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Customer Snapshot: How R1 Scales Recognition With Integrations

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R1, the leading provider of technology-driven solutions that transform the patient experience and financial performance of healthcare providers, has been a Workhuman® customer since 2021. Its Social Recognition® program integrates with Workday and Microsoft Teams, and its 28,000+ employees across the U.S., India, and the Philippines have access to Inclusion Advisor, which helps identify and mitigate unconscious bias in real time. The team at R1 is motivated by data, and they’re seeking to understand recognition adoption and where there is room for opportunity.

INCREASING EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN HEALTHCARE TECH: An interview with Sara LaBelle, Culture Programs Manager at R1

Sara LaBelle, Culture Programs Manager R1

Hear from Sara on how Workhuman product innovation and integrations scale recognition and improve the employee experience.

This interview was recorded at Workhuman® Live 2023 in San Diego. Watch it in full:

What does employee recognition mean to R1?

"At R1, we see recognition as such a vital piece of our organization’s success.I think, in a lot of ways, people think about being recognized in forms of a promotion or a big raise – which, of course, those are really great ways to be recognized, but what we want recognition to be is more of a daily occurrence. We want to embed it into our processes so that we’re building a culture where everybody feels valued.

"Real time, in-the-moment feedback makes it possible to continue working together as a team, and that allows us to then best succeed as individuals and as an organization."

What is the relationship between recognition and employee engagement?

"Engagement is really all encompassing of a lot of key drivers that make an employee feel connected to the organization and the work that they do. I think recognition is a vital pillar of that, because without recognition and without that kind of appreciation, there would be no motivation to drive that engagement.

"It all comes down to when you get up out of bed in the morning, do you feel inclined to put forth your best effort?"

How would you describe R1’s journey with recognition?

"When we started our journey with recognition, this came from employee feedback. In our engagement survey, we heard from our employees that they wanted more recognition. And with a really big, multi-thousand-person company, everybody receives recognition differently.

"Trying to set something up so that everybody would feel like they are being recognized to ultimately help drive our employee engagement has been quite a challenge, but also a really rewarding journey because we have seen some significant growth in that department. We continue to invest in more ways that ensure our associates feel recognized to therefore help drive that employee engagement."

Talk us through the global capabilities of R1’s recognition program.

"We have folks who sit in the United States, India, and the Philippines. And, of course, there’s different cultural norms and expectations that come with that. But then, when you boil it down to even just the individual level, everybody has a different way that they prefer to be recognized."

R1 has achieved 98% recipient reach for recognition.

How have Workhuman integrations embedded recognition into R1’s company culture?

"With the future of work that we’re currently living in, it’s so much about automation and getting things right with technology so that we can focus on what matters most, which is that connection. So, with things like the Microsoft Teams integration, that has been such a great way for us to further the R1 Stars program and empower associates to give that real-time feedback right there in the moment. Being able to capture it in that moment, right there in Teams, has been really wonderful for our employees, and they’ve really appreciated that sense of ease.

"The Workday integration has made my life as an administrator so much easier, making sure that our data is updated regularly to reflect any new employee changes, so that you know what you’re seeing is accurate in the system. That makes for a better experience for everybody because that way you know you’re not going to send an award to somebody who doesn’t have an active status. It can be very clunky if you don’t have that data integration set up, so the Workday integration has been so very beneficial to our program’s health."

Ready to increase engagement and embed recognition into the flow of work? Book a demo to get started.