System, enabling all employees the opportunity to give and receive recognition.

The challenge

As with many large, global corporations, Eaton was challenged with driving a culture of recognition that made every employee – no matter their function or location – feel valued and appreciated. Eaton’s former recognition program started as a regional program in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and the Netherlands. When it began to grow country by country, the program could not consistently and cost-effectively meet the needs of Eaton’s diverse, global workforce.

“We needed a partner that would help us provide a consistent, global recognition experience, shape our culture and demonstrate the ROI of our recognition program,” says Jennifer Sweda, compensation manager at Eaton. “We were looking for a partner that invested in thought leadership, technology and would push us to stay current.”

Eaton was also looking for a solution that would increase employee engagement and retention, and make it easier to offer culturally relevant awards.

The solution

Eaton partnered with Workhuman to launch E-STAR, its global social recognition solution for every employee in the organization.

“Our big key to success was getting executive sponsor buy-in early in the process,” recalls Sweda. “As we were designing our new program, we included stakeholders from across the organization for their input.”

E-STAR allows every employee to give and receive recognition aligned to Eaton’s leadership attributes. A year after program launch, employees were added to the program through an acquisition. With 10 differentiated award levels and 23 languages available, E-STAR offers a truly customized recognition experience.

About 50% of Eaton’s workforce is offline without access to a computer, which makes mobile recognition critical to maximizing reach. Workhuman facilitated mobile “minute clinics” to help employees embrace technology and download the app

The result

Eaton saw rapid adoption of E-STAR, with 68% of employees participating in the first six months, 82% participation in year one and sustainable 82% rates year after year thereafter.

“E-STAR is a powerful way for us to acknowledge employees who are supporting our brand promise and demonstrating behaviors aligned to our leadership attributes,” says Sweda. “E-STAR is really embedded into the culture of the organization.”

Workhuman’s employee survey product, a feature that provides valuable pulse data, has shown 79% of employees agree that E-STARs make them feel their work is valued and appreciated. The survey further shows a direct, positive relationship between recognition and employee sentiment. So, the more recognition a person gives and receives, the better they feel about Eaton.

What’s more, the data shows employees who receive recognition are two times less likely to leave the company. Adding E-STAR recognition data to Eaton’s predictive analytics turnover model improved its accuracy by 10 points.

“Recognition is an important piece of our total rewards package and a key lever for retaining our top talent,” says Sweda.

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