This case study provides a closer look at R1 RCM and Workhuman's powerful partnership. Read on to learn more about the seamless integration and incredible results!
R1 RCM, a leading provider of technology-driven solutions that transform the patient experience and financial performance of healthcare providers, has one powerful mission: To make healthcare work better for all.
In pursuit of that goal, R1 shares a company-wide commitment to purpose, growth, and integrity. R1 helps healthcare providers manage costs, increase revenue, and streamline operations so they can deliver the quality care and empowered experience that patients deserve – both now and into the future.
To empower their teams to advance that company mission, R1 set out to build and scale an employee recognition program that would foster connection across the organization, engaging employees in the meaningful work serving patient and healthcare communities.
“Our journey with recognition came from employee feedback,” says Sara LaBelle, culture programs manager at R1. “We heard from employees in our engagement survey that they wanted more recognition!”
With that end goal in mind, R1 partnered with Workhuman® to launch their recognition program – R1 Stars – in 2021. The program has seen rapid adoption across the organization since launch, in large part because of the Workday and Microsoft Teams integrations that embed recognition in the daily flow of work.
At R1, we see recognition as such a vital piece of our organization’s success.
Let’s take a closer look.
The challenge
With a team of more than 30,000 employees worldwide, R1 knew they needed a recognition solution with global capabilities that would build connections and camaraderie across geographies.
“We have folks in the U.S., India, the Philippines – and there are different cultural norms and expectations that come with that,” says Sara. The importance of a scalable solution that would allow for equitable recognition awards, regardless of location or currency, was paramount.
What’s more, R1 needed a platform that would mirror the organization’s core values:
- Partner with Purpose: Build trusted partnerships with colleagues, clients, and patients through collaboration, transparency, and inclusion.
- Think Boldly: Create opportunities to innovate and grow to advance R1’s company mission.
- Go Beyond: Make healthcare work better for all by committing to excellence and integrity in everything R1 does.
The solution
To achieve their recognition goals, R1 partnered with Workhuman to launch Social Recognition®, a peer-to-peer recognition platform designed to build employee connection, engagement, and inclusivity.
Initially rolled out to a pilot group in 2021, the program has since been adopted companywide because of employee enthusiasm and engagement with the program. R1 celebrates each recognition program anniversary with an award to all employees, and the company boasts a catalog of different R1 Star award types, including R1 Certification, Thank You, Shining Star, Super Star, and Mega Star awards.
To build further engagement with the program – and to drive equity and inclusion across a global team of employees – R1 enabled Inclusion Advisor, Workhuman’s proprietary, AI-powered tool that helps build cultures of belonging. Inclusion Advisor uses AI to pick up on subtleties in recognition award messages and underlines those that may be perceived as biased, provides education as to why certain language has been flagged for revision, and offers real-time suggestions for improving the message.
Building on its core value to “think boldly,” R1 has continued to iterate on and expand the program, leaning on data-driven insights to understand where recognition adoption is most successful versus areas where there is room for opportunity. To that end, R1 has sought to make recognition more seamless across the organization by implementing two new integrations: Workday and MS Teams.
“The Workday integration has made my life as an administrator so much easier,” says Sara. With the bidirectional integration between Workday and the R1 recognition platform, worker data is regularly updated in both platforms to reflect any new employee changes, “making for a better experience for everybody.”
With the MS Teams integration, R1 has been able to send and receive recognition awards all within the Teams environment where employees are already meeting, collaborating, and working every day. “It’s been really wonderful for our employees, and they’ve really appreciated that sense of ease,” says Sara.
The results
Now in its third year since going live, the R1 Stars program has continued to drive measurable impact across the organization. “We want recognition to be a daily occurrence,” says Sara. “We’ve built a culture where everyone feels valued.”
The impact of recognition has reverberated across the organization. In fact, when R1 went through an organizational rebrand in January 2024, the company launched a corresponding rebrand of the R1 Stars program – as recognition has become core to living the company’s values.
A big part of realizing the impact and value of recognition at R1 has been from the company’s data-driven approach to understanding recognition usage and metrics.
Program data from 2023 shows an 81% recipient reach for recognition, surpassing the one-year recipient reach benchmark of 80%. What’s more, the data shows receiving frequent recognition is associated with lower turnover – and that four recognition moments a year drops R1’s turnover by 10%.
Probability of turnover decreases with increase in recognition moments received
Proportion of employees leaving within each group
Furthermore, the data shows that receiving recognition from both peers and direct managers is the most impactful experience for employees – and has the biggest impact on reduced turnover.
Looking ahead, R1 is eager to continue conversations with Workhuman about how to increase recognition reach and efficiency across the organization – exploring new features and functionality like automated new hire awardsOpens in a new tab.
"With the future of work that we’re currently living in, it’s important to get things right with technology so that we can focus on what matters most: the connection employees have with one another," says Sara.